How to Retain Current Employees

A high turnover rate can be very costly to a business. So how do you prevent your business from being a revolving door? How do you hire and retain capable employees?

An employer needs an effective retention strategy in order to combat the costly turnover cycle. We are going consider the following three ways that employers can retain their employees:

1. The Hiring & Interviewing Process
2. The Training Process
3. Maintaining Employee Morale

We will consider each of these points one at a time.

When you are interviewing prospective employees for your business, hiring an employee shouldn't be your only focus. Just as important is hiring a capable employee that you will be able to retain.

So what retention strategies can be implemented during the hiring process?

1. When you are placing a job ad be specific about the job requirements. Also make sure you clearly outline the requirements during the course of an interview. This will help prevent hiring someone who doesn't meet the requirements. If someone doesn't meet the requirements they probably won't stick around long.
2. Check all available employment references. If a prospective employee has a track record of being a hard worker who sticks around, then that will most likely be the case with your company. But if he lacks work ethic and generally doesn't last more than a couple of months, then that will also most likely be the case with your company.
3. If you own a franchise give additional consideration to applicants who have experience working for other franchisees of the same company. This could cut down on the training cost associated with employee turnover. Of course you will want to check with the previous franchisee to make sure that they were a reliable employee.
4. Ask for referrals. If you have any dependable employees who you trust why not ask if they know anyone who is looking for a job. Generally good people know good people. Also many companies offer referral retention bonus for employees who recommend employees that get hired and that end up surviving the probation period.

Hiring a dependable and capable employee is only the first step. If you want to retain that employee proper training is essential.

If an employee isn't provided with the tools and training that they need to succeed in their job this can lead to frustration. So it is important that each employee is provided with a detailed manual and that all policies and requirements are clearly outlined.

Also when businesses are a victim of employee turnover there is sometimes a tendency to rush the training process. But if you give a new employee a full workload before they are ready this could lead to needless frustration. This could end up contributing to the ongoing cycle of employee turnover. So fight any urge to rush the training process. It may me a short term workload (or cost) increase, but the long term payoff of having a properly trained employee will be worth it.

You are less likely to lose employees if they sincerely enjoy working for your company.

If you hire dependable workers and you have provided proper training that will go a long way in recruiting a team that gels well together. But the way that your employees are treated goes along way as well. Do you treat them with respect? Does their hard work get acknowledged? What kind of incentive program do you offer? If an employee feels that they are respected and appreciated they are more likely to stick around.

By giving due attention to the hiring & training process, and by working hard to maintain employee morale this will go a long way in preventing a high employee turnover rate.

The employee retention strategy that you implement will go a long way in ensuring success.