The smooth running of a business involves a critical factor: finding good employees and retaining them. Yet, there has been an increase in employees leaving a job because of low engagement and connection with the organisation. A report by the U.S Bureau of Labour Statistics stated that in March 2022, as many as 4.5 million Americans quit work. Called the “Great Resignation”, this is an ongoing trend that the board has caught, including upper-level management and the HR teams. The question arises as to what is making workers leave, and as a business owner, what can be done on your end to improve employee retention?
Let us quickly explore how employee engagement can be improved within an organisation and how you can retain valuable employees.
6 Tactics for Improving Employee Retention
A motivated and engaged team is the only way to achieve success. When a team is passionate about their work and feels empowered about making strategic choices, they automatically contribute to the tremendous success of the organisation and help maintain employee retention. If you have realised that engagement levels in your company have dropped, do not feel alarmed. The current situation may not be ideal; however, the good news is that several steps can be employed to improve things.
You might also be interested to read: Preventing Employee Burnout In The Organization
Here are 6 ways to effectively establish re-engagement within your team.
1. Take advantage of the team’s passions and strength: When deciding the role each team member will perform, focus on their interests and strengths. Employees involved in work are passionate about feeling happy to come to the office daily and show higher dedication. This is also an excellent technique to reduce the stress experienced by team members. While some employees may enjoy working with demanding, high-profile clients, others may be happier when working in the background, behind the scenes.
Once the strengths of every team member have been identified, not only will they be happy, but they will also be engaged in the workplace, which will increase the rate of productivity. This can be supported by giving employees the budget they need to finish a project. An allowance like this will add variety and interest to the office, and employees will no longer feel stuck with any task for an extended time.
2. Let your team make decisions: When you trust the decision-making abilities of your team and allow them to call the shots all day, you show that you value their skills and working style. Establishing trust is essential in creating a work environment where team members can finally thrive and do their best. Not only does it help in making the team members feel more confident, but it also encourages each employee to reach their highest potential. Instead of creating a strict outline for operating procedures that allows no space for personalisation, let your employees use their judgement in out-of-box situations. Get rid of potential barriers like funding or access to tools when the employees need them the most. When you allow your staff to use their own skill sets that are unique to each of them, you may stumble upon new practical solutions to problems.
3. Organise regular check-in meetings with the team: Showing your employees that their opinion matters, in turn, appears to them that they are essential team members. Set some time aside to hold regular check-ins with your team. This check-in can include opportunities and feedback for their improvement and can also act as giving them a chance to communicate their ideas and concerns. All employees prefer direction. While companies today still make use of the traditional process of an annual review, since it is not that frequent, it does not help improve your team. Instead, brief update meetings that are held weekly can give you the time to focus on their skilful performance as well as a window to point out ways in which they can improve.
4. Create a space for open communication in both ways: While you may establish an improved communication level, it must be in two directions. To begin with, make providing their feedback and concerns easy for your team members. This can be encouraged by adopting an open door policy at the workplace, allowing employees to be vocal during the check-in meetings held weekly. Establishing a platform that allows anonymous feedback using surveys for employee satisfaction is also very important and helpful when employee retention is the goal.
Once you get the information from the employees, make sure you do something about it and follow through. Work towards getting their ideas implemented. If feedback is given constantly with no change, employees will start feeling frustrated, which will reduce the chances of employee retention. The main goal is to let your team feel appreciated and heard and that the organisation seriously considers their suggestions.
5. Offer opportunities for learning and training: Offer educational opportunities and skill development courses to help team members experience growth and improvement in professional goals. When you support your team in career advancement, you show them that the organisation is deeply invested in their future. This also leads to creating an environment of loyalty and dedication. Education and knowledge could be in the form of College degrees, coaching and mentorship, skills training on the job, certifications, and learning opportunities on a virtual platform. Skill shortage has become common in many industries; hence, investing in a team benefits both the employee and the company they work for.
6. Show employees their health matters to you: There has been an increased interest and focus on mental health in each aspect of our lives. This holds for the workplace as well. Providing good mental health support will help boost job satisfaction as well as performance by the employees. In addition, team members’ overall lives improve, and a happy employee means good news regarding employee retention.
Making mental health a priority for team members can be done in several ways. Adding mental healthcare to the health benefit plan provided by the company is highly appreciated, as are flexible timings for work and paid mental health days.
Showing employees that their mental health is a priority is not simply done with paid appointments with a mental health practitioner. The organisation must make extra effort to ensure employees have a healthy work/life balance and have opportunities to relieve workplace stress.
Create a work environment that is employee centric
When you create a work environment aiming to support and empower employees, you give employees a chance to reach their potential. This practice creates a space for increased trust, productivity and employee retention. A culture that takes advantage of team members’ strengths, trusts their decisions, advocates for open communication and supports employee mental health helps create a healthy workplace with higher chances of employee retention.
Reference:
- 6 Ways to Engage With Your Employees and Prevent Attrition|Talent Culture|John Marquez|July 11, 2022
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