Employers might have different management styles, company policies, and obviously, business types, but they do all share one major common factor.
They all need quality employees with which to staff their business.
Having reliable and professional staff is key to running a business well, but finding these types of employees can be difficult at best. The time and resources it takes to put out advertisements for openings, the effort of going through countless applications, and then taking valuable work hours to go through interviews over the phone and in person is a long process to say the least. So, when you find a solid employee after all of that, imagine how disheartening it would be when the employee leaves only a short few months later because they’re unhappy in your company or are offered a better opportunity elsewhere. This daunting thought is why staff retention is so important to business owners, and why we believe in helping employers understand how to achieve this retention in your own company.
Here are our top 3 tips for keeping great employees when you find them, and build a staff you can be confident in and proud of.
- Keep pay competitive. This has multiple components. First, you need to do your research on the going salary, whether hourly or annual, for the given position you are staffing. By undervaluing a job’s worth, you are limiting the types of applicants you will get in a big way. In addition to initially pricing the position properly, you need to plan ahead for annual increases, benefits packages, and other incentives to make sure employees want to stay around.
- Develop strong lines of communication with your employees. Nothing will sour an employee/employer relationship faster than feeling as if one or the other isn’t being heard or considered. Make sure your employees know they can come to you if they have a question or concern, and also offer a place for anonymous critiques to be given by those who aren’t comfortable coming to you in person. If your staff feels like they can trust you to heed their feedback and take appropriate action you’ll end up with loyal employees and a better work environment.
- Offer opportunities for advancement. This is important, as long-term employees don’t want to stay stagnant. On the job training, sending employees to off-site seminars or courses to further their knowledge of their job, and offering chances for promotion are all important in keeping staff around for a long time.
We love to see our applicants find a job they love and stay there, just as much as we love seeing employers who work with us fill their staff with applicants that will be around for the long haul. In the end though, you can’t work on staff retention if you don’t have qualified people on your team. That’s where PHR comes in. We handle the hiring process FOR you, with a proven system of applications and interviews that make sure you only get the very best for openings in your staff. Give us a call and find out what we can do for your business.