Employee retention is a huge area of focus for all business owners. When it comes right down to it, it is far more costly and challenging to hire and train someone new than it is to retain someone who is doing a great job.
Creating and maintaining a workplace where your employees thrive and feel a strong sense of belonging is crucial to the life of your business. As business owners, we get how challenging that discussion can feel. Retaining your great employees can be costly and, on the surface, it seems less expensive to pay someone new at the bottom of your salary scale.
However, the cost of hiring, training, and the time it takes for a new employee to be functioning at a high level in your company is considerable and more than exceeds any dollars saved by offering a lower compensation.
While keeping your best employees certainly requires that you offer a competitive pay, employee retention has to do with way more than their compensation package.
Employees are far more likely to stay at your company when they experience clear communication, a high level of engagement and a sense of belonging. So, how do we foster those characteristics in our business?
Clear is Kind
Relying on outdated or broken methods of communication is the first step you can take to provide an optimal workplace to your employees. The best thing you can do is identify brokenness in your communication strategies – think about frustrations, conflicts, and misunderstandings your team has experienced, and come up with solutions. Find opportunities to create reminders in your workplace, systems for distributing and finding information, and processes that are put into place to address communication shortfalls.
Plug In Your Team
One of the best things you can do for your team is find ways for them to engage deeper. Ask for their opinions, give them opportunities to plug into decisions and endeavors for your business beyond their job description, and ways for them to grow personally and professionally.
Build Your Team
Giving your team opportunities to knit together as a team creates a sense of community and a sense of belonging for the individuals on your team. Studies have proven that having a network of friends at work dramatically increase an individual’s sense of satisfaction in their job role, which directly impacts their longevity at your company.
If you’d like to learn more strategies for optimizing your workplace, we’d love to help. Click here to download our free communication guide for Human Resources managers.