Having good people work for your business is key to growing
it.
If you already have good employees it is a good idea to do
what is necessary to retain them.
There are three good reasons to retain good employees:
1. Cheaper: A good employee
that you've already made investment in to train them to give
them knowledge and skills to be an effective employee is far
cheaper than starting over with a neew one.
2. Less Time Consuming: When
you bring a new employee on board it takes time to get that
individual up to speed. It is less time consuming if
you already have a good employee that you can retain so that
you don't have to go thru that process again to replace
him/her.
3. Good for Morale:
Retaining good employees is good for the morale of other
employees.
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You’ve invested a great
deal of time, money and energy into finding the right
employee, now the task is to hold on to that employee so
that you can grow your business.
Pay is great, but
pay is not the only reason someone show up to work for you
day after day.
They want more out
of it.
Like you, they’re
also making an investment in your business.
In return for their
time and efforts they want a career and an opportunity for
upward mobility so that they can earn more and have a better
life.
These top 10
tips will enable you to retain good employees.
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1. Build Trust:
Employees need to know that the people they’re working for
and/or with can be trusted.
No one feels comfortable in an untrustworthy
environment.
Employees must know that is said in confidence does not
become public knowledge or used as a weapon against them at
some later time.
You have to create an environment where employees can freely
express themselves without it being held against them.
Wheter the topic is politics, religion or anything
else, employees must know that if they are asked and give
their opinions honestly, it will not be held against them.
You have to create an environment of trust by
establishing the standards of conduct and quickly
disciplining anyone who violates it.
They must know where to go to seek redress when they
feel violated.
Complaints should not be ignored.
You must ensure that complaints are addressed in a
timely and effective manner.
Personally survey your employees on a regular basis
to assess the trust factor in the organization.
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2. Have A Clearly Defined Mission:
The mission of your company must be clearly spelled out and
understood by all employees.
They must know how their efforts contribute to the
overall accomplish of the mission.
This makes them feel that they have an important
stake in the organization.
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3. Coach/Mentor/Teach:
Coach, mentor and teach your employees the skills and values
you want them to possess.
It shows that you care and you want them to succeed
in the organization.
Employees will go the extra mile for your company if
they know that you care about them.
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4. Create Upward Mobility:
People don’t just want a job, they want a career.
Give them the opportunity for a career by creating
upward mobility in the organization.
Employees prefer to stay in an organization if they
have opportunities to be promoted and earn a higher wage.
Create upward mobility in your organization by
structuring your organization vertically so that people can
move from a lower tier to a higher tier.
For example, if you have 10 employees create several
supervisory positions and move some employees into those
positions instead of having all of them being supervised by
you. You can
then supervise the supervisors.
You alo want to promote from within when a position
becomes available.
Don’t hire someone from outside the organization when
someone within the organization met the requirements or can
be trained to meet the requirements for the position.
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5. Encourage Decision Making Among Employees:
Employees must be made to feel that they are part of the
organization by playing a role in the decision making
process. Human
beings relish the opportunity to make decisions.
When you take that away from them they will feel less
relevant to your organization and they leave.
Empower your employees by letting them make
decisions.
Define the items around which they can make decisions.
Start with simple items and gradually increase the
scope and size of things over which you give them decision
making capabilities.
Remember, you can’t always be there to make every
decision. This
will ensure that you can rest easily knowing that they can
make good decisions in your absence.
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6. Encourage Initiative:
Initiative is the ability to recognize an opportunity and
take advantage of it before anyone else does.
This is something you want to encourage in your
employees. This
is the kind of thing that will empower your employees to
approach you with new ideas and solutions that will enable
you to develop new products and services and grow the
business.
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7. Manage Workloads:
Good employees get their work done in a timely and efficient
manner. That is
no reason for you to overhelm them with excessive work and
huge projects.
Don’t just give work to those who always get it done.
Everyone must carry their share of the load.
The people not carrying their share of the load
should be made to do so.
When you over burden good employees they get burn
out, lose morale and leave.
Then you’re stuck with the bad employees whom you
can’t rely on to get the job done.
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8. Provide Positive Leadership:
Your company will take on your personality.
You’re the leader and the type of leadership you
exhibit will be reflected throughout the organization.
Positive leadership is what is required.
Be positive in how you deal with individuals and
situations and insist that everyone who work for you follow
that example.
Rally your employees around a clear and common vision of
where you want to take your company by establishing
attainable goals (such as the number of cusomers you want to
reach, how many items you want to sell, etc.).
Let them know what their role is in achieving that
vision by defining the specific tasks and quotas they are
responsible for.
Manage employee stress.
Don’t over stress them.
Build a team mentality.
Make everyone feel that they’re part of the team.
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9. Reward Good Conduct:
Good conduct should be rewarded and not ignored.
You hire employees because you want them to do a good
job and help your company to advance.
When they live up to your expectations or exceed it
they should be rewarded for it.
It’s a way to showing that you pay attention to their
performance and you recognize and appreciate it when good
efforts are exhibited.
This motivates employees to try harder and do more.
This is good for growing your business.
Employees can be awarded with cash, time off,
plaques, discount coupons, free stuff, recognize as employee
of the month, etc.
There are many ways to recognize good employee
effort. Figure
out which ones your employees prefer.
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10. Maintain Accountability:
Holding employees accountable is critical to maintaining a
good work environment.
When you weed out bad employees the good ones stay
and thrive and your organization is better off for it.
Keeping bad employees around will only degrade the
work environment.
If good conduct should be rewarded then bad conduct
should be disciplined.
You should be prepared to hold everyone accountable
including your managers.
They are a vital part of the organization.
Bad managers will cause good employees to leave your
organization.
Don’t let the investment you’ve made in good employees walk
out the door.
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