Retaining staff members is critical to success for a small business. It is impossible to be consistent and to take the company forward when you constantly have to recruit and train staff (it is also expensive). However, it can be hard for a small business to retain the top performers because the larger companies are likely to offer a bigger salary and may have prestige. It will be difficult, but there are ways that you retain your best employees, which will help your business to stay competitive while also allowing you to build the right atmosphere at work. Here are a few ideas.
Flexible & Remote Working
The days of 9-5 in the office are disappearing and being replaced by flexible and remote working. Offering these can keep staff happy and allow them a better work-life balance while also showing that you are an employer that cares, plus in many cases, you will find that it can increase productivity too.
Relaxed Atmosphere
Having a relaxed atmosphere in the office where people can communicate freely will help to boost morale, allow staff to build relationships with co-workers, and bring fun into the office. Of course, you must be careful when creating a relaxed atmosphere because you do not want productivity to dip, so you need to make sure that work always comes first.
Social Benefits
Following this, you should also encourage socialising outside of the workplace. People spend an enormous amount of their time with colleagues, so if they can develop friendships, it makes it much more likely that they will stay while also helping to create the relaxed atmosphere described above. You cannot force people to spend time together outside the office or be friends, but arranging social events will certainly help.
Perks
While you may not be able to match the salary that they command elsewhere (but it should at least be competitive), you can encourage employees to stay with various perks and incentives. These might include:
- Bonuses
- Birthdays off
- Staff discounts
- Team holidays
- Gym memberships
Support Through Change
Periods of any type of change in the workplace can be unsettling and difficult for staff. Places like inpulse.com allow you to survey staff before, during, and after change so that you can carefully monitor morale and provide support to staff members that need it. This should help you to keep each individual team member happy while showing that you care and are also successful in implementing the change.
Promote From Within
Most employees will be looking to advance their career and will start to look elsewhere when the time is right if this is not possible within your company. This is why you should always look to promote from within so that you can keep hold of top performers and show to other employees that they are able to progress without moving organization.
It can be a struggle to keep hold of staff as a small business, but it is important to realise that it is not always all about money, and these strategies should help you to keep hold of your best workers.