7 tips to improve employee retention

Employee turnover is one of the most disruptive things that can happen to businesses of any size, but for smaller companies, it can be a particularly large hurdle. As such, businesses are always on the lookout for ways they can improve their worker retention rates, both to avoid hiccups in their normal business practices when an employee leaves and to cut the necessity of conducting costly job searches.

Here are seven suggestions to achieve the goal of higher worker retention rates as easily as possible, saving companies man hours, money and other issues that crop up when employees leave:

1) Cultivate the culture

One of the biggest things that keeps people happy at work is feeling like they're part of a family and generally enjoying coming to work every day, according to Inc. magazine. While not every worker is going to have the same preferences for getting the job done on a daily basis, as long as most people are pulling in the right direction – whether they work collaboratively or are more siloed off – ensuring there's a central culture, message and goal will help people feel better about work.

2) Train for the next step

People always want to feel as though they're not working in a dead-end job, and it's therefore important for companies to provide a clear path forward for just about everyone, Inc. noted. Above and beyond that, if employees feel like they're locked out of a promotion or a different direction within the company, offering them training opportunities – or to cover the cost of further education – can be a great investment to retain talent.

Teamwork makes the worker retention dream work.

3) Be more flexible

These days, all too many companies effectively require their workers to be on call from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed – or even 24/7- and that's not something they typically enjoy, Inc. further advised. Giving people a little more flexibility with their schedule, and eliminating the requirement that they be reachable via email or text outside normal business hours, can do wonders for your company's culture as a whole, allowing people to better avoid burnout.

4) Overhaul the hiring process

It's much easier to retain talent if you're attracting the right kind of candidate in the first place, so it might be wise to have a look under the hood to better understand how your hiring process works, according to CIO. If you find that many employees are leaving within a few months, or even a year, of being hired, you might want to consider why that is the case. A careful examination of everything from applicant screening to interviewing and decision-making could help you uncover unexpected inefficiencies.

5) Get the salary and benefits right

Proper compensation is a critical part of any employee retention effort, so it should simply be a matter of company policy to reevaluate their offerings relative to local competitors on an ongoing basis, CIO added. If you notice yourself falling behind – or even keeping pace with other offerings – you might need to find it in the budget to offer employees more money or better benefits.

6) Manage employees as much as they need

Every worker is different and it's wise for companies to treat them as such, according to the Forbes Human Resources Council. Sometimes, managers may feel compelled to "babysit" struggling employees, but in doing so, some other workers who seem more self-sufficient may end up feeling neglected. Making it a point to check in with workers to see if they feel they're getting the guidance they need without being micro-managed may help an entire office feel better about the professional environment.

7) Always be willing to listen

Sometimes, employees may not feel fully empowered to make suggestions they think could help themselves, their teams or the entire office more effective in their roles, the Forbes Human Resources Council cautioned. If a company can foster an environment built on honesty and openness, so that everyone feels heard and respected, that can create far better working conditions for all involved, and continually ensure employee retention rates are as high as possible.

Even something that's meant to be a top-to-bottom evaluation from the management side may not always uncover some of the issues employees deal with on a daily basis. Leaving the lines of communication open for everything from lingering annoyances to major unexpected issues could help managers iron out some otherwise difficult details that limit employee satisfaction.

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