Good staff are worth their weight in gold! We probably don’t need to explain that to you. A good employee can add enormous value to your business. In addition, hiring and training staff costs a lot of money. Enough reason to look for an answer to the question; How do you retain staff? Interested? Read on!
Retaining staff, this is what staff turnover costs you
Staff turnover costs you a lot of money. Have you ever thought about the costs involved in staff turnover? Because there are several cost items involved. These can be divided into direct and indirect costs. It is important to understand the costs of staff turnover. This gives you the opportunity to take measures to minimise staff turnover. Consider, for instance, improving working conditions or offering better career opportunities.
Direct costs associated with staff turnover
- Recruitment and selection: these are costs associated with finding and attracting new staff. For example, the costs of advertising around vacancies, conducting job interviews, deploying recruiters, performing background checks.
- Induction and training: these costs are associated with training and education of new employees. Think for example of training courses and the like.
Indirect costs associated with staff turnover
- Productivity loss: while your vacancy is open, you obviously lose productivity, but even during a new employee’s induction period, you can still fully benefit from this person’s input.
- Knowledge loss: when a person leaves your organisation, valuable knowledge also goes out the door. How is knowledge management organised in your organisation?
- Morale and team dynamics: when a colleague leaves your team, this also affects the other people in your organisation. Remaining colleagues also start thinking about their position within the organisation as a result. This can lead to reduced engagement.
- Customer relations: you may also lose customer relations as a result of employees who have direct contact with customers leaving, this is regularly the case with sales staff and account managers.
The benefits of a permanent workforce
A permanent workforce brings a lot of benefits. We would almost write a separate blog about it! So here is a quick overview of the benefits of a permanent workforce:
- Continuity;
- Stability;
- Cost savings;
- Knowledge and expertise;
- Better team dynamics;
- Improved customer relations;
- Positive company culture.
How do you retain staff?
Retaining staff is not an easy 1,2,3 fix. You will have to do your best to retain staff in the long term. This is also known as employer branding. Employer branding is promoting your reputation as an employer. One way to do this is by taking the following points seriously.
1. Open communication
Open communication is so important. Yet it goes wrong at a lot of companies. There are several reasons why this may be the case. Communication has to do with emotions, perceptions, barriers and channels. So there is a lot going on in the background that can go wrong. Promote open communication by actively listening, making clear agreements, valuing others’ opinions, communicating respectfully, promoting transparency and using good communication channels, such as Bundeling.
2. Offer challenge
Employees want to be challenged. In fact, engaged employees love it! Make sure employees in your company have enough, challenging work to do. The last thing you want is for your colleagues to get bored. This is not only killing your team’s productivity in the long run, it also makes people leave your organisation faster. Of course, it shouldn’t be ‘too’ either. There is a fine line between ‘challenging’ and ‘impossible’ work. Also ask employees for input on this. Do they feel they are doing a nice job? Performing below their capabilities? Or are they overflowing with stress? Again, open communication is hugely important.
3. Give appreciation and recognition
Expressing appreciation is a small effort, but produces gigantic effects. For some employees, it really makes the difference between staying and going. Go figure, why would you want to stay with an organisation if they don’t even show appreciation for your work? Many organisations underestimate this or think they really do, but how often do you actually give a sincere compliment to a colleague and when do you put someone in the spotlight?
4. Encourage growth and development
To stand still is to lag behind. Especially in business. People want to feel like they are growing. This could be by learning new skills, for instance through training, but also through a new position. Have employees draw up a personal development plan every year and then help them realise this plan. It is also important to communicate openly about career opportunities, such as positions within management or the board.
5. Work-life balance
Work-life balance is becoming increasingly important for employees. Having a job is no longer as important as it used to be. Employees are increasingly demanding. Let’s face it, nobody gets happy working long hours for mediocre pay. Therefore, not only a good working atmosphere is important, but also work-life balance.
People want to have time for family, friends and hobbies in addition to their work. As an employer, you can capitalise on this trend by implementing flexible working hours. In other words, employees can decide for themselves when (and possibly where) they work. Show that you also understand that your colleagues have a life outside work and that you respect this!
Attract, bind and retain
A final tip we would like to give you is the following. Keep people involved in your organisation by engaging them. Then you can bind and retain them. What we mean by this is that your employees must connect with your goals and the corresponding actions to achieve them. How exactly do you do that? Sharing information plays an important role in this.
Do you communicate with your employees about strategic goals and the choices made for them? That would already be a great first step in engaging staff. After all, you give insight into your decision-making process and the developments that are taking place. This makes staff feel more involved in your company.
The Bundeling platform lends itself perfectly to this. Via our communication app, you can share updates, news and more with your colleagues with the greatest of ease. Run all your internal communication through one clear channel that is available to your employees 24/7. Want to know more? Request a free demo now!
