It can be difficult to find great people to work for your company, and it’s hard to hold on to them. It’s not even the fault of the person hiring an employee. Many times, it just can’t be helped for a variety of reasons that we’ll touch on here..
Though it’s not all that complicated to create a satisfying work environment, it can be tough to know what you can do on your end so that the people working on your team are happy with their jobs.
As a business owner, you want to hang on to the team members you’ve got because replacing them is obviously time-consuming, costly, and stressful. Here are a few pointers you can use to make sure your people stay with you, practicing good strategy from the moment you hire them & even before then.
Sometimes People Just Don’t Work Out
No matter how well you vet them, or how qualified they are on paper, employees sometimes just don’t fit with your company. First of all, people misrepresent themselves or even flat-out lie, to get the job for which they are applying. Huge bummer.
One simple thing you can do to avoid being victim to that scenario is to do a background check and call their references. A lot of employers never bother to actually call the people that applicants provide as references. You can learn a great deal of valuable information about an individual when you contact their references.
Another factor is interviewing applicants. People practice interviewing & put a lot of stock in it for good reason because they know that first meeting can make the difference between getting the job or being rejected. Therefore, some people may interview very well, but you cannot rely on that performance in that meeting alone.
Don’t Rush the Hiring Process
As much as you can, take the most amount time as possible to find great candidates & to vet them carefully. The thing is, unfortunately, when you have to replace someone who quit or was fired, you may not have a whole lot of time to look at candidates and screen them properly.
If that happens to be the case, which is not uncommon, then don’t be afraid to bring in some help to find the right person for the job. A business partner, one of your own managers, or even a trusted family member or associate are good people to ask for help with the selection and hiring process.
With that extra assistance, you’ll have a much better chance of finding the best person to fill the opening with someone who won’t end up leaving the company after a couple of weeks because they weren’t the right fit.
Take Good Care of Your Team
To retain employees, this is the name of the game. Respecting your employees, expecting the results and performance for which you hired them, and keeping them happy by rewarding them for that hard work and diligence.
One of the fastest ways to get disgruntled employees is to never give them the time off from work that they need when things come up, which inevitably happen in anyone’s life. That’s not to say that you should grant requests for an excessive number of days off, unless it’s a sanctioned leave of absence.
The point is to give your team members a show of good faith by allowing them to take care of the things that will occur outside of work. Also, here’s another point that can be very effective for improving the relationship between you and your employees.
Though the business may not have the budget for things like health insurance, paid holidays, or PTO, it goes a long way to provide a little extra something, even if it’s just a gesture or something small.
For example, you could make it company policy that everyone gets their birthday off, either paid or unpaid. Or you can give out a small Christmas bonus, even if it’s only 100 bucks. Those kinds of things show your team members that you really care & makes them feel like more than just a number.
The final point that will help to keep employees invested in their job with your company is to offer periodic wage increases to reward excellent performance or time served. Be sure that you let them know they can expect this, too, so that it incentivizes them to do exceptional work.
Be Present & Available for Your Team
You can significantly increase morale and general job satisfaction a lot if you, the owner, are always around. There are different kinds of work environments, so “being around” translates to something different depending on what the working space looks like.
If you work in a traditional office setting, then just having an office with an open-door policy and physically being in the office every day can have a profound effect on employee morale. It’s heartening to see leaders there in the trenches with you.
If you have people working remotely instead of a regular office setting, then it’s good to stay in contact with everyone through an online messaging platform. In any case, it’s great for moral support to have the boss around and accessible to give your team the impression that you’re there to back them up.
Be Open & Honest
Being transparent with your team is pretty essential. Of course, this isn’t referring to company strategy and information that is above someone’s pay grade. The transparency we’re talking about here is basically just getting on the level with all of your employees.
For example, when you hire someone, it’s definitely not a good idea to keep anything from them or mislead them. Down the road, if you never told the new hire that you would be asking them to perform a lot of additional duties they weren’t aware of, and then you do that, it’s a fast-track to losing that employee later on.
For current employees, there’s something to be said for letting them know if there are new policies or company structure changes coming down the pipe. Not only does it help everyone prepare for those changes, but it also makes everyone feel more like a real and valuable part of the team.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.