Retain or Perish!

Do you find it difficult to attract the right employees to your business? Are you experiencing high staff turnover, poor staff performance or high rates of absenteeism? Would you like to be an employer of choice and attract and retain top performing employees and have your business flourish?

According to a recent survey, over 75% of SMEs said that recruitment and employee retention is a key issue for their business. Yet, at the same time, some businesses are being voted as employers of choice by their employees. This is because those employers put their people first and they create a positive working environment… and their reward? High employee retention rates, top performing employees and exceptional business results!

So what does it take to be an employer of choice? Here are 3 results-producing retention strategies to assist your business:

1. Create an Empowered Culture

Develop a culture within your business that empowers everyone – the CEO, the executive, the leaders, each employee, the customer, the alliance partners, you – everyone. Where there is a clear vision and strategic direction that the leaders are passionate about, that spreads contagiously and inspires everyone to give 1000%. Yes, 1000%!

A culture where leaders are true leaders – role models and examples for others to aspire to, who operate from integrity and deliver on what is said, who are enablers in assisting others to be themselves and to reach their full potential. A living breathing culture where there is synergistic alignment between the values of the business and the values of every employee in the business.

This is “the glue” that binds people together and that creates the most successful businesses! A business without “the glue” starts to fall apart and experience high employee absenteeism, poor performance, team conflicts, etc. How “sticky” is the culture in your business?

2. Select the Perfect Fit

Choose your team wisely because it is easier to retain employees that have been selected appropriately in the first place. Before you can understand what a perfect fit is for your business, first you need to understand and be clear about the vision, strategic direction and values of your business so you can develop the all important “glue” critical for retention.

Doing this will also give you much clarity about the type of person that would best fit culturally with your business – their career/life vision, their values, their personality traits and individual style and preferences. With this clarity, you can incorporate a set of simple and effective techniques that will assist you to conversationally assess the cultural fit of each potential employee, to accurately predict their job longevity, their personality preferences, etc. in around 20 minutes!

And the great news is that if you already have a team in place, you can use these techniques to effectively align your team to work together even more synergistically and productively. We will discuss how to create the perfect fit in our next edition of Business Transformations. How can you create “the glue” in your business that attracts the perfect fit employees and then retains them?

3. Invest in Yourself and Your People

Develop yourself and your people, both personally and professionally, and assist them to tap into their potential. The businesses that are most successful in retaining their employees take a long term perspective in developing their people. They take a keen interest in the employees’ life purpose, goals and dreams (and also assist their employees to clarify these) and keep this in mind as they invest in their growth and development – for the near, medium and long term.

To maximise your return on investment in your employees, you will also want to invest in the managers and leaders of the business. By developing their leadership skills, they will be better placed to empower, coach and mentor their teams, to provide empowering feedback, to recognise them and appropriately reward them, to assist them to achieve exceptional levels of performance, to grow as individuals and professionals and to achieve their life purpose, goals and dreams.

The more meaning people find in their work, the more motivated, fulfilled and successful they will be, both personally and professionally. It is the businesses that assist their employees to successfully integrate their life purpose, vision, values, goals and dreams with their career aspirations and working life that are the real winners! Because investing in you and your people makes “the glue” stickier and will assist you to boost employee retention.

Will you embrace these strategies and see your business flourish or will you allow your business to perish?

Do you know any business owners, CEOs, team leaders or managers who could benefit from retaining more of their employees?

Simply ask them to email Vesna now or call her on 0411 479 256 to arrange their complimentary Retain and Flourish© consultation – so they too can discover how their business can become an employer of choice and attract and retain their key assets – their people!