Learning and Development to Increase Retention

Posted on August 28, 2018 by - Uncategorized

Most companies would choose to invest in ways to enhance employee retention over hiring and training new ones. The process of replacing employees can be expensive. You have to spend time and resources on finding, interviewing, and acquiring the best talent out there. When you already have quality employees, it is much more cost-effective to find ways to keep them. One of the most essential ways to improve long-term retention is to build a culture of learning and professional development.

-According to a 2015 Payscale report, 57% of employers place employee retention as a top priority.

Executives and managers need to be ready to adapt to the needs of their employees. This process starts at the very beginning. For example, it might seem like a good deal if you can negotiate a new employee’s salary under market value. However, this can come back to bite you when they leave for a better offer, taking the training and experience you provided with them. There are several strategies and methods you can implement that will boost your retention and employee happiness.

Ways to Develop Higher Employee Retention.

  • Hire Correctly: A significant portion of companies lose employees in the first 120 days of employment. Your human resources personnel need to keep this in mind when hiring. The culture and requirements of the position need to be made clear. Shrouding the negative aspects might seem like a shortcut to getting someone hired, but it won’t result in long-term employment.
  • Embrace the Referral Process: Referred employees have some of the highest retention rates in any industry. This is partially due to the fact that your current employees already understand what the job needs and the type of people that could fill a position. Referrals act as a free screening process. Employees are also less likely to refer someone who is a poor fit because it could reflect poorly on them.
  • Don’t Get Too Comfortable: In a busy workplace, workers who require more supervision often draw more attention. Your employees who struggle less still need your attention, however. Not being recognized can lead to feelings of resentment, so don’t underestimate the power of encouragement or recognition.
  • Check-In with Your Workers: Establish regular times to check in with your employees. Discuss their goals, challenges, and triumphs. Find out ways they think things could be improved and be willing to listen. Employee engagement will also foster retention.
  • Don’t Hide: Many leaders fear to be transparent. The truth is that this can lead to workers feeling like they are lied to. Build a culture of teamwork by offering transparency on how your company is succeeding. Be honest about what can be improved and recognize those departments performing well.
  • Follow Through: When you make promises to your employees make sure you can back them up. This is true for raises, bonuses, or even day-to-day operations. Following through on your promises build a relationship of trust between you and them. Companies that foster trust and partnerships with their employees have shown higher rates of retention.
  • Develop a Culture of Learning: When you bring all of these strategies together, you will see a workplace where employees know what is expected of them, feel equipped to succeed, and see room for growth. Employees will stay at a job if they see a future there for them.

Providing a future for your workforce means understanding their needs and finding ways to deliver them. Building a culture of retention starts with hiring the right people, rewarding their success, and fulfilling your promises to them. Today, a business leader needs to be willing to learn and grow along with their labor force.

How can Human Resources Motivate Employees?

Posted on August 23, 2018 by - Uncategorized

For generations, HR Departments have debated the best way to motivate employees.  Here are some motivational tips from effective business people to help your Human Resources Department motivate your employees:

  1. Incentivize

Building an effective incentive structure gives your employees a motivated perspective towards completing daily tasks. TotalRewards has found that compensating the execution of specific objectives allows employees to become driven to do their job better. Finding what inspires employees to focus on their assignments will help motivate employees to accomplish their particular duties.

  1. Give Employees Your Trust

Let employees know you trust and rely on them, and they will perform at a higher level than you might suspect. A vote of certainty can go far. Tell them you believe they can do the ideal activity, and they will seldom disappoint you.

  1. Set Smaller Weekly Goals

Every good employee needs grand aspirations, however, setting up more attainable objectives in route to the final goal keeps individuals motivated. Breaking down a project into smaller, more digestible bites allows your employees to understand what they need to accomplish for each day, week, and month rather than a full year’s worth of work. At that point, compensate the group for achieving the objective with an evening off, a celebration, or something else that they enjoy. They will see that your goals are practical, and everybody profits by buckling down.

  1. Give Your Employees Purpose

Always be ready to inspire your workers by giving them a reason to succeed. When you achieve that, they comprehend the vision better and can feel more confident in being able to execute their goals. What’s more, by understanding their motivation and the reason for the business’ goals, a participant can see how they fit into the master plan.

  1. Transmit Positivity

Spread positivity among your entire staff to motivate them and build an enthusiastic culture.  A work environment that’s full of negativity can quickly create a toxic situation and lead to unmotivated employees and ultimately, your business’ demise. In a friendly work environment, employees feel comfortable and work more attentively and efficiently.

  1. Rouse Individuals Rather Than the Team

Adjusting motivated forces is an excellent approach to guaranteeing everybody in a group is moving in the direction of a shared objective. When every individual feels confident and inspired to work, collectively they are unstoppable. This method enables you to encourage the group to achieve astounding things.

Making the Most of Annual Performance Reviews

Posted on August 21, 2018 by - Uncategorized

Some managers view performance reviews as a dreadfully time-consuming policy enforced by HR, while others value it as a time for their employees to give transparent feedback.  Like them or not, performance reviews are a vital part of an employee’s progression in your company.  Here are some tips to help you make the most of your annual performance reviews:

  1. Come in prepared.

Lacking preparation is a sure way to fail a performance review.  Your employees will pick up on the fact that you’re winging it, and they likely won’t value your feedback as genuine or thought-out.  Instead, establish an agenda beforehand and personalize each appraisal with the employee’s personality and their relationship with you. Also, consider the rebuttals that you’ll likely hear from them and devise how you’ll phrase the response.

  1. Choose the right environment.

Schedule your performance reviews in a location that is private and allows for confidential and discrete discussion.  Be aware of your proximity to the employee as well, as it’s better to sit adjacent to them at a small table than it would be to talk across a long conference room table.  This will help to improve the flow of conversation and make it more personable.

  1. Begin with the agenda.

Start off the discussion by laying out exactly how the appraisal is structured.  This will help the employee know what to expect from the review, so they won’t be caught off-guard by any conversation topics.

  1. Be genuine.

Your employees know you; your personality, the way you present yourself in certain situations, and the little idiosyncrasies that shape you as a person. So be yourself- they’ll respect that.  This will help you be positive without seeming artificial, while also being disciplinary without seeming defensive.  Most of all, active listening is vital in these situations, so you can be constructive with your feedback.

  1. Focus on goal setting.

Many managers want to focus on an employee’s past performance so extensively that they’ll forget the main purpose of the appraisal – to always be improving and growing within their career.  Set out to establish goals for your employees that are reasonable and relevant and will help them reach the next position in their job.

  1. Encourage open discussion.

If you do all the talking, the appraisal becomes more of a lecture than an honest discussion.  Don’t let your employees leave the meeting feeling like they were treated unjustly and weren’t given the time to speak their minds.  Employees need to be motivated to make an impact in your company, but they won’t reach that level unless their voices are heard.  Ask them open-ended questions like, “what do you want to achieve for the company this year?” and be cognizant of any vague feedback you receive.

  1. Balance praise and criticism.

This is a time to recognize your employee for their outstanding performance while also pointing out where they need improvement.  However, a steady balance is needed so the employee walks away feeling valued.  The last thing you want is to lose a top employee to competition because you focused on too many of their negatives. By the same token, don’t let a subpar employee feel like they’re doing everything perfectly, because then they won’t have an incentive to change their detrimental behaviors.

  1. End on the same page.

Always try to end a performance review with the feeling that you have a complete understanding of an employee’s achievements and failures, their future goals, and how they plan to get there.  Similarly, your employee needs to feel a sense of understanding exactly how they can reach the goals in your feedback.  So, ask the question, “What can I do to help you as a manager?” This way you’ll make sure that nothing is left on the table.