THE 4 MUST-HAVES IN YOUR EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGY

Posted on by Bryan Greene

THE 4 MUST-HAVES IN YOUR EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGY

Now that you’ve got the right employees in the right jobs, what can you do to keep them there? As any good manager will know, if your employees are happy, they’ll stay for longer, and do a better job for you when they’re there. If your team’s motivated, chances are that their motivation will spread through the company and keep the other teams engaged too.

Here are four pillars that you can’t miss out in your employee retention strategy:

  1. CREATE A KICK-ASS CULTURE

If you are fortunate enough to work in an environment where people are performing well consistently, loyal to the company, trust each other and feel comfortable working with each other, satisfied with the job and having fun whilst doing it – you already have a kick-ass culture. Lucky you! If that sounds like something you’d like to have, you can achieve this by creating this kind of culture through your leadership. And yes, it needs to start at the top.  A few ways to achieve this:

  • Communicate your values in your company meetings and let them inspire your people and transpire your culture.
  • Let your culture be something that is brought to life not only in your people and products but also in all of your communication; your website, emails, branding and events.
  • Decide what personality your company has and adopt this throughout all of your communications – even in person.
  • Create a place where people want to stay and hang out, making it a positive working environment that encourages people to do a great job.
  • Promote social activities, understand that people need to relax and recharge to be productive and give people flexibility with regards to working location and hours.

 

  1. MANAGE WELL AND WITH PURPOSE

Confusing reporting lines, unclear goals and ambiguous communication all create a complicated working environment where people might not feel comfortable.  As a manager, your role is to set goals, support people, coach and provide feedback for continuous improvement. Make sure you do it well. Having simple, clear goals for all employees, a clear organizational structure, straightforward communication and being approachable to all employees will help.  Working towards goals that are clearly defined and documented means that everyone is clear on what needs to be done. This creates alignment and a sense of purpose.  Review your goals regularly and if they don’t make sense to how your business is progressing, refine them as you go.

 

  1. MAKE WORK MEANINGFUL

Your people need to feel that their job is meaningful, and for it to drive towards a greater sense of purpose. Communicate what the job (and individual projects) can lead to and what objectives you can achieve together as a team. Is this a stepping-stone to something bigger? How are you helping your people to succeed, both professionally and personally? Working in small teams has been proven to be a factor that creates meaningful work.  Why? Small teams feel empowered, make decisions faster, and get to know each other and can lend a helping hand to teammates in need (Deloitte, 2015).

 

  1. BE A WINNER

Something that’s often overlooked when talking about employee retention is your competitive advantage. It’s not surprising, but people want to work for a winner, someone who is heading places and is making noise in the market. Think about what sets your company apart from your competition? How are you different and how are you making a difference for your customers? Communicate your unique selling points to your clients and your employees and PR your business wherever and whenever you can.

 

By incorporating these four pillars into your retention strategy, you should be in a good place to keep your employees for the long term. If you are unsure of how happy your people are in their jobs, why not conduct an employee survey to get the insights you need.

At Adaptive Technology Group our team of IT experts work to build long term partnerships with our clients. In order to do that, we are always striving to improve our company culture and maintain long term employee retention. Click here to learn more about us.