Learn How to turn your office into a quality workplace
By: Barron Boon
We live in a technology-driven as well as employees-driven world these days where retaining talent is the number one challenge and priority for most businesses regardless of their type. Employers are always looking for ways (besides offering attractive remuneration packages) to retain their best employees.
This article shares some valuable tips for employee retention and explores some methods to make your employees happy without offering them heavy paychecks.
- Treat your Employees with Dignity
You can start by treating your employees with dignity and respect. This is the first step in establishing a stronger relationship with your employees. You need to recognize their achievements and reward their performances with words and little gestures. Options like these will not disturb your budget; they will surely help you make your employees feel appreciated. You can highlight their achievements during a staff meeting or send them a department email. These non-monetary rewards go a long way in boosting the morale of the employees and do not put any load on the budget.
Although these non-monetary rewards may not prove to be as effective as monetary rewards, but they will surely help you make your employees feel appreciated and happy in the long run.
Work-Life balance also plays a very important role when it comes to employee retention. Companies that offer flexible working hours/flexible leave system at work are able to retain their employees much better than those that are very strict in this field. If one of your employees needs to leave an hour early for an urgent piece of work on regular basis, you need to adjust his/her working hours accordingly by making him/her come an hour early in the morning.
You should offer your employees various options to use their annual leaves wisely. You should also allow them to use the accumulated free hours anytime they want to pursue their hobbies, attend various important functions or take some upgrading courses. Such minor adjustments in working hours/working schedule will not hurt your organization but will surely help your employees recharge their batteries and become more productive for the organization.
Effective communication between you and the employees as well as among the employees is vital to the success of your organization. Therefore, you should encourage regular communication between your employees. For example, you can use any free space in your office and turn it into a communication hub by placing some snack and beverage shelves. Encourage your employees to use that space for informal meetings and brainstorming sessions.
Besides that, you can also use that free space to set up a craft/interest corner. You can encourage your employees to use this "interest corner" to display their pictures, rewards, or other articles of interest. This type of activity provides conversation fodder for the employees and helps them discover areas of mutual interest.
The goal is to foster better friendship and working relationship between your employees and the only way to achieve is to improve the communication lines between them in a professional and personal capacity.
Without drawing a clear and achievable progression plan for each employee, you cannot groom your employees and get maximum output from them. A clear and achievable progression plan will show your employees how they can grow within the organization in time to come. One of the most common reasons for leaving a job is job stagnation. When the employee starts to think that he/she has learned everything there was to learn on the current role, he/she will leave the job when the next good opportunity shows up. On the other hand, if your employees know about their long-term goals and have a clear progression path in front of them, they will do everything to achieve their targets considering that bigger and better rewards are in store for them in time to come.
In order to keep them on the track, you should hold regular staff appraisal meetings. You need to share their progress and also define new goals for them in these meetings. This will ensure that you as well as your employees are working together towards a common goal.
Workplace transparency is a defining factor in keeping your employees satisfied and happy. If your employees feel that they are not offered what they were promised or there is not transparency in the organization they will leave the job in no time.
According to a survey conducted by TINYpulse.com in 2013, management transparency had a .94 coefficient with employee happiness based on feedback from over 40,000 employees. By conducting regular town hall meetings with the top management and discussing the successes and defeats as well as common goals of the organization can make the employees feel empowered and boost their morals to work harder towards the success of the company as a whole.
Although it is considered counterintuitive by the management to share the failures or potential threats for the company with their employees, if the employees hear such news from an external source it can prove to be more damaging and can result in fears about job security. Under such circumstances, it is always better to keep an open line of communication with your employees. This will also ensure that your employees are with you during these troubling times and they are ready to give their 100% to overcome the threats.
An employee who has made his/her mind to leave an organization will not be influenced by any of the above tips, however, the management and business owners can implement some of all of the above-mentioned tips to ensure that most of the employees are in for a long haul. 
