Best Employee Retention Strategies for Startups

Hiring the right people 

Over 85% of employee turnover is due to high bad hiring decisions. Hiring the right people can decrease a large turnover rate to 15-20% and help employee retention. When hiring an employee, make sure the onboarding process is transparent by giving details about the job, explaining the core values of the company, and also making sure the steps and practices are properly integrated.

Shaping their Development/Growth

Helping your employees achieve their long and short short-term should be one of the crucial parts of any organisation by designing in-house training programs, tuition reimbursement, boot camps, and scholarships to help employees advance their personal development.

Providing out-of-the-box benefits and perks 

A lot of employees would leave their jobs for benefits. Every employer should have ideas on how to provide a career for the needs of their employees. Benefits like financial incentives, retirement saving plans, sabbatical leave, incentive stock options, life insurance, and perks like flexible schedules, paid birthdays off, condensed work week, performance bonuses, free snack/food, gym memberships reimbursement, care, and appreciation are also things employees would like.

Appreciating your Employees

All employees should be appreciated one way or another for efforts made towards your organisation. This act gives them a feeling of being welcomed and an edge to do better. Appreciation notes/cards saying thank you should be inclusive, and social programs like peer-peer recognition, and staff of the week/month should be practised. This constant practice would give them a feeling of being appreciated and motivated.

Maintaining work/life balance

A large number of employees have refused to look for new jobs due to not balancing their schedules between work and life (social activities). To take the pressure off the employees, share the workload by introducing a shift schedule between employees, and allow hybrid and work-from-home opportunities. With this, every employee has a reflex time to be well rested and also to have enough time to care for themselves and their families.

Providing monetary benefit/compensation

One of the major reasons employees leaves an orgleavestion is due to very poor salary and also lack of compensation. About 60% out of every company has a very poor salary structure which makes employees feel enslaved to a particular job without getting value for their efforts. Also, remember that hiring new employees can be quite costly. To avoid this, you can give an appraisal monthly in form of compensation to appreciate an employee for a job well done. A salary raise is also another way to retain top talent. Thetalentresource department of any organisation should think of better incentives to work on salary structure or scrutinise current salaries and see whether you need to make changes to remain competitive.

Introduce Feedbacks

Practising regular feedback in an organisation/business should be an adaptable structure that’s needed for the growth of any organisation. Regular feedback can drastically reduce employee turnover. Feedback can make it easier for employers to know every progress. It also makes employees track their goals and responsibilities.

A two-way feedback system is very important- every employee needs to hear both positive and negative criticism to enable them to perform their best at their job. Employers also need to hear from their employees to know inputs that would be vital to the company’s growth. Feedback should be done weekly, or monthly.

Bonding with Employees

It’s no secret that employees don’t leave their jobs but their bad bosses. Good management should work hand in hand to continuously nurture and improve a bonding relationship with their employees. There’s a phrase that says ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Bonding wiboymployees outside work is also very important. Team lunches, group excursions, and group trips are some of the methods to bond with your employees. Celebrating their achievements will deepen the bond.

Conducting exit interviews

It’s very crucial to conduct exit interviews before an employee leaves. An exit interview is asking an employee about their experience in the company. This aspect can help throw light on things like toxic management, departmental conflicts, harmful management, and other similar matters. An exit interview with a list of solid questions should be asked during departure interviews.

Create a toxic-free environment

One of the top most priorities of any organisation should be to create a toxic-free environment for their employees. The mental health of employees should be taken very seriously. No one wants to be in a place where they are constantly mistreated, undervalued, and unappreciated because this can lead to increased stress, mental breakdown, decreased productivity, and engagement in performance. Creating a positive and supportive environment should be important for any organisation that wants to retain its employees.

Open communication

An atmosphere where employees are unable to express themselves gives them a non-belonging feeling. In other words, they need a comfort zone to be able to express their opinions and concerns. Employers should look into cultivating a culture of communication where employees can address workplace, professional and project issues for a quick resolution. This gives them an open door of acceptance. 

Diversity and inclusion

These are two interwoven concepts. In a nutshell, it’s all about empowering people by respecting and appreciating what makes them different in terms of age, gender, religion, class, ethnicity, disability, and sex. A strong diversity and inclusion strategy can help your organisation attract top talents and drive innovative results. This practice gives employees a sense of belonging by making them feel loved, valued, equal, respected, and treated fairly by embedding them into the work structure. One of the major benefits of this practice brings an improved practice of employee retention which could bring more productivity to the workplace.

Building health and wellness programs 

Over 70% of companies offer wellness programs to stay competitive and effective for employee retention. Having a comprehensive health plan that takes care of the overall wellness of your employees is important. Some of the wellness programs include onsite fitness classes, paramedical services, yoga classes, health screenings, smoking cessation programs, etc. Providing health insurance is another way of taking care of their wellness. By supporting employees’ health and wellness, they will reap the benefits of improved productivity and reduced absenteeism. 

Providing leadership opportunities

Many employees feel they are capable when they are contributing more. Assigning them to the right tasks, opportunities, and responsibilities can increase employee satisfaction and hence help in retention. This can be accomplished in several ways such as allowing them to lead projects, offering stock options, or simply providing more opportunities for input and decision-making.

Creating a clean and hygienic workplace 

Cleanliness and hygiene will help your workplace be more conducive to employees by making them feel safe and secure.