Easy Ways to Improve Employee Retention

When a company has a high turnover rate, there’s a cost that goes beyond the need for a rehire. In addition to the time and money spent interviewing and training the new employee, the underlying factors behind why they left could signal a much bigger problem. Sometimes it can lead to low morale among remaining staff members, which can quickly become contagious. In today’s world, reviews are now available by current and former employees, and they can very easily scare off future applicants. For these reasons, it is always in a company’s best interest to maximize employee retention.

Craftsmen often use the term measure twice, cut once to describe the importance of planning. Contrary to popular belief, this message can be conveyed across many other disciplines as well. As a leader, before committing to a new team member it is your responsibility to perform due diligence to the best of your ability, not just to weed out any potential bad candidates but also to lock down the best possible fit. This includes finding the person who not only has the most technical skills but who can work productively in a team environment.

Hard and soft skills are measurably different but they are both important. Hard skills are teachable, quantifiable skills such as programming computers, learning a foreign language, or earning a degree or certificate in a field of study. Soft skills, on the other hand, relate to how well people interact with each other. Some examples include the ability to communicate effectively with others and being able to manage projects and schedules on-time. Both of these areas need to be investigated throughout the interview process. Typical interviews are done in stages, with callbacks as needed. This is so that different skills can be evaluated more intensely.

One you feel like you’re surrounded yourself with a good team, there are things you can do to keep them. A smart leader should always assume that all employees are being courted at any given moment by headhunters or consulting firms, so it’s important to stay engaged and current. Make sure you are paying them at the industry standard rates, as well as compensating them, when possible, after they achieve anniversary milestones. When a new hire is brought in, make sure they are given adequate training and have a two-way channel of communication at all times.

Originally published at http://alanrasof.net on September 9, 2020.