7 EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES THAT ENTREPRENEURS COULD USE IN THEIR BUSINESS

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Many companies struggle with the constant departure of valuable employees. It's safe to say many companies do not know the reasons why their employees leave.

Or maybe they are not willing to come to terms and seek out ways to resolve these unwanted exits. The key to resolving these issues is to understand what employee retention is all about.

We'll be considering what employee retention is all about and some of the reasons employees leave their company to work somewhere else.

We'll also be taking a close look at the 7 best employee retention strategies that could be used to retain employees and, finally, the benefits of doing so.

You'll want to get your notepad ready as we demystify employee retention and all it entails.

What is Employee Retention?

When companies begin to lose great talent over a period of time, this is referred to as employee turnover.

Employee retention is the ability of a company or organization to prevent employee turnover, either through voluntary or involuntary means.

In one famous quote by Angela Merkel, former Chancellor of Germany, she said that,

"employee retention is the foundation of any successful organization. Our people are our greatest asset, and we must invest in them to ensure their satisfaction and engagement."

As emphasized by Angela Merkel, it's important that companies take employee retention very seriously, ensuring they mitigate any form of voluntary turnover.

Every company strives to increase their employee retention rate by taking some appropriate actions that will benefit the employees and the company as a whole.

Why do Employees leave their Workplace?

In countless interviews with employees who left their workplace, they had very common reasons. Here is a close look at the top 7 reasons:

I. Inadequate salaries that match the cost of living in that locality

II. Uncompetitive perks and other benefit packages

III. Limited advancement in their careers

IV. They feel overworked or unsupported by their employers.

V. Lack of recognition

VI. The need for a better work-life balance

VII. Dissatisfaction with the workplace culture

7 Best Strategies for Employee Retention

Sometimes, organizations lose their valuable talents to other companies for one reason or another. This loss of talent usually takes a toll on the company's activities and operations.

They lose employees for different reasons, such as relocation, getting another job, etc. The best way to avoid voluntary employee turnover is to employ strategies that can aid employee retention.

These strategies have been and are being used by companies around the world. The strategies are:

Strategy #1: Onboarding

The very first indication that a company wants to keep its employees for the long term begins with the onboarding of the employees into the company.

Here, companies give adequate training to the new employees. They offer them all the information they need to get them ready for work.

The tone at which these employees receive their training goes a long way to showing the nature of the company and whether or not they have plans for long-term employee retention.

Strategy #2: Offer Competitive Salaries

In addition to effectively onboarding your employees, you need to factor in their payment based on what they are worth.

Nothing motivates employees as much as when they get paid for the value they bring to your company.

You'll have to consider the cost of living in the state or city where your company is situated when paying your employees.

Other factors to be considered when offering a competitive salary to employees are how much their colleagues earn in other companies and the volume of work they'll have to do.

Do well to pay your employees accordingly, as this will lead to high employee retention.

Strategy #3: Provide a Flexible Work Schedule

Employees always like it when they have flexible work hours, or even, at best, when the hours are reduced.

This flexible work schedule gives employees room and time to be creative and more productive.

According to a study carried out in 2014 by Standford University, workers' productivity declines as they exceed 50 hours of work per week.

This excessive work could lead to fatigue, inefficiency, and a heavy decline in productivity.

Strategy #4: Promote a Work-Life Balance

Employees should be given the chance to find balance in their work-life endeavours.

This means that you'll have to promote the work-life balance idea in your company, not only for your employees but also for yourself.

Things like providing a flexible work schedule, reducing hours of work, encouraging your employees not to take work activities home, etc. are some of the ways you could promote a work-life balance among your employees, leading to higher employee retention.

Strategy #5: Recognize and Reward Your Employees' Work

It's way easier to retain employees for the long term when they see that their inputs into the company are appropriately recognized and rewarded.

Studies have also shown that employees who feel this way are more productive at their workplace.

It's necessary that you recognize the work that your employees do, mainly publicly, so that others will know that they too will be recognized for their work.

It's also important to know that you should not only recognize the results but also the efforts put into the process.

Many times, a project may not go as planned, but nevertheless, it shouldn't stop you from recognizing their efforts.

Also, you should reward your employees for their work. This could be cash bonuses, paid time off, etc., which could motivate them.

Be sure to ask your employees what their preference is for their ideal reward. Recognizing and rewarding your employees' work is a valuable employee retention strategy.

Strategy #6: Create an Interesting Workplace Culture

As a strategy for employee retention, you'll have to create an interesting workplace culture that all your employees will really want to be part of.

This strategy requires that you employ other strategies on this list.

You could promote a healthy work-life balance, provide perks for efficient work, recognizing and rewarding efforts, providing feedbacks, just to name a few.

In general, you'll have to cultivate an interesting workplace culture that your employees will want to naturally take part in, thereby improving their productivity and your chances of retaining them.

Strategy #7: Build Employee Engagement and Feedback Systems

One of the best strategies for employee retention is to build a system where you actively engage employees in productive work.

This also means that you'll engage them in some decision-making process where their opinions are needed.

Your employees have to feel that their voices are heard.

Also, there has to be a feedback system from both ends: you giving them feedback on their work performance and they giving feedback in the form of opinions.

When there is a system like this, every employee will be actively engaged with work, which is great for your company.

Benefits of Employee Retention

The ability to retain employees in your organization comes with some benefits. Here is a close look at the top five:

1. Reduces Cost

When companies recruit employees, they spend resources on carrying out different types of training for them to bring them up to speed.

These resources could be used for something else within the company when they are able to retain their employees.

As a business owner, you will save so much more when you do the best you can to retain valuable talents rather than lose them.

2. Recruitment and Training Efficiency

Imagine going through the process of recruiting and then training employees, only to lose them in a short period of time.

This could lead to inefficiency and wasteful training expenses.

So as a business owner, it'll be in your best interest to retain your employees through the necessary strategies so as to maximize the potential of post-training.

3. Increased Productivity

One of the benefits of employee retention is increased productivity. In cases of the loss of valuable talents, especially voluntary turnover, there would be a weakening of the workforce.

When you lose employees, you'll have to begin another process of recruitment to bring new employees up to speed.

This reduction in the workforce would mean other employees would have to take on more work, which invariably leads to a reduction in productivity.

Hence, the higher your employee retention is, the more productive they become.

4. Higher Employee Morale

When your employees know that they are well taken care of and that none of their colleagues are leaving the company so often, they will have a level of confidence.

This confidence helps build their morale a great deal. When your employees know that you have an employee retention program, their morale will improve, and when this happens, they'll give their best to your business.

5. You'll Get to Keep Experienced Employees

The longer you have employees working in your company, the more experience they gain and the better they become at their job description.

Also, your employees work as a team, and the longer they work together, the better they understand each other.

Introducing new sets of employees will lead to a reduced number of experienced employees, which will definitely take a toll on your business.

Final Thoughts

Employee retention is very possible for any company that knows exactly what to do. When you are able to find out the reasons why employees leave your company, you can use the above-listed employee retention strategies to resolve them.

Resolving the issues will help you keep your experienced employees; their productivity and morale will increase, and you'll be able to save on the cost of recruiting and training new ones.