While finding the right talent for your organisation is often a challenging task, knowing how to retain staff can be just as difficult. Regardless of using a recruitment agent to act on your behalf, having a high employee turnover is both expensive and disruptive for any business (and its customers).
Here, we reveal five simple steps to action an effective staff retention plan at your workplace.
1. Focus on Company Culture
When you think about it like this: Your staff spend just as much time in the office as they do at home, so fostering a positive workplace makes all the difference between having highly driven employees and those who merely countdown the hours.
Sure, a free lunch every Wednesday sounds wonderful but more importantly, is making your employees feel safe within a welcoming and supportive environment, which brings us to -
2. Acknowledge Your Staff
Undoubtedly, one of the only thing's more important to an employee than getting paid - is feeling valued. A key factor in retaining long-term talent as opposed to short-term hires, is establishing loyalty.
"Your staff are the lifeblood of your business. If they don't feel supported and valued, your culture will suffer and people will quit."
- Todd Kane, President, Evolved Management Consulting
A great way to achieve this is by maintaining open and effective communication; whether that's a stand-up company meeting to share what's been happening across departments, or a series of innovation-led workshops in order to welcome collaboration and new ideas.
3. Enable Career Development Opportunities
For Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in particular, recruiting technical staff is only part of the challenge; retaining top talent is just as hard. When a person applies for a technical position at your organisation, they're also employing you to be part of their professional career. This two-way relationship means that you see the potential in them, and that they also see the potential in your company.
“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person – not just an employee – are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”
- Anne M. Mulcahy, Former CEO, Xerox
According to HR Digest, career development does indeed, have "the highest impact on employee retention." A workplace that implements effective career development initiatives, such as courses, workshops and classes by way of advancing an employee's skillset, is far more likely to retain employees.
4. Define Your Core Values
Whether your organisation runs on the 'Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)' or the 'Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (SMART)' system for example, it's essential to share this with potential staff beforehand, in order to ensure they're cable of effectively achieving goals within the desired framework.
5. Invest in Effective Leadership
There's a major difference between hiring a manager and hiring a leader. Though the job title states 'Manager', the ultimate hallmark of a great manager is their ability to be a true leader; someone who doesn't merely manage a workflow, but knows how to manage people.
“When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute.”
- Simon Sinek, Bestselling Author, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
According to a LinkedIn survey of 2,000 business leaders, the top four skills that companies need the most are: Leadership, Communication, Collaboration, and Time Management. Here, Daniel Williams, CEO of PowerNet IT Group, is ready to share exactly why "accountability is a by-product of great leadership" at our upcoming event MSPminds.
If you would like to learn more about how to improve staff retention, we're hosting a non-sales focussed and information packed workshop at DattoCon 2019 in San Diego, USA on Monday, 17 June.
MSPminds is a free event, register your spot here.
