4 Ways to Increase Your Retention Rates (That Don’t Involve Salaries!)

Employee retention is a topic that never goes out of fashion. The reasons why are so obvious that we’ll skip them hereby.

What’s curious, though, is that albeit many approaches have been devised and deployed, employee retention is still a huge issue.

How come?

It would seem that business runners fail to accept one obvious fact: some employees will leave no matter what they do.

Let’s expand a bit and then move on to actionable tips on how to engage the employees who want to stay.

Some Employees Will Leave One Way or Another

Not everyone is looking for the same thing in a role; that much should be obvious. Some people simply enjoy job-hopping, while others stay with a business until they reach a pre-defined target (e.g., earn enough money to buy a house, go to college, save up, retire, start their own business, etc.).

These motivators won’t change no matter what businesses may offer, so the best way to address retention rates is to accept that some people can’t be won over.

Once you’ve come to terms with this fact, focus on finding ways to motivate employees who don’t mind staying provided there aren’t better job offers.

This is the chief point: make your workplace the best it can be!

Naturally, “the best” has many definitions. Different people look for different benefits, so the easiest way to define your strategy is to ask employees what they’re looking for. This can be done in two ways: ask during the interview (for new employees) and rely on anonymous feedback (for all employees).

Once you have your answers, focus on creating a strategy that targets expected outcomes.

Only then move on to the following tips.

Mix Integrators With Visionaries

Focused integrator services can do wonders for a business. Unfortunately, this is not common knowledge or common practice, so let’s define integrators first.

The term “integrator” was coined by Gino Wickman in his best-selling business books Traction and Rocketfuel. You typically learn about integrators when implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) as a management practice for your company.

“An Integrator is a person who is the tie-breaker for the leadership team, is the glue for the organization, holds everything together, beats the drum (provides cadence), is accountable for the P&L results, executes the business plan, holds the Leadership Team accountable, and is the steady force in the organization.” (EOS Worldwide).

More specifically, integrators are graced with a number of soft skills and personal traits on top of having expertise in complex integration processes.

A loose checklist includes the following (in no particular order):

·        Mild manners

·        New perspectives

·        Innovative ideas

·        A balanced orientation

·        Knowledge and competence needed for efficient decision-making

·        Sense of unity and alignment with the company’s vision (crucial!)

·        Ability to pinpoint and resolve disputes before they escalate

·        Skill sets compatible with the industry

·        Capability to uphold the company’s core values

·        Same or similar vision to the business

·        Solutions to fill the gaps in business procedures

·        Errors and mistakes in business procedures

·        The capability to bring a positive challenge

The last item, coupled with innovative ideas may be used as an ultimate guideline.

Offer Upskilling 

Personal development is universally cherished with the small percentage of employees only looking to go by safely disregarded.

The more or less established practice is to offer custom eLearning, but there’s another innovative method for exceptional results: corporate universities.

Use instructional design for custom eLearning to bring together a top-level educational institution within your corporation. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a campus or the like; it may also be an online entity.

Joining forces with educational institutions is one way to go about things. You may secure tailored courses for your workforce or simply offer advancement options in different niches.

Make Safety the Top Priority

If you’re in construction business, you should pay particular attention to safety tools for the workplace.

There are no excuses for disregarding this important component whatsoever!

After all, it would be too much to expect that frontline teams would be happy with a high salary and a limb or two missing.

It might be an extreme description, but to the point nevertheless.

Workplace safety tools automate related information and enable safety training, incident reporting, real-time incident tracking, a centralized library of safety processes and procedures, and safety compliance with federal regulations.

Focus on training to begin with.

Keep Everyone on the Same Page 

Providing new tech has been mentioned so many times it’s become a platitude in its own right. In fact, it’s safe to say that we’re right in the midst of an exciting digital transformation.

Nonetheless, this step cannot be avoided.

Some standards include team management tools, project management apps, and online communication tools. Don’t forget business scheduling apps!

The current trends recommend:

·        IoT for asset management

·        Cloud-based software for remote work

·        Artificial intelligence for business automation

·        Inventory management software for supply chains

This is but a starting point; customize the apps according to your needs.

These steps should help any business increase retention rates when done right. Advanced approaches and tips are also applicable and they should be tailor-made, so we’ll omit them here.

Regardless, keep in mind that the ultimate recipe is to make the workspace a happy place for everyone!