As the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workforce and business landscape continue to unfold, organizational leaders are regularly finding unexpected twists and turns that are difficult to account for.
What was once called the Great Resignation has evolved into the Great Reshuffle, with the millions of employees who quit their jobs over the past few months now seeking work in other industries.
With this evolution of the modern workforce come many new questions that organizational leaders must answer in order to steady the ship and keep their company moving toward its goals. However, one thing remains true — focusing on retaining your current employees is more important now than ever before.
The labor shortage is ongoing and there is no real way to determine when or if it will end. This makes every employee in your workforce even more important than they already were.
If you want to keep your organization on track, you’re going to need to maintain an employee-first mindset that supports increased employee retention. The following are some tips for doing just that.
Avoid Micromanaging Your Employees
Because it’s so important to retain your employees right now, you may have the urge to meddle and micromanage in order to ensure everything is going well with them. That urge is a counterproductive one to pursue.
Micromanaging causes employees unnecessary stress, and unnecessary stress was a primary motivator in the Great Resignation and subsequent Great Reshuffle.
Consider Shifting to Ongoing Reviews
Performance reviews are a powerful tool for connecting with your employees and giving them the recognition and constructive criticism they need to feel appreciated and remain productive. However, if you’re offering your insight only once per year, you may just be wasting a valuable opportunity to connect with your staff.
If you give ongoing reviews throughout the year, your workforce will have a much clearer idea of where they stand with you, what they need to improve on, and what they’re doing well. Not only that, but you’ll be able to more accurately assess their level of engagement, which is key to employee retention.
Build Strong Communication Channels
As the business landscape continues to shift rapidly, you need to make adjustments on the fly. If you’ve got remote and hybrid workers, you need to ensure that they’re provided a means of ongoing, consistent communication not only with you but with the rest of your workforce.
Ensuring this communication can mean creating a Slack channel or similar service, scheduling virtual coffee hours and happy hours, and more.
It’s incredibly easy for remote or hybrid employees to start down the path toward resignation and reshuffling if there isn’t enough opportunity for connection with their coworkers and with you. Even your in-office employees can begin to feel the same way if you don’t open up some communication channels.
Prioritize human connection and you’re much more likely to retain your employees.
Conduct Employee Surveys
While you can find plenty of broad advice on employee retention that is generally applicable to most workforces, if you really want to know how to keep your staff around, ask them. Conduct employee surveys on a semi-regular basis so you can pick their brains to better understand what makes them tick, what ticks them off, and what is most important to them.
Once you’ve got a general assessment of employee satisfaction, you’ll be far better equipped to formulate a strategy for retaining employees and then execute it. Conversely, if you take action without asking your employees for their thoughts, they may feel even more alienated than they did before.
Consider Expanding Employee Benefits
Work-life balance and recognition are two of the most important things in the modern workforce, and one of the best ways to offer both of them is by expanding your employee benefits.
Perhaps you can offer gym memberships or other wellness benefits, or maybe you can incorporate summer Fridays or another means of showing your appreciation by allowing your employees more time to themselves.
Looking for Ways to Retain Employees?
Benefits Advisory Group can give you unique insights into how you can keep your workforce together as the business landscape remains volatile and unpredictable. Contact us today to learn more.