We all know how difficult it can be to attract the best talent to your organisation. Battling against your competitors to get that all important candidate is a challenge in itself but once you’ve gone through all that effort and considerable expense them how do you ensure you keep hold of them?

The key element of effective employee retention is to lower the pain of staying for those employees you simply couldn’t be without. In order to do this, you need to address the issues that your staff complain about most, either to the employer directly or when they get home from work. To clarify this point, employees don’t go home and moan about being well paid and having an excellent healthcare package, they are more likely to complain about the lack of recognition they receive for their efforts, long working hours or that their manager fails to listen to them.

These elements have a serious effect on your employees morale and motivation and therefore increase the temptation to seek out new employment opportunities – trust me on this, I’ve worked in recruitment for many years and these issues really do matter!

So, what can you do to help improve employee retention for your business? Here are just a few of my tried and tested tips for keeping hold of your most valuable resources.

1. Take time to get to know your employees on a personal level, treating them as an individual makes them feel a valued part of your team

2. Give clear guidelines on what is expected of them in terms of goals and rules. Communication is key to ensuring each employee has a sense of responsibility, no matter how big or small.

3. Give them the opportunity to succeed in any given task. This will create a feeling of satisfaction when they can confidently carry out their role without feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

4. Give honest feedback, both positive and negative in a structured way. Offer all employees regular reviews and praise them for their achievements, no matter how small.

5. Listen! The best communications are two way so if your employee comes to you make the time to listen to their concerns. The sooner you deal with whatever is bothering them the greater the chances of them staying with your company.

6. Give them the chance to grow. Show them that your recognize their talents and nurture them by offering further training and career advancement opportunities that they can aspire to.

7. Make everyone count. Show all your staff how their role fits into the overall company effort and give them a valuable feeling of importance.

8. Offer flexibility. If your employee is struggling with personal issues or just needs to leave work a little early allow them to do so when appropriate and let them make the time up at a later date.

If you need to address your employee retention techniques, contact the Appointments team on 01782 338787 or via email office@appointmentspersonnel.co.uk