Your employees are at the heart of what makes your business function, so you want to retain the top talent. To grow your company further and stave off the competition, you need to ensure you have employees on board who represent your business commitments and values.
In order to secure your workforce beyond 2022, there are several trends you can adopt to keep your employees engaged, from providing competitive salaries and flexible work options to rewarding top performers and enabling employees to develop their careers.
Employee engagement is essential for employee retention, so check out the following seven trends that can help you to secure a loyal, focused, and happy workforce for years to come.
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1. Provide competitive salaries.
If you want to retain your top talent and keep those employees engaged at your company, you need to provide competitive salaries.
Even if you offer numerous other benefits, at the end of the day, if you do not compete with the pay being offered by similar companies, you are more likely to lose your best performers.
You should regularly review your pay scales to ensure they remain fair and competitive and ensure each individual is being paid suitably for his or her specific role.
Other financial incentives, such as end-of-year bonuses can also help to keep employees engaged.
2. Give your employees more flexible options.
While many companies are starting to realize just how beneficial offering competitive salaries can be for engaging workers, today’s employees expect more than just financial compensation for the work they do.
Ever since the internet boom of the 1990s, companies have been focusing more on what they can do to make employees happier; having understood that having happy employees equals higher productivity.
You should look at offering several benefits, such as free healthy snacks or massages at the workplace, but the one trend you should definitely get on board with is providing your employees with more flexible work options.
That could mean they have the option to choose their own hours and work from home some days. When your employees can fit their work obligations around their busy schedules, they are more focused and happier in their roles.
3. Give gifts to mark employee work anniversaries.
Employees who do good jobs want to be recognized for their efforts, so make sure you do not overlook how crucial it is to take the time to thank individuals for jobs well done.
It is just as important to reward employees who stay with your company year after year. By giving gifts to employees who attain work anniversaries like five years or twenty years, you show how appreciative you are of their contributions and ensure they stay engaged, motivated, and productive.
However, you will be shooting yourself in the foot if you give out gifts without any thought. Gone are the days where a carriage clock for forty years’ service was acceptable.
When coming up with employee anniversary recognition ideas, think about the individual employee so that you can give a gift that really means something. For example, if an employee loves doing adventurous things, you could give the gift of sky diving lessons.
4. Provide career growth opportunities.
No matter what type of company you run, if you want to keep your best employees engaged, you need to offer career growth.
Talented individuals will always want to climb the career ladder, so if you do not give them the opportunity to progress within your company, they are likely to eventually look for another position.
However, it is not easy for all companies to offer career progression for talented employees, especially young businesses.
You should look at ways of building a structure that enables employees to progress in their career paths, but for startups, that will take time and the right strategies.
Furthermore, you should provide the right resources for employees to be able to attain professional development.
Must-read: How to Staff a Strong Culture on a Shoestring Budget
5. Have a solid company culture and mission.
The modern workforce expects more from a company than ever before, and that is not a bad thing. It means employees want to be more involved in your business and understand the reasons behind what the company does.
You need to have a clear company mission statement that your employees can get behind. Forget business jargon. Today’s employees want openness and honesty.
Your business also needs to foster the right company culture to attract and retain the right talent. By developing a strong company culture, prospective candidates will wish they worked for your business and your existing employees will want to stay.
Strive to make your employees proud to work for you via generating a great company culture, and your reputation will soon precede you. Think carefully about what things make up great company culture and what your employees’ wants and needs are.
6. Adopt active listening skills.
To understand your employees’ wants and needs better, you should ensure that you actively listen to your employees.
If you think you know what is best for keeping employees engaged, but you do not take the time to hear what they actually want, you will soon lose your top talent to competitors.
Make it easy for employees to give feedback. You may want to provide an option for employees to give anonymous feedback. The crucial thing is you actually listen to that feedback and communicate with your employees about any issues they may have.
Listening may sound simple, but it is undoubtedly one of the most pivotal trends that enable companies to keep their employees engaged.
Listening may sound simple, but it is undoubtedly one of the most pivotal trends that enable companies to keep their employees engaged.
7. Use employee retention strategies during the hiring process.
Finally, to secure your workforce and keep employees engaged, you need to use retention strategies from the very beginning. That means hiring the right employees.
If you want your workforce to stay with your company and remain engaged, you need to identify the skills and attributes new employees should have.
You can then seek out candidates during the application, screening and interview stages to find those individuals who tick all the boxes and look likely to stay with your company in the long run.
