Finding quality candidates who fit into your company culture is no small task in today’s tough employment market. When you find the right person, keeping them happy and onboard is critical. While compensation packages play a huge part in employee satisfaction, with today’s employees it goes beyond offering competitive wages. It’s about developing a culture that helps team members feel engaged, productive, valued and passionate about their work. Being part of something that makes a difference is important.
Follow these simple recommendations and employee retention will help your business thrive.
As an employer, you should:
- Foster an open and honest work environment by regularly communicating company news, expectations and goals with employees through orientation, meetings, newsletters and reviews.
- Reinforce employee value by providing positive feedback in addition to constructive criticism by rewarding high performance with recognition and incentives.
- Provide professional development opportunities for employees to keep up with trends, practices and new technology related to their industries.
- Show employees there are opportunities for advancement in the company by promoting from within and recognizing high performance.
Work-life balance
Work-life balance also makes a huge difference in employee satisfaction, so more than ever non-cash benefits are critical to talent retention. Increased flexibility and convenience will help keep team members happy and productive, while consequently improving company culture. Consider offering:
- Childcare programs to improve quality of life for working parents and their children.
- Flexible hours allowing employees a flexible schedule – adds value in the employee’s mind with little or no expense for the employer, especially for young parents.
- Work from home options can allow employees to save time on commuting during foul weather and construction challenges, this adds value from the employee’s perspective.
- Vehicle or housing allowances can benefit employees and outweigh the cost to employers.
- Community Engagement offers employees an opportunity to make a bigger difference than they could on their own. Being part of a team from work with Habitat for Humanity is more impactful and someone else set it all up!
- Access to executive leadership shows employees leadership is genuinely invested in success of the company and each employee.
- Preferred parking makes it easier for employees working in the city to get into the office after a long commute.
Developing a great culture can be tricky, but well worth the investment. Often outsourcing a human resources processes like payroll, benefits, compliance, and on-boarding can free up internal staff to focus on cultural elements of the employment relationship. You really need an internal “champion” in charge of employee benefits, perks, reviews and other related tasks, this can take pressure off your leadership team while saving time and money.
Talk to an AccessPoint consultant to learn more about retaining your best employees.