We’re in a moment of great change for employees and employers. The economic uncertainty of the pandemic, mixed with the fact that work from home opportunities are allowing workers to pick from a wider selection of employment opportunities, has resulted in a wake-up call for employers. Employees are more likely now to leave a job that dissatisfies them and their paycheck alone isn’t enough to keep them. So, what do you do to hold onto your team?
Raise their pay
The simplest solution, but also one of the most difficult to implement for a lot of smaller businesses. Purchasing power has been falling for employees, with the average pay failing to keep up with inflation over the past few years. To that end, the single best thing you can do to make sure that you keep hold of your best employees is to re-evaluate their pay and improve their financial situation. Of course, that’s not going to be possible for all businesses, so you may need to look at other options, too.
Be competitive with benefits
When you’re not talking about sheer cash reward, you should also be looking at the other ways that you are able to make sure that your team is incentivised to stay and work with you. There are a host of benefits that you may be able to offer, including workplace savings, health and risk insurance, pension funds and so on, and teams like Amba can help you find the right setup for your business. If you’re not going to be raising salaries, then this might be where to start.
Show more appreciation
Simply saying thanks a little more often is not going to stop anyone from quitting their job. However, offering a real appreciation of the effort that they put in, especially when they go the extra mile, is crucial. This might be in the form of a reward system, monetary or otherwise, or it might be in the form of recognising talent and offering career and skill development opportunities to those who do put that extra effort in as shown at 15Five. Of course, a little extra praise and recognition certainly don’t hurt, either.
Keep work-life balance healthy
Employers have, intentionally or not, taken advantage of the precarity of job scarcity in the past and, as a result, the trend has gone more towards expecting workers to sacrifice their work-life balance with overtime, inflexible hours, and a lack of consideration for worker’s needs that might interrupt their current working life. A lot of businesses are looking at becoming more flexible via telecommuting options, but you should consider other ways that you can redress the imbalance that causes workers stress and often leads to them quitting in large numbers.
It might sound like a hassle and even a serious challenge to a lot of smaller employers, but most employees would agree that the workforce has not been seeing adequate compensation or fulfilment for their labour lately. As such, it might be time to address the imbalance.
