When it comes to running your business, what are you doing exceptionally well and not so exceptionally well?
If all is going according to plan, you are hopefully doing much better in the former category, meaning your company is growing, doing well financially, and ultimately keeping customers and employees alike happy.
That said many businesses end up having to deal with challenges each and every year, especially those that involve employees.
No, you can’t always hire the best and the brightest, but you should do all that is possible to do just that. If you are constantly dealing with turnover in your office, both your finances and the moral of the workplace can suffer.
With that in mind, how can you go about improving the odds of keeping good employees around for as long as possible?
Looking for the Cream of the Crop
In order to hire and retain the best employees out there, keep these four reminders at the top of your to-do list:
- Workplace – First and foremost, do you have a workplace that is conducive to keeping employees for many years to come? Unfortunately, some offices are the last place someone would want to spend eight hours or more of their day in. Whether it is unfriendly management, micro-managing, not spending the right amount of money on the proper resources etc. you could be setting the stage for high turnover at your company. Do your best to make workers want to come to work each and every day (see more below). While they’re not there to have fun and games eight hours a day, you also should avoid making it feel like being held after school for detention;
- Compensation – Are you a business owner willing to pay your workers what they are truly worth? Once again, some company heads try to short-change their employees any chance they get. Not only does this oftentimes lead to a high turnover rate, but it can also give your brand a bad reputation. Even if you can’t pay your employees what they think they are truly worth etc. you can compensate them in other ways. One of the primary ways is your benefit plan. With the right group employee benefits insurance plan, you can oftentimes convince some of those workers thinking about leaving to stay longer. Sure, the salary may not quite be what they want, but a good benefits plan can be just as important, especially in today’s world of high medical care and insurance costs. Better yet, if you offer plans that include spouses and kids of those working for you, you give employees yet more reason to want to stick around.
Do You Have the Right Resources in Place?
- Resource tools – Just about every employee will note that they need the right resources in order to best do their jobs. That means having offices that do not look like something out of the 1950’s. Make sure your technology is more than up to date, your office is warm and welcoming, and you do not have a workplace where an employee gets yelled at for not using both sides of a piece of paper. While employees should not gouge you to death when it comes to their needs, they also should not have to beg you for state-of-the-art technology, especially if you want to keep one foot ahead of the competition;
- Atmosphere matters – Finally, the atmosphere with which you give to your workers each and every day simply matters. Do you offer fun options like the occasional group Happy Hour, lunches out as a team, extra-curricular activities a day or two a month? By offering these types of events, most workers will stop and realize that you actually do care about their happiness in the workplace. As a result, more employees are likely going to want to stay with you for a longer period of time, something that typically benefits you and your customers.
As a business owner, what are you doing to keep employees around longer?
About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about small business topics on the web.