Whatever the ‘economic climate’, the state of your business, time of year or what colour underpants you have on, people are looking to leave your business. That’s just life. Changing circumstances mean that in a year’s time, it’s highly likely your business will look very different. Even if you don’t have a revolving door culture, it’s still well worth having a strategy in place for retaining the best of the best in your business. Engaging not only makes people more likely to stay, but it also gets more out of them whilst they are there. Why does retention matter? Even if your business has a culture of thinking that great candidates grow in trees, then at least consider reviews. Places like Glassdoor and now sites like Indeed are using reviews and ratings for businesses. Gather a bad reputation and you can expect the results to spread much further than the immediate family of a disgruntled employee. Retention starts at the hire It sounds strange, but retention is built at the 1st interview. When you take on candidates that don’t fit the existing company culture because they are great on paper – it can result in decreased job satisfaction, poor work quality and high staff turnover. For example, if you interview someone who is brash, bolshy and abrasive – but they have an extensive CV and impressive chat – they might not be right for you. If you have a training culture where you believe in ongoing learning and you meet someone who considers themselves ‘the finished article’ they will likely fail in your business or put others in a position of weakness. Alternatively, if you take on someone who needs some training, but where every other candidate is elite and an expert level in one specialism, this could also breed discontent. Don’t underestimate other things humour – (did they try and lighten the mood and did you feel it was inappropriate to do so? Or do you feel they would feel uncomfortable with the existing people’s humour?) If a prospective employee doesn’t share your company’s values, visions or working environment, they are unlikely to stay for long. Why should people turn up to work? The best question to ask is – why would people turn up here each day? Is it just a salary? Or salary + satisfaction? If you can’t offer longer term satisfaction, prepare to lose the brightest people. Carefully assess the beliefs, values and behaviours that you would like to underpin your company and makes sure these roll top down. How will you reward people who actively represent your brand values? How will you show people what is unacceptable? How are you changing? A stagnate, unchanging workload breeds discontent and dull the sharpest people. Ensure you have a strategy that incentivizes innovation and ideas. Perhaps you can schedule in regular innovation sessions, or get a reward platform that gives perks for each great new idea. Keep brains engaged and hearts will follow! Have you made a workhouse instead of a business? It’s hard to compete with the Google culture of the World, but seriously – some businesses aren’t even trying. It’s pretty grating as an employee to see your MD zip into work in a Porche 911 and then be greeted with wonky, painful, cheap chairs, a kettle that was at best, £5 and a culture where if you urinate longer than is deemed acceptable you get a frosty look. The workplace culture isn’t all how people act in meetings, but how you make the workplace. Are you insisting people keep ‘paper free’ at their desks? Do you demand a suit and tie – but can’t say precisely why? Are you archaic? If you are, that’s absolutely fine, but you will be at greater risk of losing people to a company that isn’t. Don’t keep people in silos Not everyone is the type of person who can barrel up to someone and start chatting. Silos and silence across departments are not only a bit weird, when you consider it’s possible in some companies to spend an 8+ hour working day in each other’s company for years and never say more than ‘hello’, but it’s bad for business. Who could give some design tips to marketing? Is there someone who’s come up with a great idea for how you layout your office, or how to pitch to clients, or how to reduce your catering costs? Try and include a strategy for cross team pollination, or whatever you decide to call it, where ideas are shared, jobs are understood or people are paired together for a project. Say something One of the op reasons people say they leave is that they are underappreciated, which really comes down to poor communication. If you have an amazing staff portal, or slack channel, or newsletter, or whiteboard or even a Mid-Afternoon Megaphone that allowed you to say ‘We value you – and this is what is really happening with the business’, you’ll lose a lot fewer people. Some people really freak out when they sense a sinking ship. The worst thing to do is not say anything. People talk, they aren’t stupid and they see the meetings and smell the drama. Keeping communication channels between individuals and departments open, and informing staff of any corporate changes, will foster strong relationships. At the same time, listen! Ask them what they want to do and try and serve them as they serve you. Development days, workshops, peer recognition programmes and even volunteering can all help keep the lines of communication and satisfaction open! What are your top tips when it comes to retaining employees? Please do let us know. Post navigation Top Tips for a Family Friendly Working Environment Less than half of Brits ‘dread Sunday’
