If you’re losing a few employees yearly, you’re not alone. But if you’re losing them by the dozen, you need to fix that quickly. 
Why? Because the replacement cost of an employee earning $50,000 is $16,500, and for others, it can be double their salary or even higher. 
So, how can you keep from losing your employees and keep them working for you for years and years? Let’s look at nine effective strategies for raising employee retention. 

9 Strategies for Retaining Your Employees 

According to the Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), around 3 to 4.5 million employees leave their jobs every year. If you’re constantly bleeding employees, here are some ways you can stop that from happening:

1. Make the Salary and Benefits Competitive

The top reason why your employee just called it a day with you is because of their uncompetitive salary and benefits, according to Glassdoor. 
Your employees want to know that the effort they put into designing new slides, writing code, or editing videos is worth their time. Plus, they need to be able to cover their living costs and feel like they’re doing good work. 
So, if you’re giving your employees a non-competitive wage, consider revamping your salary scale by researching what a competitive salary would be for your employees in your industry and begin paying them what they’re worth.  

2. Create an Excellent Onboarding Experience

Over 35% of onboarding teams hire employees on the expectation that they’ll leave within the year, but that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you hire a quitter, try not to be surprised if they quit. But how can you make sure your new hires are there to stay? 
You can do that by making the onboarding process more transparent. If you inform your potential hires about exactly what you want, expect, and need and will be giving in return, they’ll be more likely to stay and thrive. And with a well-optimized employee onboarding checklist, you can ensure you get to every task, streamlining your recruitment process.

3. Take Care of Your Employees

Your employees are not robots; you can’t expect them to work forever. Plus, if an employee’s life and work balance are out of whack, they may feel like they work all the time and never see their family or friends and begin to resent their job or start looking for a new one. 
Remember: if you keep asking your employees to work overtime or through the weekends or remain available after hours, you may lose them without any alert. 
So, take care of your employees. If they’re overworking, compensate them for their work and give them a day or two off for their help. You can try other methods too. Do what works for you. 

4. Train Your Managers and Consider Frequent Evaluations

Many employees leave companies not because they hate their job but because they despise their managers. They leave managers, not companies. 
So, before unleashing them on your employees, train your manager to create pay stubs, encourage different types of people, provide positive feedback, implement conflict and stress management techniques, etc. 
Your managers must know how to make their teams feel better and work harder without being stressed, and they can’t do that if they’re only focusing on meeting project goals.  

5. Encourage Employee Engagement

More than 50% of employees are disengaged, and more than 70% are actively looking for another job. Why? Because most of them don’t feel inspired by or acknowledged for the work they perform. 
How can you fix that? You can do it by: 
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All the above methods allow your employees to engage with each other, which encourages the development of a competitive work environment and increases employee motivation, leading to the building of an agile team structure that can increase team efficiency. 

6. Think About Giving Regular Positive Feedback

Positive feedback is the basis of happy employees. If your employee has helped you win a million-dollar deal, but you haven’t thanked them for their contribution, they may not be as motivated next time. 
So, always give your employees feedback that motivates them to do even better next time. 

7. Give Your Employees a Chance to Grow

Most employees want a chance to shine and grow in their jobs. The former is commonly observed, but the latter isn’t. 
If you find that you need an employee to have specialized skills they don’t currently have, give them a chance to learn those skills through courses, books, teaching sessions, etc. You can cover half or all of their fee and allow them to progress in their career. 

8. Provide Your Employees with the Tools They Need

If your employee needs access to Adobe or AutoCAD products for their work and doesn’t have it, you need to provide them access to these products. The same goes for specialized software you expect your employees to use. 
If you don’t give your employees access to specialized software, they may need to pay out of their own pocket for these products and end up resenting their job, eventually leading to them quitting. 
So, always provide your employees with access to the tools they need to perform their jobs. They’ll help you keep your employees for years. 

9. Encourage Adequate Rest Periods 

Most employees overwork, eat lunch at their desks, and work overtime without any complaint. But that doesn’t mean they can keep up this kind of work schedule for a long time. 
If you find that your employees regularly pull long hours to meet project deadlines, instate a no-contact policy after employees log off and give your employees increased paid holidays, making them happy and increasing your chances of retaining your employees for years.

WRITTEN BY

Sophie H.