Best Employee Retention Strategies to Increase Loyalty

Attracting the right people into your organization is just one part of the equation if you want to build a solid workforce. Making them stay is a whole different ballgame. To breed and maintain loyalty among personnel, companies must have well-thought-out employee retention strategies in place.

Without such strategies, the initial attraction may wane quickly. Employee dissatisfaction could set in, and attrition could spread like an epidemic.

Best Employee Retention Strategies to Reduce Labor Loss and Increase Loyalty

Problems of High Employee Turnover

Companies with high employee turnover rates should see it as a red flag that something is off with their employee management tactics. Indeed, there are some people who have the proclivity to resign at the slightest discomfort. However, if talents leave your company at an alarming rate, it is time to revisit your employee relations and retention programs.

Losing key members of your team is costly and inconvenient any way you look at it. When your best people leave, it can disrupt the company’s flow. Worse, when they move to your competitor, they beef up their side while creating a vacuum in yours and weakening your team. And when this becomes commonplace, it hurts the company in more ways than just the cost of filling up vacant positions and training new hires.

Generally, employees who are happy and content with their work don’t just quit without a compelling reason. According to the Harvard Business Review, common reasons usually include not liking the boss, lack of growth prospects, and getting a better offer from another company.

While you cannot control people’s decisions, you can give your employees good reasons to stay.

While you cannot control people’s decisions, you can give your employees good reasons to stay. Establishing good employee retention strategies leads to strong relationships. This eventually allows you to keep your most valuable assets: your employees.

In this article, we will give you a closer look at the best employee retention strategies to win your talents’ loyalty.

Employee Retention Strategies Include Promoting Employee Wellness

When your employees work hard at the expense of their health, their bodies will force them to quit. Promoting employee wellness goes beyond providing them with health insurance and free medicine. It entails encouraging a wellness lifestyle even at work.

According to a study, 45% of Americans are more willing to stay in their jobs when their companies sponsor wellness support programs. Simple ways to promote health and wellness in the workplace include:

providing wellness information materials
making healthy meals available in the cafeteria
consider having an on-site fitness center
facilitate sports and fitness clubs and activities
smoking cessation programs
weight management programs
team walks, etc.

Recognize Employee’s Contributions

This isn’t about stroking egos but showing appreciation for your employees’ contributions to the company’s success. Employees who show consistent dedication to their work and deliver results deserve to be recognized and put in the spotlight to serve as good examples. Recognizing your people’s efforts sends a strong message that their hard work does not go unnoticed.

employee retention strategies include recognizing employees contributions

However, this does not mean lowering your standards and rewarding work that simply meets expectations. Managers should devise strategies to measure who among their people is putting in the extra effort to meet goals even when the boss is not looking.

Recognition can come in the form of:

cash incentives
salary increases
tokens or certificates of appreciation
gift packs
freebies like company swag
company shares.

It is best to have a variety, as employee needs vary at different points in their lives. For instance, you can give a honeymoon trip to a newlywed employee or an art kit to support your deserving employee’s creative side.

Promote Employee Growth – Rare But Effective of Employee Retention Strategies

People do not apply in a company just to get stuck in the same position for years. They naturally want to evolve and grow and get that nice corner office and a prestigious position in due time.

Companies attract top-notch job seekers by providing opportunities for career advancement. When they slack off in delivering their promise, disgruntled employees will start lurking on LinkedIn and talking to headhunters to sniff out opportunity trails where they can find them.

Some may stay a while longer to see if the situation improves. However, if a career upgrade is not in sight, they might not hesitate to head out the door when a better offer comes along. You can’t really blame them for that. Even idealist employees who want to stick around for good would entertain other job options if they feel like they’re in a dead-end job.

It is a good policy to come up with good employee retention strategies and provide growth for your employees by helping them hone their knowledge and skills. You can expand their exposure and role in the workplace to help unleash their potential.

By giving employees a space to grow and thrive, you help them become the best version of themselves. When they get that kind of support, they recognize that they are in the right place.

Additionally, you can provide them with mentors and training opportunities. By giving them venues to showcase their skills, you can motivate them to move forward and evolve.

By giving employees a space to grow and thrive, you help them become the best version of themselves. When they get that kind of support, they recognize that they are in the right place.

Encourage Communication In the Workplace

Bright ideas do not make a significant impact when they are not communicated and executed. Companies should encourage their employees to share their insights, suggestions, and feedback, especially about goals, policies, and practices.

Everyone has the potential to contribute game-changing ideas that could turn challenges around and accelerate company growth. Open communication also allows for a healthy and unhampered flow of information and acumen in the workplace. It stirs creativity and inspires innovative ideas. Having such a culture also creates a dynamic, inclusive, diverse, and progressive atmosphere instead of an echo chamber.

Open communication also allows for a healthy and unhampered flow of information and acumen in the workplace.

It’s also a good way to gauge how your employees feel about their work, satisfaction level, issues and concerns, goals and aspirations, and what makes them tick. This allows the management to get to know their employees better and address their needs in a more personalized way.

encouraging communication in the workplace

Having a voice in the company empowers employees and enhances their confidence to speak their minds and initiate projects. It keeps them engaged in the company, and this deepens their roots as they become more invested in the organization’s goals and vision. They become active participants, not mere spectators on the sidelines.

Provide Career Advancement Opportunities

Employees who are nurtured by their company develop a strong affinity for their employers. By investing in their growth and coming up with good employee retention strategies, you can reap the benefits of their acquired expertise and deepened loyalty. When you provide them with realistic, attainable career goals, they see their way forward more clearly instead of just wishing for a promotion that may or may not meet their time frame and expectations.

Offering your employees advancement programs such as free training, scholarships for further studies, apprenticeships, and opportunities for expanding their roles can give them a real sense of growth within the company.

You can encourage your staff to pursue advanced courses relevant to their career path. To make continuing education more feasible, you can provide support through subsidies and flexible work hours to accommodate their schedule.

Furthermore, you may also design a strategic succession plan where high-potential employees can be assigned roles and be included in traineeship programs for future leaders. With a long-term objective like this, you can keep your employees entrenched in their journey with the company.

Provide Competitive Compensation

Financial security is one of the reasons employees want to keep their job. Many of them work because the alternative is less appealing—going broke. Competitive compensation is a real and robust motivation because there are always bills to pay, mortgage dues to meet, families to feed, emergency funds to keep, and retirement funds to secure.

When employees fail to find a satisfying level of monetary compensation in the company, they begin to worry about their future. Simply surviving from paycheck to paycheck with no breathing room for savings or investments can cause dissatisfaction among employees.

provide competitive employee compensation for increased retention

No matter how good and stable a job is, if the employee feels underpaid and financially insecure, they might feel the need to look for a better-paying job.

No matter how good and stable a job is, if the employee feels underpaid and financially insecure, they might feel the need to look for a better-paying job.

That sleek-looking award or gift check for being employee of the month would not suffice to financially provide for their long-term needs and aspirations. It is not simply about money per se, either. It is also about being valued enough to be awarded a hefty salary that makes people decide whether to stay in a company or look for a more rewarding career elsewhere.

Prioritize Work-Life Balance – A Key to Employee Retention Strategies

Work-life balance has become a buzzword in the workplace and is associated with self-care and other wellness concepts. It essentially means creating a sustainable way to work while maintaining a healthy personal and social life.

It is common for employees to be subjected to pressure and stress in the workplace. However, having a constantly unhealthy work atmosphere is counterproductive. Work quality and employee satisfaction dip, and the attrition rate rises.

Even the most competitive employees could reach a tipping point and quit when there is an extreme lack of balance between their work and wellbeing. Companies can promote work-life balance through facilitating employee retention strategies like:

relaxation activities
social activities
wellness programs
lifestyle coaching

These can help soften the rough edges of the daily grind and enable employees to work in a healthy, productive, and more meaningful way.

Provide a Safe Working Environment

Employees who do not feel safe in the workplace will be bent on finding a safer place for employment. People find it hard to flourish and confidently go about their tasks when they are constantly worried about their safety.

It is vital to have safety protocols and stay in compliance with Occupation Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards to manage employee health and safety in the workplace at all times.

Minimizing injury risks, health risks, and potential safety threats in business premises is mainly the responsibility of the company. Failing to do this could cause you to lose your people because of worry, sickness, or disability.

Prioritizing employee safety alleviates their concerns, provides them with a sense of security, and helps keep them in your team.

Incentivize Loyalty

The job market is a competitive space, and it takes work to attract the best jobseekers out there and make them stay. If your employees stay with you even though your company has flaws and other companies offer better jobs, they deserve to be rewarded.

Rewards do more than just provide perks. They send a strong message of appreciation to employees and foster a culture of commitment and loyalty in the workplace.

One of the best employee retention strategies is incentivizing employee loyalty by providing a salary increment, benefits tier upgrade, and bonuses. When employees have something to look forward to when they reach certain employment milestones, they are more likely to stay, anticipating what’s due them and taking pride in their long tenure.

Encourage Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is the degree of your employees’ enthusiasm and involvement in the company. Your employee retention strategies will not be as effective if your employees are not actively participating.

The key is to make your programs and activities worth their while. They must add value to their lives and provide exclusive benefits not easily available outside the company.

A positive workplace culture is one where people feel connected and part of the team. Encouraging employee engagement is the responsibility of managers. They can provide support to their workforce and help them see how their roles connect with the rest of the company through coaching and conversations. When it comes to work, it’s easier to manage a team that does not feel remote, no matter the setup.

Encouraging employee engagement is the responsibility of managers.

So, how do you engage your employees more? You can start by encouraging regular feedback and communication. Managers can also provide assistance and mentoring, especially in areas where an employee is struggling.

Ongoing conversations make employees feel less detached and isolated and encourage them to participate more. Remember: more engagement, less exit.

Provide Flexible Work Arrangements – A Favorite of All Employee Retention Strategies

Employees don’t all operate the same way. Some work best in the morning, while others find their energy peaking at a later time. Meanwhile, employees with kids often have their hands full in the morning while those who pursue further studies may need to finish work early in time for their night classes.

When employees don’t have the freedom to work the best way they can, they may feel less motivated to work and stay in the company. A stiff work setup can cause them to perform less optimally because they are distracted or feel less energetic.

Win-win solutions include:

flexible work hours
part-time setups
telecommuting
compressed workweeks
gradual retirement schemes

Employee retention strategies like this must suit and meet employee needs by providing some room for variability in less rigid structures.

Foster Respect in the Workplace

Relationships, whether personal or professional, thrive on mutual respect. There should be civility in the workplace, even if conflicts and disagreements are inevitable. Contempt and rudeness must not be tolerated and professionalism must be practiced.

Regardless of rank, gender, economic status, age, or race, all employees must be treated with respect and decorum. Otherwise, disrespect can breed animosity, and a stressful work environment can turn off employees.

Managers can foster respect by example, instill company values among employees, and emphasize it in the company manual. The company can provide counseling to employees with anger management problems and to those traumatized by a negative experience in the workplace.

Final Thoughts on Employee Retention Strategies

Relationships with your employees are nurtured through genuine care. Employee retention strategies must stem and grow from this premise. Anything less could come off as superficial and self-serving, and may not be sustainable and successful down the road.

When employees see and feel that they are cared for by the company, it generates a sense of commitment and loyalty in their minds and hearts. Whether this seed grows depends on how the company continually nurtures it.

Employee retention strategies that are developed and implemented properly build a strong team, reinforce growth, and foster an enduring company journey where no one wants to stray and everyone feels happy to stay.

All of these strategies can be implemented with the best wellness program suited for your company. Our team is happy to give you a free demo of what that would look like. We invite you to discover what your options are and help you along the way.

Best Employee Retention Strategies to Reduce Labor Loss and Increase Loyalty