Employee Retention Checklist
Besides competitive compensation and benefits, here are five best practices employers can embrace to keep their staff happy and keep them from looking for another job. The current labor shortage has companies competing for workers, and business owners must be aware of what their own employees want in an employer, and what motivates them to stay at their jobs.
Five Factors for Happy Employees
For the past 10 years, the Society for Human Resource Management has published their annual Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey, in which workers have consistently cited these five factors for evaluating their employer:
- Clarity: Employees want clearly defined job descriptions, and to understand why their role is essential to the company. Employees want clear direction, feedback, performance expectations, and ongoing communication about what makes them successful at their job.
- Training & Tools: To be successful, employees want the tools and resources necessary to complete tasks well, including additional training, schooling, or even mentoring. When given these, employees see that the company is investing in their continued employment and feel valued as workers.
- Trust: Establish trust in staff by giving employees the freedom to make decisions, while offering the guidance needed to make those decisions when necessary. The quality of an employee’s performance and productivity increases when management trusts their workers to discover better ways to complete tasks.
- Respect: Employees want employers to promote humane, worker-positive policies that treat employees with dignity and care, and to acknowledge the different backgrounds and perspectives the staff may have.
- Appreciation: Workers want to know that employers value their work. Besides fair compensation for work well done, employees are also motivated by recognition. A simple, timely and public “thank you” can be a powerful motivator for employee performance and profoundly impact employee morale.
How can I use this checklist?
You can use this checklist by converting it into a simple employee survey or by consulting with a Cardinal Services HR specialist to help you craft policies or practices that promote employee retention.