Five top tips for retaining your best talent

Are you among the 50% of organizations that experience high employee turnover? Failure to retain key employees can be costly to your bottom line structure and also has the potential to create insecurity amongst other staff in your company.

With a reported one in four new hires leaving within six months, we understand how difficult it is to retain your best employees. That’s why we’re sharing our top five tips to ensure your workforce is as engaged and invested in your organization as you are.

1. Allow employees to use their talent and skills

Giving your employees the chance to showcase their talents and skills will help to motivate your team. Whether it’s a passion for a specific aspect of their role, or a general interest in an area outside of their job description, ensure that managers are recognizing this within the personal development plans. It’s vital that you show your employees that you are aware of their interests: this will show that you care about their development, making them feel appreciated while they work.

2. Make sure your employees know what you expect from them

Managing expectations can be a challenging task within your organization; being proactive and ensuring that deadlines are met to the correct standard is essential for a well-run company. If you are open and honest about the workload as well as the upcoming deadlines, your employees will learn to prioritize their work and keep up to date with what needs to be done. Whether it’s scheduling in a 15-minute catch up with your team to talk through workload prioritization or looking through a new-and-improved piece of software that makes communication easier in the workplace. Ensure that you are finding the time to connect and check-in with the people you work closest to avoid disputes and low-quality work.

3. Continual feedback for performance improvement

Performance Management has changed over the last few years and employees don’t want a once-a-year conversation about their performance; they are looking for continuous feedback and assessment. To do this, you need a performance management process that instils continual, 360-degree reviews of your workforce. Modern performance management systems like Applaud Performance help with this by encouraging continuous feedback, whether in the office or on the go, helping employees to stay motivated and inspired throughout the year.

4. Maintain an open-door policy

An open-door policy means, literally, that every manager’s door is open to every employee. The purpose of an open-door policy is to encourage ‘open’ communication, feedback, and discussion about any matter of importance throughout the working environment. It is found that 75% of people who leave their job would have stayed if they had a good relationship with their manager. This demonstrates that an open-door policy will help to create trust within your organization and encourage employees to communicate potential issues or risks early on – ultimately helping you retain your best people.

5. Invest in development and training

On average, 73% of employees feel that they aren’t achieving their full potential at work (ShiftLearning, PWC). Training is an important part of your employees’ work experience and career development. In order to retain your best talent, you should speak to your employees and understand what they should expect from you in terms of training, before they think about looking elsewhere for development opportunities. Remember, if you invest in them, they will invest in you.

If you are struggling with retaining your best talent and engaging your current employees, 2019 might be a good time to rethink your employee experience. Applaud delivers HR technology for the workplace and helps improve the employee experience,

if you are interested in learning more about Applaud and how we can help you modernize your HR systems please get in touch

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