When it comes to running your own business you want to retain great staff. You need to know that your staff are happy and that they are going to stay with you for at least a reasonable duration of time. Obviously, no business leader wants to go out of their way to make life uncomfortable for their staff, and you certainly don’t want to lose good staff. Hiring staff takes time, effort, and money. Getting that person trained up and to a level that you are happy with can also require investment from you. To lose everything that you put into your team members is not only a great shame, but it is also going to affect your bottom line too. Disturbances in your staffing will cause a knock in the figures, and having to invest in recruiting and developing replacements for staff that have left is costly.
The name of the game is retention. You need to do everything you can to understand what it is that your staff want out of their career with you, and make sure that you are delivering that. People will get itchy feet from time-to-time, and as such will have a look at what your competitors are offering in terms of salary, development, and progression prospects. Everything that you will have put into that member of staff will go on to benefit another company. You need to do everything that you can to keep hold of your good staff and provide them with the kind of support that they need in order to thrive.
Retain Great Staff: Find Out What Your Staff Need
There are several ways that you can be sure that you are offering your team everything that they want. Firstly, you could ask them. If you have a number of employees, have a look at using staff surveys by PeoplePulse to learn more about what makes your team tick.
Holding regular appraisals with your team is a very good way of finding out about how they are feeling within their role. Create a safe space where you staff can talk honestly. If you allow them to open up without fear of judgment or reproach, then you will be able to understand them better and try and find ways of providing exactly what they need from the job.
Give Your Staff What They Need
Once you know what your staff want and need from their career with you, the obvious next step is to find ways to give this to them. It may be that they want more money. This is only natural. Life does not get any cheaper, and everyone has financial commitments that they need to meet. Often, providing pay rises for your team can help to motivate them to achieve more. Greater productivity will lead to a rise in turnover too. Your pay rises will pay off in the long run. Don’t be drawn in by short term profit rises through wage bill reductions.
If your staff are looking for development and progress, find ways to deliver this for them. Create a plan and work with them. The best way to retain great staff is to value them and treat them right. Apart from being the right thing to do, investing in people is investing in your business.
