How can small business owners effectively retain their best employees who are already trained and are doing a good job?
The cost of training and orienting new employees in small businesses is a formidable expense for business owners. In terms of cost and time, perhaps business loss, it becomes more painful when these trained employees decide to leave and you have to start the recruitment and training process all over. To retain your good employees, a staff development program should be in place for the mutual benefit of the employee and business.
Retention of Employees in Small Businesses
After the obvious answer to the problem “how to retain your good employees” has been established, the tougher questions must now be answered. “How do I go about retaining employees in my small business, when they may have other enticing employment opportunities, or become unhappy with their current job?” There are many schools of thought on employee retention, but there are several factors to consider on decreasing employee turnover and keeping employees. Taking into account job automation risks, these factors include job satisfaction, commitment to the organization, a positive working environment, respect for each other in the workplace, and money.
Promote Job Satisfaction and Commitment
Most people think that money would be the most influential factor in an employee’s decision to remain with an employer or move on to greener pastures. While money is important to the vast majority of workers, it is not always the most important factor in their decision-making process. Working on increasing employee job satisfaction can have as great or an even greater impact on their decision rather than monetary reason. Some areas that can increase employee job satisfaction include initiatives such as rewarding employees with simple tokens to recognize a job well done and allowing them some autonomy in their tasks. This type of motivation or empowerment can lead to employees’ feeling that their work is important, and that they are vital as part of the team.
Another area that can have a positive influence on employees’ job satisfaction and commitment is simply being considered an honest and reputable employer for which to work. While the goal of most businesses is to earn a profit, the overall emphasis of a business model should not be solely profitability. Loyalty and trust that employers lookout for the best interests of their workers are ideas and beliefs upon which employees should be able to depend.
Create a Positive Work Environment
A positive working environment is extremely important to most employees. We should make our place of business a place where people do not hate to come to work every day. It cannot be all fun and games, because as we all know, there is a lot of work to do, or we would not be here in the first place. However, good humor, open communications, and the ability to learn from our mistakes can foster an environment where people would rather work, as opposed to a competitor, who pays a little more but does not care if his employees enjoy it or not.
Pay for Performance
Money is always an issue for most employees. While many small business owners may not afford to pay as much in starting salaries as the competition, there are other alternatives available to employers, such as incentive payments, or profit-sharing plans which allow workers to earn more as the business becomes more profitable. Plans such as these can be especially beneficial in small businesses where it is easier to notice smaller increases in revenues, decreases in expenditures, and net profit gains. By allowing employees the opportunity to increase their salaries as they work harder to make the company more successful can turn into a win-win situation. While the business owner watches his business grow, in turn, employees improve their financial situations greatly motivated as a team players.
When it comes to retaining your best employees: improving employee job satisfaction, creating a positive work environment, and allowing your workers to be more involved in the success of your business can ultimately lead to better employer-employee mutual benefit. In the long run, improved retention of workers will not only save your business time and money, but as a business owner, you can focus more on the overall management of your business in the right direction.