Heading for the exit? How to retain your best people.
Job satisfaction is something everyone strives for. But finding a job that feels fulfilling and doesn’t bring dread every time the alarm goes off isn’t easy. Only 17% of British workers claim to love their job, but that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone is jumping ship.
It takes the average candidate around four months to find a job, which can cause significant worry and anxiety, and the idea of paying bills and just navigating through everyday life without a job or between contracts can feel overwhelming.
This feeling of concern when venturing out into the job market causes many people to just stay put in jobs they don’t like, or with no clear path to promotion or room to grow. People feel stuck, which then slips into a lack of motivation and an indifference to the work that is being produced. This then turns into more mistakes and errors, and can cost the company serious money with missed deadlines and incomplete work.
The best way to keep employees interested and passionate in their role is improving their current working conditions. Improve your business’s future by protecting and securing your employees’ future, too. 94% of employees are more likely to stay at a company longer if it invests in their career development.
It is important to invest in training and development of your team. Set aside a budget for courses and qualifications that employees can take advantage of, and make sure your people feel able to approach management with their own ideas on what they wish to learn. You can keep this in house too. Management can offer their own training or provide mentorship to stand out candidates, so that skills and knowledge of the business can be shared, all whilst building a sense of belonging and trust amongst colleagues.
Included in your Employee Value Proposition should be clear pathways and roadmaps for your employees to develop and advise within the company. New or prospective employees will be able to see the value in their entry level role, and will be able to see the merit in staying loyal to the business. For those valued, long serving members of the team, they can feel proud of how far they have progressed over time, and feel the benefits of their hard work paying off.
Combining development roadmaps with reward and recognition programmes will produce a comprehensive and holistic experience for employees. Offering long service rewards when employees hit their career milestones will help improve morale and loyalty to the company, as well as motivating colleagues to hit the same targets. It will secure the reputation of your company as a genuine and caring place to work, and also improves the relationship of employee and employer.
Ultimately, the main way to keep those valuable employees is by being proactive. Employees don’t want or expect to be trapped in a dead end as soon as they start at a company, so dedicate time and resources into career development. Not only will your business see a loyal, motivated, and highly effective workforce, but also a boost to the company’s long-term success.
