Today’s employee doesn’t stay long in one job and half of all employees leave for greener pastures in their first year. More than a quarter of workers change employment annually and the average employee will hold up to 12 jobs during their working years. This wastes nine billion pounds a year in turnover. How can you increase the likelihood of staff staying with your company and continuing to give their best? Here’s how.
Communication
Hold regular, interactive face-to-face meetings. Be transparent. Encourage staff to express their views and concerns. If you cannot respond immediately, commit to getting the answers and make sure you give feedback.
Be clear on what is required. Employees need to know the big picture such as your vision and how you plan to reach your goals. Also critical, you need to share the business’s value system, culture, and hierarchy. A flatter structure is more conducive to a performance focus.
A newsletter fosters a sense of community. It should showcase employee contributions to the success of the company. Performance against targets must also be included so that employees know what they are being asked to achieve.
Encourage Initiative
Staff will show initiative if they know what is required and how they are performing. Feedback should be given at least quarterly, and more frequently if an employee is struggling. Emphasise development and ensure staff are trained to carry out their duties.
Allow staff to exercise their initiative and find better ways of doing things. This keeps them engaged. It is also good for the company.
Use a shared folder for group projects. Get staff to update their work on a spreadsheet as they complete it. This fosters collaboration and a sense of responsibility. Employees will want to show colleagues their innovative ideas.
Demonstrate Appreciation
Staff want to be valued. Those that go the extra mile consistently are entitled to performance bonuses. Their contributions add to the overall success (and bottom line) of the company.
Annual increases should be linked to meeting targets. This gives employees a clear goal to aim for. It also helps you weed out employees who do the bare minimum and are not on board with the strategic objectives of the business.
Show appreciation for initiative with gift cards. Praise employees for doing the right things right. Recognition includes saying thank you.
Enable Responsibility
Don’t micromanage your staff. Give employees a deadline and tell them what outcome you expect. Then leave them to determine how to complete the task. This boosts employee pride in their efforts and successes.
At the same time, be available to answer questions and provide guidance. But let them come to you. Simply ask for a daily or weekly email on their progress so that you are not in the dark and can respond to your bosses. This encourages the employee to take responsibility, think outside the box, use initiative, and develop their skills.
Give Them the Tools to Do the Job
Equip employees with the tools they need to perform at a high level. This includes Lenovo Small Business Desktops and access to printers, the Cloud, and resources such as training material. Turnover is lower when staff are not waiting in line to use equipment.
An employee who hasn’t been taught a new task cannot be expected to perform it adequately. Give them MS package training to extend their toolbox. For example, an employee trained in MS Excel can include graphs to illustrate results.
Demonstrate that you value your employees, and they will give their best performance.
