Five Top Tips For Retaining Talent Within Your Workplace

In a recent Workplace Health Survey, it was found that 70% of respondents who took part were either ‘actively looking for new job opportunities’ or were thinking about it ‘always, often or sometimes’. With this alarmingly high figure in mind, we have put together our top tips for how to retain talent with your workplace.

Offer Career Development

Statistics suggest that 77% of students stay in their first jobs for less than one year. Whilst turnover does tend to be higher for millennials, it is important to extend career development where possible to all employees. Our suggestion would be to look at implementing a career pathway for more junior employees or graduates, setting them goals to work towards over a period of time, which may then result in a pay rise and/or promotion, if they are to hit these targets in the agreed timeframe. With regards to other, more experienced or senior members of staff, it is equally important to offer them the opportunity to upskill and learn more within their roles. This can be something as simple as allowing them to take part in further training or to take on further responsibilities within their role. For example, letting a Personal Assistant take part in a project management course or even sending them to a Personal Assistant course to further fine tune their skills. These simple implementations will show your employees that you trust them by giving them further responsibilities as they grow within a role, whilst demonstrating that you encourage them to further develop their skill set.

Encourage Recognition and Rewards

In a blog put together by Bonusly, it was found that 65% of employees hadn’t received any form of recognition for good work in the last year. It is not surprising that people who feel their hard work has not been recognised or rewarded are less likely to continue with their efforts, which would therefore decrease productivity and potentially lead them to start looking for a new role. Recognition or rewards for hard work don’t necessarily have to be in monetary form, but can be something as simple as emailing someone to praise them for a presentation or piece of work that they put together, allowing them to leave work earlier on a Friday, mentioning them in a company-wide newsletter or taking them out for lunch. Furthermore, when you show your appreciation to your team or employees, make sure that you explain how their hard work helps and adds value to the company. Small things like this can have a huge impact on employees and make them feel extremely valuable within the business.

Look at Revamping Your Benefits Package

A report by The Independent found that fewer than one in five employees are satisfied with the benefits package provided by the company or individual they work for, with half of employees stating that they would leave their current role if they thought they would get a position with more perks somewhere else. With benefits packages being a key feature for employees, it is important for employers to take this on board and look at the package they offer to see how it can be bettered or personalised. 49% of individuals surveyed stated that they wanted added extras which could help them save money, such as a subsidised gym membership or fitness classes, assistance with childcare or travel costs and help with housing. More than half of the 2,000 people surveyed wanted their staff benefits to help improve their work-life balance such as shorter hours on a Friday, a higher number of paid annual leave days and team away days/holidays. However, results also demonstrated that what was important to the younger generation was not as important to more senior employees and vice versa. With this in mind, it may be worth offering a number of flexible benefits, which people can opt in or opt out of depending on their personal preferences. With companies offering more competitive benefits year on year, it is important to continually look at ways to improve your benefits package so that you don’t lose talent to other companies based on benefits alone.

Ensure Your Company Are Communicating

A lack of communication can create huge issues within a company and can be the cause of a lot of employee frustrations. An employee engagement survey produced by Proclinical suggested that motivation at work increases when employees have regular face-to-face time with their managers or bosses, be that monthly (59.4%), quarterly (52.3%) or annually (43.1%). Putting in place regular face-to-face catch ups creates a safe space for employees to discuss, and give feedback about, the company and how it operates, the management style, as well as offering updates on their work or any particular projects they are focussing on. In addition to this, regular catch ups can also offer senior management an opportunity to provide positive and constructive criticism and identify any issues which can then be discussed and hopefully resolved before they can escalate into bigger problems, which may lead to a decrease in productivity and a higher likelihood of employees looking for another job.

Look at Work/Life Balance

“People are out there to be employed but we are not shaping our roles for those people” says Heather DeLand, Executive Creative Director at TMP Worldwide UK. She states that many organisations are unconsciously shutting the doors on talent because of their strict working hours or because of location. It is therefore important to look at relaxing your company policies if you are looking to retain (and also attract) the best talent. Many people now look to work for companies who offer flexible working and the ability to work from home if they want to, especially those who have young families or a long commute. Allowing your staff the ability to work from home, if and when they need to, or to start or leave work earlier or later, can have a huge impact on the wellbeing of your employees, as it allows them to have a better quality of work/life balance, which in turn can result in a better quality of work produced by your staff. Even offering the ability to work from home or having flexible hours once or twice a week can result in gained loyalty and commitment from your staff, which will ultimately help to retain talent within your business.    

Photo by Shridhar Gupta on Unsplash.