Employee Retention Strategies

Hiring employees is an art. You want to make sure you’re properly screening someone to ensure they not only have the skills needed for the job, but that their personality will also be a good cultural fit for the office. Perhaps even more difficult than hiring incredible employees is retaining them. What employee retention strategies does your business use? Are they effective?

 Every business owner knows that turnover is inevitable, but it’s important to notice how high your turnover rate is and how successful you are at retaining employees. A high turnover rate costs a business more than money – it also costs time and productivity. From finding a new skilled employee to training them, if you find yourself in this constant cycle, it’s time to re-evaluate your business.

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE

If you have trouble with employee retention, it’s important to find out the core reason. Are they unhappy at work due to poor culture or toxic coworkers? Do they leave for higher-paying positions or those with better benefits? Has poor crisis leadership management skills caused a mass exodus during a recent stressful time in your company? To identify the reasons you are struggling with how to retain employees, conduct exit interviews with those who leave your company and have regular one-on-one meetings with your current team to gauge their level of job satisfaction and identify what more you could provide them.

EMPLOYEE SUCCESS CYCLE

To keep employees engaged and enhance retention strategies, Tony Robbins developed a principle called The Success Cycle. The cycle lays out how to retain employees and keep your best team members working efficiently. Succeeding in your employee retention strategies requires approaching things from an employee’s perspective. Once you understand what keeps an employee motivated, you can align your business strategy to guarantee you are meeting your employees’ needs.

These are four steps to The Success Cycle and how it applies to employee retention.

STEP 1: BELIEF AND ATTITUDE

It’s easy to get so caught up in moving your company forward that you forget to celebrate success along the way. Employee retention is all about making your employees feel valued and appreciated. When you gloss over the success of your team, you risk negatively impacting how your team views the company. Why would people want to work somewhere that they feel doesn’t acknowledge their hard work? By creating an internal culture that shows gratitude to each and every member of your team, you’ll empower your employees to remain at your company and work harder. Consider calling out employee successes during weekly or monthly meetings and recognize employees who go above and beyond with bonuses, gift cards or extra paid days off. When you take the time to focus on the positives, your team will have a good attitude – and how to retain employees becomes much easier.

STEP 2: POTENTIAL

The second step to retaining employees is tapping into your team’s potential. The truth is, every single person has unlimited potential, but we often forget this. It’s sometimes simpler to recognize those who are more outspoken or successful right off the bat, but in doing so, you risk overlooking others whose talents might not be as visible at first glance. This can cause talented employees to seek out other places of employment where their supervisors understand and develop their skills.

So, how do you tap into your team’s potential to increase employee retention? Challenge them by asking them to tackle new tasks. Create interactive bonding activities that build their confidence and encourage cross-functional collaboration. This is where one-on-one meetings come in as well, as these moments give you a chance to get to know each individual better and hone in on their unique strengths. When you give your employees a chance to succeed and see themselves in a new way, you build momentum that will propel your team forward and make your employee retention strategies more effective.

STEP 3: ACTION

With this employee retention momentum comes inevitable plateaus, as described in The Training Effect. How do you let your employees know they can break down plateaus and find new success at work? A large factor in employee retention is creating a company that allows for unlimited room for growth. Invest in opportunities for learning and growth when these plateaus happen. Whether this is individual training or seminars that occur at the office or funding external classes at local colleges, show your employees that you are dedicated to helping them reach their next level. Show your team that you are committed to constant innovation such as utilizing AI technology or finding other ways to be a disruptive company. This gives your team peace of mind that their jobs are secure and that they’ll be given the opportunity to learn new cutting-edge information as their careers progress.

STEP 4: RESULTS

The final step in The Success Cycle hinges on results. Success feeds on success and generates even more success. The more success your employees experience, the more they’ll create the belief and momentum to succeed on an even higher scale. And when they succeed, the more likely they’ll want to stay and continue improving at your company. Encouraging the types of habits that make your employees strive toward progress will help them achieve the results they need to keep feeding this positive loop.

When something goes wrong and an employee messes up, how do you react? Do you punish them and crush their spirit? Or do you evaluate the problem and determine an effective solution? Mistakes happen. No employee wants to work for a company that treats them unkindly – they want to work for a company they believe in, who also believes in them. When you focus on healthy habits that incorporate both constructive feedback when things go wrong and plenty of positive feedback when things go right, you create a thriving culture where retaining employees is merely a side effect.

Every good business owner knows that their success depends on their team. To build a gold-standard team, you must have effective employee retention strategies and always have an eye on progress.

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