According to The Bureau of Labor Statistics, more U.S. workers are quitting their jobs than at any time since the numbers have been recorded. In fact, numbers have been steadily rising over the nine years since they started keeping track of retention rates.
Why are so many employees leaving their jobs?
Several factors come into play, including:
- A desire for more money
- A chance to grow a career
- A lack of challenge and development
- A better work/life balance
The next question is: What can you do as a business owner to combat this issue? You can create a solid human resource plan.
Creating a human resource framework
Ideally, you want employees to have a good experience from onboarding through upward movement within your organisation.
When you take the time to plan for this, employees will not only stay at your company longer, but they will also be happier.
This makes them more productive at work. And the more productive they are, the more satisfied your customers will be.
Onboarding and retaining employees is important for your business. But how do you create this human resource plan, especially when you may not have a dedicated HR department?
Survey current employees
The first step is to find out how your current employees feel about working for you.
It’s best to create an employee satisfaction survey, in which team members can feel free to voice their opinions without fear of repercussions.
In this survey, make sure to ask questions about their experience on the job, such as:
- How satisfied are you with your current workplace and job?
- How well does your workplace meet your expectations?
- How close is your current workplace to your ideal workplace?
Then ask each employee to score their answers from a 1 to a 10. To tally the scores, use this equation:
ESI =[ (question mean value/3) -1] x 100
_______________________________
9
This will give you a general idea of how satisfied your current workforce is.
However, you can also get more in-depth by asking additional questions. For example:
- Do you feel you have the skills necessary to do your job well?
- Do you feel you have a good work/life balance?
- Has your manager created a career path plan for you?
- Do you understand the company goals?
- Do you feel free to voice your opinion?
Once you complete an employee satisfaction survey, you’ll want to take what you’ve learned and incorporate it into a human resources plan.
Here are some employee engagement tips to create a great plan.
1. Build your company culture
Often, employees leave because they don’t understand the company direction. Here’s how to fix that.
Before an employee’s first day, craft a welcome letter or video. In this initial presentation, give the overall goals for the company.
Explain what direction you will be taking to meet these goals and how you plan to get and stay ahead of the competition. That way, employees will believe in your culture from the start.
The next part is to align company goals with those of your employees.
Have each employee write down their on-the-job goals and make sure managers review these goals so that they align with the company and department goals. By doing this, everyone is clear about how their role helps propel the company forward. It gives each person a sense of purpose.
2. Foster open communication
Another issue employees have with their current companies is they feel they do not have a voice.
Part of your customer retention plan should be about keeping communication lines open.
When interviewing job candidates, let them know your company is a team environment and you welcome all positive and negative feedback. Also let them know that you work to solve issues employees have within the workplace.
During your onboarding, make sure to outline how you use your company’s project management software, communication apps, and any other business tools that will make collaboration easier.
3. Stress work-life balance
In this digital age, more and more people are working outside of the office walls.
Whether you allow remote working or not, you want to demonstrate to employees that you value their personal lives just as much as their work lives.
For example, you could give employees one day a week to work from home or you could let employees choose a charity of their choice and give them a day to volunteer and give back to the community.
No matter your strategy, you will have better employee retention when your team members feel they can bring their whole selves to work, and are not just a task handler.
4. Motivate with recognition and rewards
Salary and benefits are always going to be a factor in selecting one job over another. However, it is not the only motivating factor to take a job and stay at a company.
One part of your retention plan should be to build a system of recognition and rewards. Everyone likes to feel appreciated and receive positive feedback for a job well done.
Consider rewards like an extra vacation day or recognitions like “employee of the month.”
5. Foster growth through training
Crafting detailed job descriptions and having a good interview process are key to getting highly skilled employees.
However, no matter what industry you’re in, there’s always room to grow. This leads to employees needing to learn new processes or learning new technologies as their roles expand.
Instead of being reactive to these situations, put a training and development strategy in place for every employee. You want your team members to know you value their personal growth and that you will help them do their jobs successfully.
Developing your employee retention handbook
Now that you know some of the key points to attract and retain top talent, you’ll want to craft your HR guide.
Download this HR Cheat Sheet to begin the process. It will guide you through the entire hiring process, from recruitment to onboarding. Plus, you’ll learn all the important information you’ll need to know without hiring additional team members.
Just remember: many top companies lose employees due to factors that are within their control. If you want to keep employee retention high, a solid human resources plan will ensure employee job satisfaction, which, in turn, will lead to a stronger bottom line for your company.
