You’ve finally hired a full staff that is jelling. Everyone is working as a team, happy and productivity is up. Unfortunately, before you know it, you’re looking to fill positions once again. Employee retention tactics help keep your best employee around (instead of going to the competition) increasing overall employee morale and decreasing turnover costs.

Offer Competitive Pay

When there are more jobs than applicants, offering competitive pay is the first thing you should do to keep your employees from looking towards your competitors. Do your research and see what the competition is paying so you have the upper hand from the start.

Schedule Social Time

The average person spends 13 years and two months at work, compare that to only 328 days socializing with friends. Make some of that work time pull double duty as fun-time. Set up a ping-pong table, coordinate an in-office board or trivia game or institute happy hour Fridays. Having fun at work builds camaraderie, increases productivity and inspires loyalty.

Serve Up a Company Lunch

It’s important to celebrate milestones as a team and food equals family. Treat the team to lunch when big projects are completed, when someone gets married, has a baby or just because.

Organize a Company-Wide Volunteering Event

Employees who believe their employers give back to the community are 13 times more likely to look forward to coming to work. Schedule a company-wide volunteering opportunity or give employees allowances to volunteer independently on company time.

Start Retention Efforts with Onboarding

Only 12 percent of employees strongly agree their organization does a good job of onboarding, which is too bad. An effective onboarding process is your best tool to get employees on the job quickly and efficiently, encouraging engagement right from the start.

Offer Flexible Work Options with Work/Life Balance

According to Gallup, 67 percent of employees say they are sometimes, very often or always burned out at work. Allowing your employees some flexibility in their schedules can help them balance their home lives and work lives, reducing stress and eventual burnout. Flexible options include working from home, comp-time for late nights and varied arrival and departure times.

{{cta(‘a906da99-d18b-4a6a-831a-9ed4b6d354d8’)}}

Get Creative with Benefits

Most companies offer a standard benefits package including health, dental, 401(k), etc. But other companies go beyond with innovative offerings like gym memberships, continuing education reimbursements, student loan debt relief (only 4 percent of employers do this), free product and discounts.

Mentor Your Employees

Employees, especially millennial employees, are more likely to stay with an employer if they’ve had a mentor. That makes sense considering more millennials put more value on career development than any other factor. Keep them engaged, and on-the-job, by providing coaching programs and mentoring opportunities.

Focus on Development

Research shows career development supports employees’ goals as they work to support the organization’s goals. Employees who feel supported with development opportunities are often more productive and feel personally responsible for managing their careers.

Conduct Stay Interviews

Before employees leave, find out what would make them stay. Stay interviews help managers find out what motivates your employees to work for your company. Each of your employees rates the importance of company culture, equipment and benefits differently. Knowing what your employees value helps you to create opportunities that make them happy.

BirdDogHR Talent Management Solutions allow you to do your job better, simplifying your HR processes so you can focus on implementing processes to retain your employees. Wondering how your current processes stack up? Request a free HR assessment.