For any business, being able to retain employees is important. With some businesses, they forget just how important it is to keep employees happy in order to stop them from looking for greener pastures elsewhere.
Incentivizing your employees with a wealth of opportunities and perks within the workplace is handy when trying to improve employee retention across the company. As a business, there are plenty of opportunities to do this, there just needs to be a willingness to do so.
This year, prioritizing your employees is a must. With that being said, here are ten tips to incentivize your own employees and retain them for the business.
- Offer them rewards for hard work.
Rewards – everyone loves a reward. Whether it’s an unexpected coffee run on a Friday morning to earn a free day off for hard work.
Employees work hard and in some cases, they sacrifice a lot of time, often their personal time, for the sake of the company. While this is a work-life balance conversation in itself, the least you can do is try to show your employees you truly appreciate them going above and beyond for the business. Thoughtful gifts could be something small like lunch being ordered to the office for them, or it could be something like these massage gift cards in Elmhurst, IL (or elsewhere more relevant) so that they can go and get some stress relief and relax for an afternoon.
Simple rewards that aren’t necessarily a huge financial cost, are a great way to give your employees a deserved gift for all their hard work. Recognize who it is that deserves a reward, even if the budget only stretches to one treat per month. This small gesture can go a long way in securing employees in the long run.
- Assess their benefits package.
What sort of benefits is being offered to your employees so far? Perhaps you’ve had a basic benefits package in place that hasn’t really been reviewed since the early days of the company.
Working with an HR manager, it’s worth looking at what can be added to the current benefits package and what might be given to those higher up in the ranks. It might also be a case of offering more benefits for those who are delivering on projects and providing outstanding results within their role.
The company’s benefits package is something that should be reviewed annually, as there’s likely to be progression within the business that correlates with more benefits given out to staff.
- Create a better work-life balance.
We all want to strive towards a better work-life balance but the reality of it isn’t always possible for some jobs. Depending on the industry you go into and the role you undertake, sometimes the work is constant and can sometimes eat into your personal life too.
Creating a better work-life balance is important and it’s definitely something to encourage as a business, to its employees.
According to one study, 38% of people say their organization never or rarely makes it possible for employees to have a healthy balance between work and life. While that’s on the lower side, it’s still a good chunk of employees who feel let down by their company for not promoting a healthier work-life balance.
To help create this ideal work life, consider allowing staff to finish early on certain days and to ensure everyone is taking the right amount of time off each year. Pay staff for overtime but also give them the option of working over their normal working hours instead of just expecting that to be the case.
- Connect with employees daily or weekly.
To help with incentivizing employees, be sure to check in with them on a regular basis. A lack of communication is often at the heart of mistakes made within the business. Not only that but employees will often feel like leaving when they’re not being checked up on or appreciated in a way they feel is deserving.
Connecting with employees on a daily or weekly basis is important and it’s something that many businesses will fail to do. However, these small occasions where communication is had helps keep your workforce stable and supported.
Without communication, how do you know if your employees are happy? How do you know if they’re coping well with their workload currently? Communication helps monitor and assess your staff’s mental well-being and enjoyment of the job. It’s essential information needed to ensure your employees are happy in their roles.
- Incorporate a little healthy competition.
Competition in business can be a little toxic if you’re playing off your employees with one another maliciously. However, there is such a thing as healthy competition, which can be highly effective in building relationships and offering rewards while you’re at it.
This health competition could be sales lead if you’re looking after a team responsible for bringing in the funds, otherwise, it could be relative to their department or team.
Whatever the case may be, encouraging a bit of healthy competition will do wonders for incentivizing staff members to work harder. Having a few bragging rights within the office is also an effective way of improving happiness within the workplace.
Speak to managers and supervisors to set up goals and competitions that can provide a variety of rewards over the course of the year.
- Become an excellent role model to your peers.
When you’re responsible for staff, whether that’s as a business owner or a manager/supervisor, it’s important to be a role model for everyone. Role models set the standard and also showcase how others should treat and be treated in the workplace.
You may want to encourage break times within the workplace, so to do so, you must be seen to be taking your own lunch break – away from your desk!
Try to find ways to show this role model status so that you’re able to inspire your employees in more ways than one.
- Consider career development and training opportunities.
Employee experience can often be found in career development and training opportunities. While incentives and perks can be useful, training is something that can greatly help grow a person in more ways than one.
Not all career development and training opportunities need to be related to their job itself. It could be soft skills and general experience that they garner from these training opportunities which make them more, well-rounded employees.
Think about what career development opportunities you’ve given to your staff over the years and if there’s some budget available, provide more where possible.
- Assess their pay and provide bonuses where applicable.
As the business grows, so does its bank fund. When it comes to profit for the business, some of that should be going to your staff in the form of bonuses and pay increases.
Every year is an opportunity for employees to be given an annual review. This annual review gives employees the opportunity to understand what improvements they need to make or the celebrations that need to be made for achievements within their role.
Assess what their pay currently is and whether at this point, a pay rise is appropriate or a bonus should be given. There may even be an opportunity to provide an all-important job promotion. While all this might not be appropriate for the employee this time around, it’s useful to offer it as an incentive and a reward to review the following year.
- Give them the right tools to do their job well.
An employee is only as good as the tools they’re given. With that in mind, do your employees have everything they need to do their job effectively? Perhaps some software or tools are missing from their toolkit and could make a world of difference to the quality of work produced.
For some employees, a mentoring program might be worthwhile. This is where employees are given their own mentors to learn from and improve upon their role within the business. Both personal life and professional life skills can come from having a mentor, so it’s well worth considering if you want to improve upon your employee’s experience and development.
Other tools like the office equipment they use, are also influential in how productive their day becomes. Make sure there’s a budget to keep on top of new appliances, equipment, and more importantly ergonomic chairs, monitor risers, etc.
- Always find ways to show appreciation for the workforce.
Appreciation within the workplace is – appreciated. By all staff members, getting any form of attention and appreciation from their employer is well received. It’s something you want to consider doing more of, across your entire workforce rather than just a select few.
Think about other ways in which you can show your appreciation for the team and for each individual member. From social dinners to say thank you or congratulations to hitting a milestone, to mentions in the company newsletter. It all goes a long way in helping retain employees for the long term.
As a business, incentivizing your employees is something that can greatly pay off for any business that’s willing to spend the time, money, and effort to do so. With that being said, take these tips as opportunities to do the same for your business this year and to give back to employees who deserve it.