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Can your company achieve the seemingly impossible: make employees look forward to coming into work? After the Second World War, working for a company was about making a lifetime commitment. In return for the promise of financial security into retirement, employees were willing to show up for work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ready to pitch in and move the enterprise forward. Now, that’s all history. New technology, economic vicissitudes, and a new generation, millennials, have redefined the meaning of work and the commitment to the workplace.
Many people find it easier to move on rather than hope to move up, and it’s estimated that the average worker will hold from 10 to 20 jobs before retirement.
Here are some ideas to improve your retention rates.
Give Your Employees A Break
Most company break rooms are dismal places. A few long plastic tables and stacking chairs, a microwave, a coffee machine, a refrigerator, a sink, and a few signs warning employees to wash their dishes and to take their packed lunches in the refrigerator home after work. Imagine, then, what a delightful contrast it would be for employees to walk into an exceptional break room on site complete with DIRECTV packages and comfy seating.
Improve Office Space
Another culprit when it comes to dismal environments is dull office spaces. A little innovative thinking—some modern furniture, a few design elements, a little color coordination—can go a long way in lifting up your employee’s moods. It’s also important to keep the office clean and tidy and to ensure that everyone is abiding by all workplace safety rules. Employees who are happier are much more likely to be conscientious and productive.
Provide Educational Opportunities
Ultimately, nobody wants to be a low-skilled, low-paid worker. Someone who enters a company as an entry-level worker hopes that the company will provide them with some career education. Similarly, people who already have a university degree and enter at a managerial or executive level, also hope to improve their knowledge and skill sets. From in-house training to providing access to an online education, there are many ways an employer can give their most ambitious employees a chance to get ahead in life. Moreover, education doesn’t even always have to be career-related. Google, for example, invites cutting-edge authors to give talks about a diverse number of topics, not just those related to technology.
Provide Competitive Wages
Any employee can Google what the going rate for their line of work is to see if they are being fairly compensated. Discovering that they are receiving wages below the competition is instantly demotivating. They realize that if they were working at a company just a few blocks away, they would be getting 50 percent more for the same type of work. Eventually, they will find a reason for leaving your company. The best way to retain high-quality employees who feel engaged is to pay competitive wages or even a small percentile higher. It’s not going to help the bottom line by skimping on how well you feed and care for the people who help your company make money.
Rent An Office In A Good Location
Find an office space in a central location that makes it easier for employees to commute to work. If possible, also locate your company in a business district that has plenty of interesting places to go during lunchtime and after work. Finding a cheaper place in a more remote part of town because the rent is cheaper might work for you but not your employees. For one thing, it increases the time employees spend in rush hour traffic. This means that besides the 8 hours they need to be at work, they may have to add an hour getting to work and an hour going home, which creates a 10 hour workday.
Make Work/Life Balance Easier
There are many ways to assist employees attain better work/life balance.
- Hire enough staff to avoid asking people to work overtime or to avoid desperately asking employees to come in on their day off because you’re short-staffed.
- Offer flex time, allowing employees to arrange their own schedules rather than conform to an Industrial work schedule.
- Allow employees who work mainly on computer-related tasks to work from home either part-time, full-time, or on days that they just need to be home with their kids.
Proactively Improve Retention Rates
Instead of surrendering to the prevailing employment trends, try one or more of these ideas to reduce your turnover rate, assuming, of course, that you’re doing most things right and your company is a good place to work.
Image from https://www.naturalhr.com/blog/5-tips-to-improve-employee-retention
