It’s a truth universally acknowledged that employees don’t quit their jobs, they quit their employers. Think about it: how many of your ex-employees have left to go work for a different company versus how many have left the industry completely? Yeah…
So Why Do Good Employees Leave?
It’s Business
Employees who leave because they want pay raises, different benefits, tuition reimbursement, or they just feel a lack of synergy with the company’s goals or values are employees who generally can’t be retained unless the company is willing to change these core issues.
This is why it’s vitally important to discuss all aspects of the compensation and benefits package, as well as the company’s expectations and objectives, during the interview process. If you can avoid hiring someone who will be dissatisfied with the job as it is, you can prevent turnover before it happens.
It’s Personal
Luckily, if your hiring process is thoughtful and you’re honest about what your company offers and what you need, that leaves the turnover rate almost entirely within your control. Even if you don’t have a multi-billion dollar budget, you can use these creative employee retention ideas to keep your employees happy and keep your team members… well, part of the team.
Bottom line, it’s usually less to do with what they’re paid and more to do with how the company makes them feel. Is there mutual trust? Are employees given the autonomy to solve problems they encounter?
Are they appreciated and recognized for the work they do? These interpersonal concerns may seem obvious, but they can be easy to forget about until they come up in an exit interview and then it’s too late.
So? How Can You Keep Them?
Individual Perks
Casual dress code, an office game room, birthdays off, and office snacks are just a few ideas that are fairly quick and easy to implement in most offices. If your employees don’t have regular contact with clients or customers, relaxing the dress code takes as long as it takes to write a new policy memo.
Ordering snacks in bulk for the office is cost-effective and can often be outsourced to companies that specialize in providing this service. Converting a meeting room into a game room can be as simple as bringing in some gently used board games and comfy chairs. And who wouldn’t want to get a free vacation day for their birthday? That’s basically the perfect birthday present!
Implementing these kinds of accommodations can greatly improve job satisfaction and employee morale and will help to promote a fun and positive company culture throughout the office.
Social Perks
Offering low-cost social benefits like after-work happy hours, employee lunches and birthday celebrations, book clubs, or family picnics are good ways to build connections within the workplace that will make employees feel appreciated and give them non-work reasons to want to keep working for you.
Performance Rewards
Recognizing a job well done is one of the best employee retention ideas you can implement and that recognition can be customized based on your team’s preferences. Some companies are full of competitive go-getters that benefit from in-office competitions, like the sales team who sells the most product getting treated to dinner at a local steak house.
Other companies will see better results with a reward that encourages collaboration, like setting a goal for the whole company and then rewarding them all with a collective prize when the goal is achieved.
Also, don’t underestimate the power of simply praising a job well done! Some employees respond best to thoughtful emails from supervisors complementing their work, or kind words from a customer or client being passed on from the manager who was told about the interaction.
Community Building
Encouraging employees to volunteer for their community or any other charitable causes that they believe in is a good way to help build goodwill for your business and will foster improved employee relations for years to come. Go further than just telling employees they should volunteer by offering a number of paid days off for volunteer work or matching charitable contributions up to a certain amount every year. Putting your money where your mouth is shows employees that you’re as committed to helping their community as they are.
Remote Worker Retention
Of course, there are unique challenges for retaining your best workers during these unprecedented times. Remote work—once considered a holy grail of employer benefits—has become the new standard operating procedure that allows businesses to stay in business. Unfortunately, this coveted benefit doesn’t fit everyone’s ideal work process.
Help Them Get Organized
Some employees who are newer to the work-from-home lifestyle are realizing that they find it harder to focus at home, especially when compared to an office setting. Away from their desks and without anyone nearby to potentially hold them accountable, they have a harder time staying on task.
If any of your employees have expressed difficulty feeling like their home-office is their office-office, put them on the right path with the BondyWFH: Be Wise, Organize! It’s like a back-to-school supply list specially curated for work-from-home professionals who want to be more productive—it even includes an afternoon snack, because productivity takes energy.
Help Them Stay Connected
The community you’ve built within your workplace is also one of your most crucial retention strategies. Remember, most people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their employers. Keeping that “work family” connection intact while everyone is physically distanced can be challenging, but there are still ways to keep that employee engagement alive if you think outside the box!
Consider setting up an optional after-work happy hour video chat every month so that everyone can catch up on non-work stuff. Try hosting a watch party so everyone can see a movie together—and if it’s a movie or documentary related to your industry, that’s pretty much the best kind of work meeting you could have!
Or you can try a good old fashioned team-building meeting, like our BondyTEAM: Island Adventures. It includes everything you need to host a virtual luau with your team! Now who wouldn’t find that fun?
Simply put, let your employees know how important they are to your business on a regular basis as part of a proactive, robust, creative employee retention strategy. Check out all of the Bondys we have to offer and show your employees that they’re the most important part of your business.