A big challenge for the more than 5.2 million businesses in the UK is keeping hold of their combined 25+million staff. It is much cheaper, especially for small businesses, to keep hold of their staff, than it is to search, recruit and train new employees, every time someone leaves.
This is something that many businesses understand, but seldom act upon it, and re-think the way they work to keep employees staying at their company for longer. Whilst allocating more money in your budget to increase pay might be an effective way of keeping your staff happy short-term, it certainly isn’t a sustainable substitute for creating a bright company culture and offering perks beyond pay that encourage staff retention.
In no particular order, here are some ideas and suggestions:
1. Review your holiday days
Something which is very easy to do, but can have a strong impact on your staff morale, is holiday allowance. Holidays are a vital part of a healthy work-life balance, and can give your employees a chance to de-stress, attend any important days they have planned, spend time with their family or take a much-needed vacation.
2. Review your pay schedule
In much the same way that cash flow can be a problem for your business, it can also be a problem for your employees – with housing bills, car insurance, and other essentials all needing to be paid, it is a good idea to talk to your employees and get to know how you can help them. Depending on your business type, it might be best to switch from monthly to weekly payments, or change to periodic payment to ensure consistency.
3. Improve workplace ergonomics
Having an ergonomic workplace is not only good for looking after employee health, long term, but also shows that some thought and care has gone into working conditions, and that your business hasn’t simply gone down the cheapest route, with regards to workstations.
4. Flexible working hours
Whether it’s picking the kids up from school, a hospital appointment or wanting to devote more of your morning and free up some time in the afternoon – flexible working hours can work wonders for allowing more autonomy and a healthier work-life balance, thus improving employee morale and retention.
See also: Can Working Less Hours be Good for Your Business?
5. Promote a healthier work-life balance
In many companies, it can be an unwritten rule to devote an amount of your out-of-work hours to work-related tasks, like tying up loose ends for the day, or replying to emails. If appropriate for your business, an idea could be to dispel this unwritten rule, and encourage employees to forget about work out of work hours, and give work their full attention in work hours.
See also: 10 Steps to a Healthier Office
6. Review your severance pay
Sometimes employee retention isn’t all about throwing as many goodies as you can at a person and hoping they’ll stay, but about enfusing a company culture and ethos that cannot be matched anywhere else, thus making your business a place people want to work for. Reviewing your severance pay is one example of this – offering a guaranteed amount of severance pay shows that your business is serious about employee welfare, and not just keeping them on board.
7. Education and advice
In addition to physical perk, your business should be committed to providing training and advice to your employees, both for work related topics, in a bid to encourage personal development, and, depending on the demographics of your workforce, training in areas such as loans, credit cards, mortgages and more. Creating a family culture, filled with help and guidance is a great way to improve employee retention.
8. Pension
“All employers will have to provide workers with a workplace pension scheme by law over the next few years. This is called ‘automatic enrolment’.” Find out more here
Taking positive steps to offer a company pension makes a great impression, as opposed to waiting until you’re legally forced to offer one.
9. Personalised workspaces
When you’re spending 8-10 hours a day sat in the same seat, it’s often nice for that seat/desk to be personalised to you. This can be as simple as allowing people to move around their monitors, phone, storage, and extending to allowing little personal items like picture frames or a few posts on walls or dividers. Of course, this isn’t appropriate in every company, but if you can offer it, it will go a long way towards morale and autonomy.
See also: 5 Effective Ways to Make Your Office More Inspiring
10. Appreciate your employees
All employees want and need to be rewarded, congratulated and appreciated for their work. Failing to do so will result in employees feeling like they are not valued at your company, even if they are. This can lead to them looking elsewhere, or doing only the required amount of work, because they know going the extra mile won’t be rewarded.
See also: 10 Tips for Reducing Employee Stress Levels
11. Local promotions and offers
Team up with local businesses to offer exclusive perks and benefits for your employees. Offering discounts on local gym memberships, coffee from a local store or other in or out-of-work benefits is a sure fire way to make your company seem much more desirable, in far more creative ways than simply adding to an employee paycheck.
12. Offer extended maternity and paternity packages
Supporting your employees both when they’re in work, and when they need time off for personal family matters is important. If employees know they are valued, to the point of being offered extra support during maternity and paternity leave is a sure fire way to really push a dedicated and loyal work culture in your business.
13. Parties and celebrations (Christmas, end of new year)
Make sure you celebrate when celebrating is in order. If you’ve had a good year, month or quarter, let your staff know. Share the success of your business with the people who helped it get there!
