Do you ever stop for a second to consider the consequences of your staff deciding to leave your business?
You’ve no doubt put masses of time, effort, and money into finding and recruiting the very best people, so it makes good business sense to think about how you can continue to make a return on your investment by nurturing your employees, and doing all you can to hold on to them.
Sure, sometimes people decide to move on, and it’s often just an inevitable part of running your own team. There’s a balance to strike though, and it’s essential that you create and implement some robust people policies to ensure you aren’t just hoping for the best and leaving everything to chance.
It’s worth noting though that there are good ways to improve your retention rates, and there are approaches that are far less desirable. In some cases, certain popular practices could do more damage to your business than good.
Here, we’ll examine some shady ways of holding on to your staff that you should definitely seek to avoid.
Making big promises that you know you can’t keep
Perhaps you know for sure that your staff want more learning and development opportunities. You know that they’re itching to take on more responsibility, and that they have the drive and ambition to succeed.
It can be oh-so-tempting to promise them what they’re looking for, but this should be avoided at all costs unless you know that you can deliver on this promise.
You need to effectively manage expectations, and you need to run your business with integrity. Be honest, and look for other solutions. If you genuinely can’t support what they are looking for you need to tell them so! In the end, your staff will thank you for it, and value the approach you take to running your business.
Offering retention bonuses
Retention bonuses have been the subject of many discussions in the world of human resources and people management, and there are people on either side of the fence. What you really need to know here though is that there is very little evidence that suggests that giving your employees a bonus for staying with your company is actually all that effective.
Some argue that paying people for their loyalty rather than earning it is never a long-term solution. The buzz created by the cash incentive will wear off pretty quickly. As well, if you’re dealing with top performers, they may well receive a sign-on bonus when they join a new business. In short, the cash won’t make that much difference to them. In many cases, people leave not because they simply weren’t getting paid enough, but for a much deeper range of factors.
And finally, there are so many better options to pursue if you have a budget to help you to improve your retention rates. Think about how you could improve working practices for all, and make changes that really impact on motivation and engagement. You might have to get a bit more creative and think outside the box, but it can be very much worth it.
Taking the one-size-fits-all approach
Perhaps you’ve read a best-practice guide to retention, and you’ve gone right ahead and implemented some overarching changes to your policies and procedures. Though you do need to take a proactive approach to every facet of your people management, a textbook overhaul isn’t likely to really fulfill your needs.
Why? Because every business is different. What makes your business unique is its culture, and this is created as a result of a wide variety of factors. You often need to dive deeper into the real issues that are at play, and craft a strategy that delivers real results.
Similarly, it may be necessary to have differing approaches throughout the same business. What keeps top performers in their roles isn’t always what motivates staff on the operational front line, and you need to tailor your practices to take this into account.
Would you like to have a no-obligation discussion with a seasoned HR Expert about what you can do to improve retention? Do you want the chance to work with someone who can get to know your business, and make recommendations that will have a real impact? If so, then I’d be delighted to help. Give me a call today.
