When it comes to maintaining a successful business, it is very important for you to keep a positive relationship with your employees. These individuals are the lifeline that helps run your company.
What can you as an employer do to keep your staff happy enough to remain employed with your company? The answer is easy, employee retention strategies.
Employee retention strategies are programs employers participate in to encourage employees to stay with the company. These strategies are meant to motivate and inspire companies to continue to build the organization as a whole throughout their careers.
These programs can be as easy as giving your employees a clear career path within your organization or offering a competitive benefits package. The point is to show your employees you are willing to invest in their health and happiness. Below are several benefits of employee retention strategies.
Reduces Employee Turnover
The most obvious reason why employee retention strategies are important is it reduces your employee turnover rate. In order to run a successful business, you need to trust the team you have working alongside you. You also want them to have the knowledge and skills necessary to keep your customers happy, something that only comes with experience.
There is also something to be said about employees who have worked together for a period of time and the relationships they develop. No longer are they just co-workers, they are a team.
Cost Effective
Hiring and training a new employee is not cheap. Studies show the cost of replacing an employee can be anywhere between 20-200% of the previous employee’s salary. The more responsibilities the former employee had, the more expensive it will be to replace him or her.
Not only do you have to invest time and resources into recruiting and interviewing, you also have to consider the effort it will take to get the new employee up to speed. You also have to consider the loss in the investment you already have in the employee who left. This number doesn’t include the loss in opportunity cost you could have earned.
Depending on your recruiting strategy, this number could go up even higher because you have to consider the money it takes to advertise your business to potential employees, including job fairs, posting to job boards, newspaper ads, and so on.
The good news is your company can easily cut down on this expensive cost by understanding the importance of why employee retention strategies are important!
Maintains Performance and Productivity
When it comes to running a business, any disruption in the workflow can affect your success rate, especially when it involves your employees. When an employee leaves, he or she leaves behind a set of responsibilities your remaining staff will have to take over in addition to their own duties.
This sudden increase in workload can make it easy for important assignments to fall through the cracks. It also allows for the excuse to place some projects to the backburner, regardless of how it affects the company. Plus, adding extra stress to your other employees is an easy way to cause distress among your remaining staff. In turn, this could cause them to want to look for other opportunities outside of your company.
You can avoid much of this additional stress by employing positive employee retention strategies to keep your employees happy. This will help keep your company’s performance and productivity rates high and your customers happy.
Improves Company Morale
A high employee turnover rate can drastically change your company’s morale. If unhappy, your employees won’t be willing to go the extra mile to finish a job or satisfy a customer request. They are less invested in doing what is best for the company.
You can easily remedy this by reminding them why they chose to work for your company in the first place by employing an employee retention strategy. Examples of strategies that improve morale include:
- Providing free snacks and drinks throughout the workday
- Plan a fun team building event, such as a quarterly company picnic
- Develop an employee recognition program
- Offer time off for employees to vote
Inspires Loyalty
Employees don’t quit companies, they quit managers. Meaning, they do not leave the business they are working for, they leave the people they are working with.
If you can show your employees you care about them and you are willing to invest in their success, you have a high chance of inspiring them to stay and strengthening the bond they have with you and the business as a whole.
Loyalty among employees is important because it helps maintain a positive morale among employees. It also increases productivity because the employees want to see the company succeed as much as you do.
Loyal employees are also reliable employees.
Improves Company Brand
When it comes to promoting your business, your employees are your number one advocates. They are the ones who will talk about your business to other people and on social media. Because of this, it is important your employees always have something positive to say about you and your company.
Employers who understand the importance of employee retention strategies and continually makes them a part of your business, this should come easy for you. However, if you have not yet looked into ways to maintain a positive relationship with your employees, you run the risk of having disgruntled employees shed a negative light on your business to the public. If you are not careful, this could affect the overall success of your company in terms of customer retention and growth.
