With the New Year around the corner, it might be time to give some thought to a key issue for any employer: how to retain your best staff.
January is a time when people typically look to make changes in their lives, starting with a new job. One in five UK employees hope to kick off the new year with a new job, the Mirror newspaper reports.
So how do you make sure that your best employees aren’t eyeing the door in 2025? Here are some top tips for employee retention from the experts.
Career progression
The Harvard Business Review Leadership podcast ep 81 focuses specifically on retaining talent. Guests Richel Spivey from Google’s Stay & Thrive team, and Kate Tyler, a manager at Shell, pinpoint career development as a top priority if you want to keep your best staff from leaving.
Rachel Spivey thinks career progression is something that managers underestimate. She suggests that business owners or leaders work with their key employees to co-create a career plan that aligns with their goals – both professional and personal.
Rachel says: “Creating that path really helps employees so that they know what their future looks like at the company. So when another company comes to them, they’re not as tempted to take that offer because they know where they stand at their current company.”
HBR recommends focusing on these two areas to facilitate career progression in your business for your best employees:
- Provide Learning and Growth: Continuous skill development is very important to high-performing people. Employees want to advance and will stay longer with companies that invest in their future through training, mentorship, and career progression programs.
- Encourage Internal Mobility: Help employees find opportunities to change roles within the company, allowing them to develop new skills without leaving the organisation.
While career progression is important for your best employees, there are other ways to make sure that your business is one where people want to stay.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) emphasises strategies for employee retention that focus on creating a positive work environment, fostering growth, and building loyalty through engagement and support.
Here are some top HBR-backed tips for retaining employees effectively:
Fair pay and good benefits
Competitive salaries and benefits are key retention factors. Conduct regular market comparisons to ensure compensation packages are attractive.
You can also get in touch with us to find out more about which employee rewards help most with staff retention, and which might prove most valuable to your business.
You can browse our full range of benefits here.
Positive work culture
Workplaces that encourage transparency and trust often lead the way in staff retention. As a leader, it’s important to be transparent about company goals and decisions. Employees are more likely to stay when they trust leadership and feel informed about the direction of the organisation.
Workplaces that promote inclusivity and a sense of belonging also have a lower staff turnover. If you foster an environment where everyone feels valued, regardless of their role or background, you’re more likely to have a loyal, long-serving workforce who work well together on shared goals.
Work-life balance
Recognising staff as people, not workers, and understanding their needs outside the workplace is essential for a compassionate, productive workplace where people want to stay.
Offering flexible working arrangements is key to helping staff with their work-life balance. Whether it’s flexi-time – where start or finish times are outside of the typical ‘9 to 5’ regime – remote or hybrid working, or part-time arrangements, flexibility will help you attract a more diverse group of people and also retain the staff you have.
As part of work-life balance, it’s also important to avoid burnout. Actively manage workloads and respect boundaries. This includes encouraging time off, particularly after busy periods, and promoting mental health resources.
Enjoy Benefits offers a complete Wellness package of helpful videos on mental health awareness, sleep, emotional agility, nutrition and finances.
Find out how easy it is to add this package to your range of benefits – contact us today.
Show staff they’re valued
Recognising both big achievements and small wins helps employees feel valued. Use public recognition in team meetings or on internal platforms to celebrate contributions. You can also give employee rewards like vouchers through our popular Employee Rewards scheme, which is simple to administer.
Involve employees in decision-making
Give employees a voice in shaping policies, procedures, and decisions. HBR finds that when employees feel a sense of ownership, they are more engaged and likely to stay.
For example, you can ask staff which benefits they would find most useful, and review this regularly so that your suite of benefits changes along with your employees’ lifestyles and needs at different stages of life.
HBR recommends creating channels for employees to share their ideas for improvement, from workflow to product innovation. These channels can be anything from regular meetings, surveys, or something different – like the Swedish Fika where everyone pauses at 11 am in the workday to have coffee and a sweet treat together while chatting in a relaxed way.
This involvement in decision-making for the business shows staff that the company values their insights. It gives employees a sense of belonging and empowerment, leading to greater staff satisfaction with your organisation.
Summary
Implementing the practices outlined above can help your business remain a supportive and engaging workplace, encouraging employees to stay and contribute to long-term success.
If you’d like to find out more about how staff benefits can help to improve things like work-life balance, a positive work culture, making staff feel valued and fair compensation packages, get in touch with us today.
We’ll be happy to talk you through our range of benefits and help you select the ones that will help your business flourish in the new year and into the future.
About Us
At Enjoy Benefits, we have great experience in helping companies of all sizes introduce benefits that are suitable for their workplace.
Benefits are easy to set up and ongoing administration is then run through a hub, allowing employees to manage their benefits while the employer can see which benefits are proving popular and what level of take-up each has had.
If you would like an obligation-free chat to discuss which benefits might work for your business and your employees, please contact us by calling 0800 088 7315 or using our Contact Form.
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