A recent poll in the United States found that almost 70 per cent of employees look for another job upon returning from vacation. Now, you could chalk a stat like that up to too much sun or too many Pina Coladas by the pool, but in reality, it is more likely the case that many employees are already considering jumping ship before going on holiday. Often an employee’s unhappiness is reflective of a company’s poor morale and culture, and mangers and HR recruiters need to be wary of ways to keep current employees happy as well as attracting new ones.
Indeed, retaining rock star talent actually depends a lot on company culture too. One simple way to do this is to build a positive working environment that allows staff the opportunity to perform at their best, feel valued, be inspired and work creatively. Look at the number of highly-talented employees who leave well-paid, authoritative positions at big companies and you can see that there are other drivers in play besides salary and prestige at play.
Have Supportive Employers
Building a positive workplace is based on promoting a company’s values and priorities, and everyone in the executive team or any kind of leadership role needs to understand and embrace these values in order to promote them. Employers need to be supportive of their employees, provide fair and equal treatment to every single staff member, and recognise employee achievements on a regular basis.
Perks
A workplace should also provide a variety of perks to help keep employees happy and feeling valued. Some of these perks could involve bonuses or salary increases in line with industry standards. Recruitment specialist, Robert Half, have a number of industry salary guides that outline what an employee position is worth.
Companies like Google rewards staff members with a variety of benefits from free organic meals to free medical and dental; on-site gyms and even nap pods. While these perks come at considerable expense to Google, it is money well spent when you reflect on the rigorous recruiting process the company sets for itself. Google is all about retaining its staff and in response Google employees are loyal and productive.
Communication
Managers need to be able to share their ideas about what constitutes success in both the deliverables and performance levels of the job. It’s essential that supervisors provide regular feedback to staff members and are clear about the career development and earning potential of the role and any future positions within the company. Managers need to listen proactively to employee feedback, foster open and honest communication with team members and ensure that each employee is clear on the direction of the company and its corporate culture.
Training
Training isn’t just important for employees but also for every person who is in a management or leadership role as well. Every manager can usually increase their ability to retain staff members by further developing their management skills. After all, a leader needs to value their team and each person’s contribution in order to effectively create a unified and positive workplace.
To help develop managers at all levels of an organisation, companies need to invest in regular management training. Leaders need to be given access to courses, books and other educational development opportunities that help them learn how to give and receive feedback, recognise and value employees, handle complaints and staff issues, promote a motivating work environment, and mentor and coach all their employees.