Three ways to ensure your staff won’t quit

Photo courtesy of morguefile user Kevin_P

If your business has a high staff turnover, it might be time to rethink how you treat your team. Replacing staff is expensive, time-consuming and a tedious process – yet it can often be avoided with simple and effective changes.

I’m no H.R. expert but, based on my experience working at numerous PR/social media marketing agencies during my career so far, these are some of the factors that kept me working at certain companies for longer:

1. Give them feedback (and praise when it’s due)
   Make sure you have regular appraisals with your team members to check how they’re progressing. These meetings will give you and your employee the appropriate environment to air, and hopefully solve, any issues. If your employee is doing an awesome job, tell them. The power of praise should never be underestimated – positive feedback has motivated me throughout my life. Humans naturally look for approval from others so make sure your staff know it when they’ve done a good job. Simply grabbing a quick coffee with members of your team to have an informal catch-up is equally as effective and a great way to build relationships, too.

 

2. Give them flexibility
   Countless surveys show that job flexibility is one of the most important factors to the workforce these days. If your business still sticks to a rigid 9am ‘til 5pm model and asks staff to come to the office every day, it might be time to rethink this set up. I work for a company that allows its staff to work from home twice a week and it’s a perfect mix of alone and office time. I’m aware this is a privilege so I genuinely want to work hard every day.

 

3. Pay them what they deserve
   Make sure your super star team members are earning what they’re worth. Words of praise are powerful (sometimes more meaningful than a big pay check) but financial rewards play a role in retaining staff, too. Look at what your competitors are paying staff for specific roles and ensure your salaries are at a similar level or consider having a commission or bonus scheme in place as an incentive.