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Hiring the right people for your business can be a long and expensive process and with the top talent always in high demand. turnover rates can be very high. To retain top talent and avoid going back through the recruitment process it’s important to keep your employees happy, so what can you do to help improve your employee retention?
- Offer competitive benefits
Small businesses often feel that they can’t compete with larger companies when it comes to the benefits that they can offer their employees, but they’re wrong. Although you may not be able to offer private medical or expensive gym memberships you can offer your employees other benefits such as flexible working hours, unlimited holiday or even the option to work remotely. The young talent of today are far more interested in maintaining a positive work life balance than the promise of private dental so offer them benefits that can help them achieve this. - Maintain a pleasurable working environment
An easy way to help improve your employee retention is to offer them a working environment that they like to be in. If your office is old, stuffy and unpleasant then your employees are immediately going to be looking for a way out of there. Keep your offices bright, airy and clean with plenty of creature comforts such as access to free tea and coffee. Don’t worry, you don’t need to be hiring expensive cleaning firms to stay on top of your office cleanliness with great value cleaning products available from places such as www.steamaster.com.au even small self maintained offices can be made into places that your employees want to spend time in. - Pay their worth
Job adverts always talk about pay based on experience but what about pay based on worth? Some of the emerging top talent may not have the experience they need to be in a higher salary bracket but they do have a lot to give and if your competitor notices their potential and offers to pay more, then you may lose out on a great opportunity. Pay your employees well and ensure this amount reflects their worth to your business and not just their experience or job title. - Provide guidance and training
Investing in your employees through guidance and training not only ensure that they have the right skills for the job you want them to do but will help them to feel valued and able to continue their own self development. Employees often begin to look elsewhere when they feel they have stagnated in their role, so keep them moving forward within your business by providing them with relevant guidance and training to support their growth.
Improving your employee retention rate needn’t be rocket science and often boils down to offering your employees benefits and opportunities that you yourself would have liked to see if you were in their position. Start with the basics and if you are still not seeing your retention rates improving then it may be time to sit down with your past and present employees and ask them what they feel you could be doing differently.