As a business, your employees are one of your best assets, which is why it can be disastrous if you can’t seem to hold on to your best employees. It’s always helpful to know the best entrepreneurial hacks to get your business where you need it to be, but what’s most important is knowing that you have your employees’ backs. As a leader, it’s going to cost you far more money to keep replacing your employees than it is to ensure that you are making them happy in the first place. If you’re struggling with employee retention and you just can’t seem to work out why your finest employees keep jumping ship, make sure you aren’t doing any of the following.
- Failing to engage them
If your employees are not engaged in the work they are doing, then sooner or later, they are going to get bored and look for more meaningful work. How do you engage employees? There are a number of things you can do, but a good start is to ensure that the work you provide them plays to their strengths, while being challenging enough that they won’t get bored. You may need to consult with them to see what engaging work looks like for them, but it will be worth it when you can keep them in the long term.
- Showing them a lack of appreciation
Everyone likes to know that their efforts are appreciated, so if you’re failing to show your employees how much they are valued, this could be a prime reason why they keep leaving. There are numerous ways you can show your appreciation for their hard work, from implementing a generous employee benefits scheme to simply saying well done when they have done something well. The more ways you show your appreciation, the more likely they are to stick with the company.
- Bad managers
Bad managers can make everyone in the workplace miserable. They are too heavy-handed, frequently mad with power, and often terrible at managing both people and projects; it can sometimes be a mystery to see how they ever reached management level at all! Hopefully, you don’t have any managers like this in your business, but if you do, it could be a good idea to rethink your hiring decision and/or look at some retraining because sooner or later, a bad manager will push all of your best employees away.
- No growth
As a business owner, chances are you’re very concerned about growth when it comes to your business and your bottom line, but how about the growth of your employees? If you haven’t given that much thought, you could be pushing your employees away by neglecting their needs to do better, earn more, and take on new challenges. Redress the balance by offering training schemes, sponsored education, and promotion opportunities and chances are you will see an improvement in your employee retention rates.
- A lack of flexibility
These days, employees want to have a better work-life balance and they feel like they deserve a better work-life balance, so if your workplace policies are too rigid and don’t allow for the odd mental health day or the occasional afternoon working from home, you may find that staff look elsewhere.
If you’re doing any of the above, and you have a problem with employees leaving, try making the necessary changes, and chances are things will start to improve.
