Business Article - Retain Your Staff
Every successful business is the result of hard working and dedicated employees. Each employee is an important aspect of the company, and workers who consistently show professionalism and quality work are always sought. Store managers know the value of their best staff, and will often desire to retain them long term. Retained employees are generally consistent in work and their actions can often be anticipated. The loss of quality staff results in many burdens, including the costs of seeking out new employees, the cost of training, and the time needed for a new worker to become accustomed to his or her work. All these factors can be stressing to a business, and avoiding it as often as possible is key to a smooth running company.
The frequent loss of employees and lack of retention in a company is usually the first indicator of hardship to outside observers. Aside from the usual problems listed above, lack of good management could make it difficult for the effected company to raise finance or increase venture capital should money issues or expansion needs arise.
There are many reasons employees leave a company, and understanding them while satisfaction is high is key to retaining employees long term.
Give Clear Instructions
Ambiguous job requirements lead to stress and confusion. An employee should know and thoroughly understand exactly what is expected of them. Vague or oft-changing job requirements and demands will make the employee uncertain of their daily requirements and will make it difficult for them to mentally prepare for later work. Constant worry about what the next day holds, and about completing sudden last-minutes projects could lead to stress and frequent colds, lack of enthusiasm, and resentment of their job and/or boss. Once an employee becomes stressed and resentful of their work, its likely they will quite and seek something different.
Evaluate Yourself
There are two sides to every job: the job itself, and the supervisor/manager/boss. An employee may love their job and exhibit enthusiasm about the work, but find it unbearable to work with their immediate supervisor. Mannerisms, attitude, respect, and actions are all factors in how your employees view you. Most employees will not approach their supervisor about issues they have for fear of being reprimanded or fired. Quitting a job is usually the first and only recourse a disgruntled employee will take. Careful attention to the way your employees act around you will bring to attention any possible issues. Approaching an employee to discuss any issues and making an effort to correct the problems will result in the employee feeling appreciated, as well as conveying a sense of general interest in the staff by management.
Use Valuable Skills
Most employees bring a wide array of skills to the workforce, not just those needed to complete their immediate duties. Most will be more than happy to share their expertise. If you need a sudden logo redesign, program update, or even wiring configured and an employee with expertise in this area offers to do it, accept. Utilizing someones skills in an area where you need them will be viewed as recognition of all skills, and will make an employee feel valued as a person, not just a staff member for a specific job.
Offer Training
Before the employee begins working, offer them full a training program so that they can adjust to the new job, meet the management, learn the ins and outs of their requirements, etc. It is better and cheaper in the long run to train one employee and retain him or her long term than to constantly seek and hire new employees. It's a proven fact that the cost of hiring finding and hiring a new employee often equals approximately one-third of their salary. For higher management positions, or jobs in certain industries, it may cost the company as much as one-hundred percent of that employees salary.
Be Fair
Fairness in the workplace is essential. Favoring one employee over another will be noticed and viewed angrily by other coworkers. Continually offering a certain employee extra vacation days, raises, bonuses, or rewards will be taken offensively by others. Your staff will feel cheated and under-appreciated, and will likely seek new employment relatively soon.
Offer Growth Opportunities
The employees that are hardest working are often those seeking growth opportunity. Hard work is often followed by an expectation of growth as skills increase and loyalty becomes established. Offering paid seminars, weekend business trips, salary increases, and higher work responsibility/status are all desired and viewed favorably. Changes or increases in job requirements will also keep an employee from becoming bored and feeling as if their life has stagnated.
Schedule Senior Staffing Visits
Employees like to know that their work is both recognized and appreciated by the company's head management. A few visits or speeches a year by the president or division manager will ensure that employees feel valued and recognized as key components to the companies success. If in person meetings are not possible for some reason, such as an over-seas location, a tele-speech via web cam or even a letter sent will usually be all it takes to boost work ethic and performance.
Remain Professional
Professionalism should be maintained by every person in the work place, no matter their status in the business. Never should a manager or supervisor resort to screaming, issuing threats, prying into personal matters, or psychologically or physically harassing an employee. No matter what mistakes are made or deadlines broken, losing a sense of professionalism will make employees angry and perhaps fearful of you, and is a sure way to lose respect. The staff will feel unimportant and likely seek better employment elsewhere.
Offer Regular Performance Evaluations
Regularly evaluating employees will bring to light any issues the employers may have and will make the employee know if they are doing a satisfactory job or not.
Be Understanding
If an employee needs to leave unexpectedly because of a sick child, unforeseen accident, or other reason, understand that these events are beyond their control. Frequent events may have to be handled differently, but flexibility for a loyal employee will be noted and viewed favorably.
Minimize Overtime
Having an inadequate amount of employees could lead to current staff being over-taxed by the work load. This overload will wear employees down and make them tired, stressed, and frustrated. Having an adequate amount of staffing to cover work demands will keep employees relaxed and well rested.
Encourage Relationships between Employees
For someone who works 40 hours a week, having no friends or pleasant acquaintances at work can make the day seem long and boring. The employee is likely to start resenting his job and his projects, leading to poor work ethic and quality. Encouraging coworkers to get to know each other will foster a sense of community and give the staff a reason to come in everyday.Also, should issues arise with management or other coworkers, having a friend in the workplace who understand s will make the issues more tolerable. Quitting will not seem like as good of an option because that would mean leaving behind friends for a totally new work environment.
Communicate Possible Changes
There is nothing worse than entering work on day and discovering that layoffs have been made and you are one of them. This will not only leave a very bad impression of you in the leaving employees eyes, but will also causes current staff to be wary and doubtful of you. If you know of possible sell-outs, layoffs, or major changes and can give out at least some hints of information without breaking a rule, do so. Your staff will thank you and remaining employees will feel that they can trust you should their job come under scrutiny.
Conduct Existing Interviews
Unfortunately, there are times when problems are not caught or corrected soon enough and an employee choose to leave. If you are going to lose a valuable employee that you would have rather kept, request an existing interview. Ask the departing staff questions relating to why it is they are leaving, and what could have been done to persuade them to stay. Using the current employee to gain insight into issues or other problems they have regarding the manager, business, or other employees will be valuable knowledge for successful retention of future staff.Retaining employees is something every company hopes to do. Faithful workers who regularly complete their projects, who make an effort to function well with coworkers, who put in the extra effort needed to make the day exceptional are the very workers who will make your job as manager/supervisor easier and less streeful. These are the employees who will be willing to help you out with a last minute need, and who you will be able to trust without question. Using the above strategies will greatly improve your chance of retaining valuable staff.