One of the cornerstones to running a successful business is employee retention.
It ensures that your product or service is consistent and of high quality because the same excellent employees are always doing their best work.
It makes the office feel more like a family rather than a rotating door. When your team can form a bond at work, they will be happier, more productive, and remain at their jobs for longer.
Thus it is important to know how to improve employee retention in your company. It is also essential for us to know how to maintain employee retention, even when the retention rate is high.
What Is Employee Retention?
Employee retention is nothing but the ability of a company or an organization to retain its employees.
It is a goal that companies and employers strive to achieve to keep skilled employees in the company and reduce turnover by building a great work environment, showing appreciation for employees, and providing competitive compensation and benefits as well as a healthy work-life balance.
This involves strategic actions to keep employees motivated and focused so they elect to remain employed and fully productive.
Employee retention is important for the company since every company benefits from keeping talented and experienced employees.
Since retaining employees suggests a low turnover rate, it also means that you will be able to save time and money on recruiting new employees or temporary substitutes. Thus, it is important you need to create positive employee morale and invest in employee retention strategies.
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Thus, we need to discuss how to improve employee morale and retention.
Why Do Employees Leave Your Company?
No proper employee engagement and recognition leads to high employee turnover. Most employees leave a company due to a lack of engagement, motivation, and recognition in their workplace. Thus, to reduce the employee turnover rate, it is important to boost employee morale and motivation.
Just paychecks are not enough to attract and retain employees; employees look for additional perks and benefits from their employers, and a lack of them leads to employees leaving the company.
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Wrong company culture fit or toxic work environments can also lead to demotivated employees, and lack of motivation is one of the biggest reasons why employees leave companies.
Another vital reason why companies cannot retail employees is a lack of empathy on the part of the employer. This leads to miscommunication in teams and overall displeasure among employees
How Are Motivation And Engagement Related To Employee Retention?
Motivation and engagement play a key role in employee retention because motivation is a key factor in an employee's success.
To get the best out of their staff, team leaders and managers must consistently motivate them, and appreciate them for their hard work.
Simple comments like "Well done," "Bravo," "Good," and "Keep it up" can help motivate individuals.
Employees must believe that they are valuable to the company, to raise their morale, and for improving employee loyalty. Employees must be committed and dedicated to giving their all.
Simultaneously, you should acknowledge that employee engagement and employee retention are interconnected and can determine the success of an organization.
Employee engagement is an important component of employee retention.
Employees who are engaged care about their jobs and find meaning in them. They like their job and work well with their coworkers as a team.
A clear example will elaborate on this further: an employee who is engaged with their work, and is loyal to their company, is less likely to leave the company, than an employee who has no emotional connection with their work and is unmotivated. This answers our question, how are motivation and engagement related to employee retention.
Looking For Top Factors That Affect Employee Engagement And Motivation? Check out this blog!
How To Improve Employee Retention And Motivation?
Now that we realize that employee retention and motivation are crucial and indispensable parts of a workplace, let us look into how to increase employee retention and motivation.
1. More positive feedback
We all know that employees require both positive and corrective feedback to improve and produce their best work.
But in what ratio?
According to a Harvard Business Review research, the best ratio of positive to negative ideas is 5.6 (positive) to 1 (corrective).
Employees should receive positive feedback regularly to keep them motivated and determined to produce their best work. However, constructive and corrective input is also vital, especially when an urgent issue has to be addressed.
As time goes on, become more conscious of how many negative comments you make to your staff in comparison to favorable ones.
Increase the number of positive comments to six for every negative comment. This would also encourage your employees to work on their mistakes and put in more effort.
Here are 3 steps to create an employee recognition program, to show your appreciation for your employees.
2. Offer ongoing training
Many businesses do not provide ongoing training and education to their employees. This would result in employees getting disillusioned with their jobs and are less likely to stay because there is no chance to advance or improve.
Employees feel valued and look forward to the professional development they receive from the training. Your employees will feel like they are an important part of the company's success.
You can establish a significant incentive for your team members to stay for the long haul by implementing a training program from within, or by using outside resources and tools (such as workshops, online courses, videos, etc.).
Employees see these initiatives as an investment in their future.
3. Find a balance between challenging and supporting employees
Boredom and apathy can result from doing the same thing every day.
Getting your staff to accomplish challenging assignments or jump through too many hoops, on the other hand, may leave them feeling discouraged and unsure about their future with the organization.
The goal is to strike a balance between challenge and support, bearing in mind that each employee is unique, and what one finds rewarding, another may find tedious and overly complicated.
4. Offer benefits and perks
Employee retention through compensation requires more than a competitive salary. It also requires a bundle of exclusive benefits.
Employees are more likely to want a comprehensive compensation package, which means they will stay with the employer that offers the greatest perks, rather than just the highest pay.
Of course, this does not imply that the wage is low; it should still be competitive with similar positions at other organizations, but it does imply that your compensation package includes a variety of appealing benefits.
Offering wellness programs and comprehensive health insurance can be a great way to offer non-monetary benefits to employees.
This is especially relevant now since, in post-pandemic India, group health insurance is mandatory for all employers.
5. Conduct employee surveys
By periodically requesting input from your team, an employee survey is one of the easiest methods to enhance engagement and motivation, as well as employee retention.
Employees who believe their views are heard at work are 4.6 times more likely to offer their best performance, according to a Salesforce study.
Direct questions allow you to better grasp how your staff is feeling at any given time.
You may enhance the likelihood that the feedback you receive is honest, helpful, and productive by employing pulse surveys and asking employees simple questions at any time (while providing them the option to respond anonymously).
6. Hire the right employees
The best employees prefer to work with people who motivate them rather than those who discourage them. Find strategies to recruit top applicants who will fit your culture and stay with your organization for many years, in the first place.
Remember that the greatest candidates aren't necessarily from Ivy League institutions or have the highest CGPAs. To get a more varied application pool, build partnerships with professional groups, community college career offices, and other relevant associations.
7. Lead by example
Finally, leading by example is one of the most effective strategies to motivate people. Employees are affected by the tone you create on every level, from work ethic to business culture to the general flow and spirit of the office.
Thus, be passionate about your work, take on obstacles front-on, and embrace your company's ideals. Your employees will imitate your behavior.
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Benefits assist your employees in achieving a good work-life balance, allowing them to achieve their expected level of job satisfaction and, as a result, encouraging employee retention.
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