In every business, employees come and go. Sometimes, people leave, and your team becomes more polished. In other circumstances, you may have valued employees who decide it’s time for them to move on. When they are such a valuable addition to your team, leaving is the last thing you want them to do. The problem is how to retain them, especially if they’re the best. Luckily, there are many ways around this issue, which can benefit both you and your employees in the long term. If you’re struggling to figure out what you can do, take note of some effective tips.
Encourage creativity
A lot of the time, one of the main reasons an employee leaves a position is down to how they feel. They may feel they don’t have enough room to be creative. If you take a step back and allow their input to be considered, they are more likely to feel as though their voice is being heard. If they are such a valued employee, this voice will indeed offer more benefits to your business than you might think. Though introducing this space can be hard if you aren’t used to encouraging it, you can start by introducing short brainstorming sessions in meetings, or meeting with your employees one on one when you’d like input regarding a decision.
Introduce an employee benefit scheme
Like most people, employees will begin to feel undervalued if their hard work isn’t being recognized. If this happens a lot, it would be no wonder that employees would feel they must leave. Thankfully, this is an easily solvable problem. Most companies introduce an employee benefits scheme when they are hoping to show their appreciation for the work an employee is doing. Not only does this help you reward those who are doing all they can, but you can also see who isn’t putting in the effort and reconsider their place in the team. When you are putting such a scheme in place, it is important to remember that you should measure both hard work and results; if you are a company solely driven on unrealistic targets, it is unlikely your employees will feel valued, even when they are working hard to meet them.
Don’t be shy of promoting
Often, it can be hard to promote people within your business when you are worried about how it may affect the future. In fact, this is why lots of businesses turn to outside searches to find what they are looking for. The simple fact is that, if you are worried about some of your best employees leaving, this in itself proves that they will be more than up for the job, as you know their potential. Although it isn’t wise to promote people all the time, especially to roles they may not be suited to, when a great opportunity comes up for one of your team members, it’s good to trust they will do a great job. If you are still unsure, try their promotion on a trial run, where they will work even harder to prove to you they are up for it.