Employee Retention Tips

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Our tagline for Skywalk Group is “Attract. Train. Retain.”, and we most often discuss those first two words: attract (sourcing and recruiting) and train (employee development). But right now, retaining employees is becoming more difficult since the “great resignation” began in late 2020. 

We want to provide some perspective, and a few tips, around employee retention. Retaining the great employees you already have is so much easier and more economical than sourcing, hiring, and onboarding and/or training new staff.  

Let’s discuss some strategies for retaining talent in your organization and building a company culture that employees don’t want to give up. 

1. Recognize what you already have 

Employee recognition can be the difference in someone staying at their current position or leaving for something better. Recognizing the effort and dedication that your employees put into their jobs is essential for a happy workplace.  

Recognizing high performers can be done in a variety of ways, from incentives to simply calling out someone who went above and beyond, whether privately or publicly. At SWG, we have a quarterly cash drawing used for employees who are recognized or given a “shout out” by their manager or a client. We also verbally praise employees for their hard work, in team meetings and recognize tenure in our employee-only newsletter. All these methods are suitable, and it is up to you and your team to determine which combination of recognition tools work best for your organization.  

2. Make sure employees are engaged 

When people are engaged at their jobs, they are happier, more productive, and more likely to stay at the organization. 

Employee engagement can take many forms: volunteering to participate in special projects that aren’t part of the daily job description, contributing new ideas and improvements, or even just socializing with other employees.  

Measuring employee engagement is more challenging. There are a variety of tools and methods out there, and each one will tout itself as the best possible option. We believe the best way to measure engagement is communication, not only with the employee, but with their managers and coworkers as well. You won’t know if you don’t ask, and sometimes simply asking someone if they feel engaged at work can get you a surprising answer. 

3. Provide benefits worth staying for 

If you offer poor or mediocre health and wellness benefits, limited paid time off, and lack other benefits worth staying for, employees will always leave for companies that offer better perks and benefits. People, especially in the US, desperately need health insurance benefits that offer value, and will help ensure the health and safety of them and their families.  

The benefits employees want most depend largely on their demographic. Generally speaking, we’ve seen that older employees care more about retirement benefits, while younger employees care more about health care and paid time off, though this varies largely by individual preference.   

4. Trust your staff  

People want autonomy to do their jobs without someone hovering over their shoulder. Employees want their supervisors to trust that they are being productive and doing their jobs well even when working from home or other remote location. While employee monitoring software has become much more popular since so many offices have gone remote, the prospect of being monitored every moment you are logged in is distasteful at best. 

Are the few minutes per day you get back in employee attention worth not only the price of the monitoring software, but also the cost of turnover? Furthermore, monitoring software isn’t going to make your employees more productive, it’s just going to make them appear more productive. The most efficient employees are trusted to be adults and do their jobs without being micromanaged.  

Companies like Google even give their employees up to 20% of their time back to work on projects not related to their jobs, and this time has resulted in a number of profitable inventions for the company (like Google Ads!).  

5. Give employees the training and development to move up 

This might seem counterintuitive, but by empowering your direct reports with the skills and experience to leave for greener pastures, you are showing an investment in them as people and not just employees, fostering loyalty and appreciation that goes much further than this one moment in time. This relationship can reap huge rewards in the future with not only employee retention, but also referrals from happy former employees. An investment in the development of your employees is an investment in the future success of your organization as well.  

Retaining good employees isn’t always easy, especially now when there are so many opportunities out there beckoning. But by creating a strong relationship with your employees and fostering their trust, development, and engagement, you are going a long way towards creating loyalty within your organization that keeps employees present and, more importantly, happy.  

If you are struggling with employee turnover, or finding and screening employees for open positions, Skywalk Group can help! Not only do we have a strong, professional recruiting team, but we also provide Human Resources consulting services to help you develop a plan for employee retention and engagement.