Posted

Many small and large business owners alike find themselves wondering why they’re struggling to keep talented employees on board. In some companies, it feels as though employees stay up to a certain point or a specific number of years and then there’s a sudden revolving door beyond which few employees hang around.

The first thought of many business owners is that it’s about salary or wages, but that’s rarely the reason employees are fleeing. These are some of the more commonly cited reasons for employees leaving businesses.

Lack of Engagement

Engagement is critical to the success of your business. You want employees to be excited about the work they do for you. This means you need to make sure your employees are doing the jobs they were hired to do rather than being relegated to mediocrity somewhere in the middle. Keep them challenged and allow them to pursue projects on the side like Google does by offering 20 percent of their work time to side projects. It leads to greater productivity and new innovations for the company.

Limited Opportunities for Advancement

No one wants to be stuck in the middle for the remainder of their career. If you want to build a loyal workforce then you need to offer advancement opportunities rather than bringing managers and supervisors in from the outside. It’s also a matter of demoralization for your employees to watch people from the outside come in consistently in supervisory roles.

Family/Personal Needs

Sometimes, there’s little you can do, as a business owner, to prevent an employee’s need to leave. Some of the most common personal needs for leaving a job include the following:

  • Relocation of spouse
  • Health reasons (personal health or that of a family member)
  • Caring for aging parents
  • Be at home with children

The reasons are all quite valid. However, savvy business owners and HR managers understand that solid employees are worth hanging on to and are willing to make concessions in order to keep them. Consider offering flexible scheduling or the ability to work remotely if it’s possible for your business. That way, you’re able to keep the benefit of a trained employee who works hard and delivers results and they get the flexibility they need in order to be home with family members, live in other cities, or recover from their illnesses.

No Feedback or Recognition from Management

Your employees really want to feel as though they’re doing a good job for you. They work hard and need to be recognized for the value they bring to the table. The only way they get that positive reinforcement in most businesses is if they’re recognized for their accomplishments and contributions by management. If they don’t get this recognition, they often feel unappreciated and ignored and this leaves them feeling completely disenfranchised, which is the last thing you want for your employees.

You don’t have to throw piles of money at employees to get them to stay. Most of the time, it only takes small changes to make a big difference for your employees and for your employee retention rate.

 Related posts

Reward Employees Without Offering a Raise

How Can We Improve?