5 Ways to Stop Your Best Employees from Leaving

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Any business professional would agree that the most valuable assets to a corporation, are
talented employees.

Finding talent is only half the problem.  The other half – retaining them.

Why do people leave?

A 2019 Gallup study found only 33% of employees in the U.S. are engaged in their job.

Are employees responsible for their own engagement? According to Gallop; they’re not.
Management is often the underlying cause of 70% of employees’ disengagement.

What type of manager are you? Are you committed to being the kind of manager you would
want to report to? Do you want to provide an engaging workplace for your team?

If you answered “yes”, read on for our 5 ways to stop your best employees from leaving to
discover how to have a happy, engaged and committed team.

  1. Show Respect

” Retaining the best and brightest is what ultimately matters.  The most
innovative and successful companies today have figured that out.
They’ve taken retention efforts to an advanced level.”

Lynn Taylor
Author
“Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss
Behaviour and Thrive in Your Job”

Quote credit: Business Insider

 

Treating your team with dignity bolsters them to deliver their best work.

If an employee feels disrespected, a lack of engagement will quickly follow. Take the time to
get to know your team members and show you value them as human beings.

  1. Give Them Space

Providing you’ve taken measures to ensure your employees are trained correctly and they
have all the necessary tools at their disposal, the best thing you can do – get out of their way.

Give them as much creative freedom, space and autonomy as they need.

  1. Provide Meaning and Purpose

Give your team members short and long-term goals that inspire them. Engage your staff in events outside of normal work. Pharmaceutical conferences provide connections and skills opportunities for workers, otherwise feeling left out. Allocate some time for them to tinker with their own innovative ideas.

However, don’t make it all about work. Create a culture that supports physical and mental wellness. Allow employees to discuss any concerns with you – stress or an unmanageable workload. Employees who know their manager cares about them, are ultimately more committed to their job.

  1. Praise and Recognition

The #1 reason that good employees quit is lack of recognition.

Along with being well compensated financially and with employee benefits, your team needs
to feel recognised and appreciated for their efforts.

Thank your rockstar employees for a job well done. Publicly recognise your teams and
departments. Share their successes with the rest of the company.

Employees who receive regular recognition and praise tend to have increased productivity,
engagement, commitment and loyalty.

What’s regular praise? Hand it out once a week.

  1. Implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Employees are motivated to work for a company that cares about more than making a profit. Job seekers are searching for transparent companies with an effective CSR strategy. Working for a responsible business supporting local charities leads to an increase in job satisfaction, morale and employee retention.

Three success stories of CSR implementation strategies:

  1. Ben & Jerry’s
    Not only does this Vermont-based brand create flavours based on current social
    issues, but they only use fair trade ingredients. They have also created a
    sustainability program to help Vermont’s dairy farmers.
  2. LocumCo
    LocumCo has incorporated the Buy 1 Give 1 (B1G1) initiative. With every new client
    or job position added, LocumCo contributes towards new charitable projects. To
    date, LocumCo has made 18,485 giving impacts.
  3. Target
    Since 1946, Target has worked to provide local and environmental support to the
    communities in which the stores are located. This year, Target made headlines after
    revealing its pro-transgender bathroom policy. 
  4. Google
    Google has implemented an environmental policy called “Google Green”. This
    corporate practise supports renewable energy sources and utilising resources more
    efficiently.

After reading our list of 5 ways to stop your best employees from leaving, do you feel more
confident that you can improve employee retention? Hold onto your rockstar employees by
showing them respect, praise their successes, and empower them to take more initiative.

Show them your company is involved in social, environmental and economic issues. Prove
you’re interested in them, and you’ll have a loyal, committed team that will love their job (and
you) right back.

Author bio:

Johanna Cider is a freelance writer based in Wellington, New Zealand. She has been writing articles on a wide
array of topics and especially likes sharing her thoughts about career and business. See more of her recent works
in Musings of Johanna.