I learned the hard way! Every time an employee hands in their two week notice, I cringe! Why? I have been down that road and know what is waiting for me. OUCH! NOT AGAIN!
Experience taught me that the #recruitment process is lengthy, stressful and expensive and so my objective now is to always to hire an individual that will stay with the company for a long time and not leave too soon after they started. It is always painful when they leave. They take with them the knowledge, the skills, the experience they gained, the training they received and above all it effects the moral of the rest of the team. To add oil on the fire they frequently ended up working for the competition. Double OUCH!
Are you going or went through a similar experience? Here are the points I follow to retain my best employees:
- The #job description is as accurate as possible and does not mislead or create any unrealistic expectations
- The #budget for the position is always in line with the current market rate. In case the candidate is looking for more than my budget, I thank them for their time and move on to the next candidate. What’s the point? They will accept the position and continue looking for the one that will pay what they believe they are worth and take off once they find it
- I joined the local Board of Trade where I got connected with a Group Benefits Insurance company at a reasonable monthly rates thus offering my employees a benefit package which includes 80% coverage of #medical, #life, #disability, and #dental
- I like to grow and learn and therefore provide ongoing #training #opportunities to my employees as well
- I have an open door policy, people like to be valued and respected. I welcome their opinions, suggestions or ideas which they may have
- I sit down with each and every one of them every quarter to review their performance – I always start with positive feedback and point out what needs improvement. When they improve, they receive a positive feedback and a congratulations on a job well done!
- I make sure I fully engage my employees and encourage them to apply their unique skills and talents to their work
- I have established non work related fun activities for all of us to participate in together such as Halloween pumpkin carving competition
- I enjoy working from my home office a couple of days a week and offer my employees the same creating a work life balance
- I have a #newsletter that gets sent quarterly to our #clients, each quarter an employee success story is shared and celebrated
- When I hire a new employee they get mentored by other #employees where appropriate, further empowering and validating their contributions
- I plan the monthly work schedule in advance so that there will be very minimal over time in case it is needed all together
- I share with my employees weekly how the #company is doing and thank them for their commitment to the company’s ongoing success
- I came to realize that the most important component of staff retention is the FIT. #Skills can be taught a personality cannot. Therefore I ensure that the #environment is nice and that #people interact with each other
Your goal is just like mine, retain your best employees for the long haul. Go ahead explore their values, their challenges, their abilities, empower them, engage them, make them feel valued, connected and belong to their #job and ultimately the company. Valued, engaged and respected employees that look forward to coming to work each morning will not run for the exit door and stay with the company the long-haul as an employer of choice.
Do you have other points to share with us?
