When you’re the owner and operator of a business, one of the most important things you rely on to keep things moving smoothly is a productive staff. Without a strong team of dedicated employees, no work would ever get done, and no profits would ever be accrued.
However, if your employees aren’t happy and satisfied with their positions, they’re going to leave to seek work elsewhere. If the great resignation of the past year has taught us anything, it’s that employees need to be compensated fairly and treated with dignity and respect if their employers expect them to stick around.
So, what can an employer who is concerned about keeping their staff fulfilled and comfortable enough to stay for the long haul do to accomplish this goal? Dr. Kelly Roan says it’s more straightforward than you might think. Read on below to learn three simple strategies to help you increase employee retention for your business.
1. Increase Wages Proportionate to the Cost of Living
At the end of the day, your employees are doing the work to make your business run smoothly and earn you profit because they need to be able to pay their bills. A worker who isn’t compensated enough to pay for their housing, feed their family, and take care of their other needs, will have no choice but to resign and seek employment elsewhere.
Unfortunately, many employers do not take this into consideration when determining wages, and so often workers are forced to take multiple jobs in order to survive. Making sure that your employees have their financial needs taken care of is the best way to ensure they continue working for you, and can even make them happier and more productive.
To figure out what an acceptable pay rate would be, you can always research the cost of living index for your city.
2. Offer Your Employees Benefits that will Increase their Quality of Life
Workers don’t just have to pay for food and rent. They also have other vital needs such as healthcare, retirement planning, and insurance. Making sure your employees have access to the things they need will keep them from leaving to go work for a company that offers better benefits.
CarMax is a company that understands this principle and has used it to successfully increase its employee retention rate. During the 2008 recession, rather than prioritizing the profits of the business owners, they made sure their workers had an incentive to stick around by investing more money into benefits and other programs to increase their wellbeing.
Today, CarMax is still known as a great employer to work for, and the investments they’ve made in their employees have led to significant profit increases.
3. Encourage Employees to Prioritize Their Mental Health
Making sure that employees have all of their needs taken care of is an essential part of getting them to stick around, and more and more employers these days are starting to understand the importance of addressing the mental health concerns of their staff. Allowing certain mental health support initiatives such as developing flexible time-off policies, providing mental health care as a benefit, and making specific accommodations for your employees’ needs will go a long way towards increasing employee retention.
Mars, Inc. is a notable company when it comes to prioritizing employee wellness. They are known for having high retention rates and being praised as one of the best companies to work for, thanks in no small part to their outlook on the wellbeing of their staff. Mars provides useful accommodations like remote work options, allowances for emotional support animals in the workplace, and organizing wellness programs for their workers.
Keep Employees Happy and Work Productivity Up
Keeping your employees happy enough to continue working for you is really just a matter of compensating them fairly for their labor and making sure they have the resources they need to live and work comfortably. If you follow these three simple strategies, it should be easy for you to increase employee retention and keep your business growing steadily.
