Employee Retention

Even in a bad economy, employee turnover can be a problem. It’s certainly more prevalent in certain industries. To hang onto your best employees, try these tips.

1. Provide Job Flexibility: Having flexible hours can make a big impact, especially for parents. With all the technology available, you might consider allowing employees to work from home at certain times. Showing concern for life outside of work can solidify employee satisfaction and encourage an emotional connection with the company.

2. Offer Benefit Packages: You might think your company is too small to offer competitive benefit packages. This is not the case! Group health care benefits may be available through industry organizations. You might also consider establishing a 401(k), profit sharing, or SEP plan so your employees can begin planning for retirement.3. Encourage Autonomy: Allow key employees to have a great deal of autonomy: encourage them to be responsible for their department’s strategies and budgets, goal setting for their staff, and hiring and firing of their employees.

4. Implement Compensation-based Rewards: Rewarding performance can really boost team morale, and it increases employee’s emotional investment in the company. Sometimes, money is the deciding factor for an employee.

5. Provide Training: Providing in-house training is convenient way to benefit both your business and your employees. Leadership training or industry-specific training are two popular options.

6. Cultivate Rapport: Encourage a team attitude. There are many ways to boost morale: office parties, softball teams, and family cookouts are fun ways to bring your team together.

7. Listen: Simply talking to your employees can help improve employee retention. Talk to them before they seek employment elsewhere. Find out what they like about the company. Find out if there are any improvements that could be made that would encourage long-term association. If they do plan to leave, ask if there are any improvements that could be made that would convince them to stay.

8. Deal with internal problems: In addition, it’s important to deal with any problems within the office. Many small annoyances can snowball until it seems big enough to justify leaving.