We’ll discuss the importance of creating a sense of purpose, offering competitive benefits and fostering a positive workplace culture. By following these 5 top tips to help SMEs retain staff, you’ll be well on your way to building a strong and loyal team.
What is staff retention?
Staff retention involves a business keeping it’s best staff, and ensuring they stay with the company. Staff retention is a key factor in the success of any SME as it helps to create a positive work environment, cut down costs liked to employee turnover, guarantee a steady level of service, and help to build a team of experienced and knowledgeable employees. Additionally, staff retention can boost customer service, enhance loyalty, and raise morale. As you can see, there are many benefits of staff retention.
Attracting and keeping the right people in your organisation starts with having competitive salaries that are in line with the industry standards. If your employees feel they are being paid a fair wage for the work they do, they are more likely to stay with your organisation. However, as an SME, you are unlikely to have a large budget to compete with larger companies which can make employee retention difficult. Saying this, money isn’t everything and there are many other ways to keep your staff happy.
Here are 5 top tips to help SMEs retain staff:
1. Provide Training and Development Opportunities
Giving your staff the chance to participate in training and development initiatives is essential for keeping them inspired and focused. Examples of this could include giving them the opportunity to attend workshops, conventions, and other educational programs. If your budget does not stretch to allow these initiatives, then you can take advantage of your other employees. Ask your senior members of staff to mentor your more junior staff or allow them to shadow your high performers. A report published by Hays, a recruitment and human resources company, found that development and progression is an issue for workers.
Staff development can also benefit your business. By allowing your staff to upskill, you could fill in gaps you might have in your workforce. Take a look at your upcoming projects and plan a strategy for upskilling your staff so that they can help with these projects.
2. Create a Positive Work Environment
A positive and supportive work environment will help to make your employees feel appreciated and valued. This can include things such as respect for individual differences, giving praise and recognition to employees for their efforts, and creating an open-door policy for communication.
Creating a positive work environment can be achieved by promoting a work-life balance. This can be done by allowing employees to take advantage of the hybrid work model, and by making sure that senior staff members do not stay late or work during the weekend and send emails to other members of the team. This way, your employees will not feel obligated to work overtime or on the weekends. It is essential that employees do not feel guilty about taking time off.
3. Offer Flexible Working Arrangements
Offering flexible working arrangements can provide staff with greater autonomy, leading to improved job satisfaction, morale, and engagement. This can also help to reduce stress, improve work-life balance, enhance communication and collaboration, and attract more diverse talent which can create an inclusive workplace culture. The Office for National Statistics reported that 78% of hybrid workers say that they have an improved work-life balance.
4. Give Recognition and Rewards
Recognise the effort and dedication of employees with rewards such as gifts, bonuses or public acknowledgement of their success. These rewards demonstrate appreciation for their hard work and create a positive work atmosphere, helping to retain employees. Rewarding employees for their achievements also encourages them to strive for excellence and remain motivated. In addition, rewards can be used to recognise high performance and to reward employees for accomplishing certain objectives.
5. Hire for cultural fit
Hiring for cultural fit is essential to ensure that new team members can collaborate effectively with the existing staff, embrace the same values, and strive for the same objectives. It also guarantees that a unified, productive, and successful workplace is being established. Cultural fit also helps to attract and retain top talent as those who feel they match the company’s culture are more likely to stay and aid in its success. Research conducted by Robert Walters, a recruitment company, has found that 73% of professionals have left a job because they did not like the company culture.
By following our 5 top tips to help SMEs retain staff, you can create a passionate and enthusiastic workforce that is more likely to stay with your business in the long term. Having a dedicated and satisfied team of employees, will help you ensure success and growth in the future.
How can Newable help you to retain staff?
Here at Newable, we have a team of experienced advisers passionate about helping SMEs by providing fully funded advice. We give a range of external support and can help you to create a strategy that helps you to retain your staff. Find out more about how Newable can help you retain your staff.
About Newable
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Read our other blogs in this series:
Top tips for SMEs on Expanding Globally
5 top tips to help make your business reach net zero
What does the rise in interest rate mean for SMEs?