How to Tackle Staff Retention in an Increasingly Difficult Market

With Australia’s unemployment rate sitting at consistently low levels, the competition for top talent has never been stronger. Coupled with changing attitudes towards work, businesses are now learning the value of providing a positive employee experience. Whether it be offering professional development courses in Australia or implementing rewards and recognition programs, times are changing for Aussie businesses. Staff retention is more important than ever. In this article, we’ll show you why, and how to tackle staff retention in an increasingly difficult market.

Why is staff retention important?

Staff retention is important for a number of reasons, but the obvious one is experience. Employees who know your business inside and out are so valuable. When they walk, so does a great deal of company knowledge and experience. Of course, the other main reason is performance. Staff who are great at what they do generally make your business the most money. Whether it be through sales or just performing their jobs efficiently, these people are like gold.

Naturally, you want to keep the best people for operational reasons. But perception within your industry is also a big thing. When staff leave you on bad terms, that information is usually shared around their new employer. Once you have a bad reputation in the area of the employee experience, it also makes it difficult to attract new talent.

No longer will people remain loyal just because you’re paying them. A positive employee experience now carries more weight than the pay packet. Attitudes towards work are definitely changing, and successful businesses will be the ones who identify this now.

Changing Employment Attitudes

Attitudes towards work are changing quickly. If we think back 20 years, people were happy to have a job that paid the bills. Now, there’s so much more that employees expect. This could be due to the low unemployment rate – people have more options and are therefore more selective. Or, it may just be a generational change. Whatever the reason, employees who aren’t fulfilled in their jobs are happier than ever to look elsewhere.

According to recent research, the top 5 factors in whether staff feel engaged are:

  • Work-life balance
  • Salary and benefits
  • Job security
  • Pleasant work atmosphere
  • Good training

In years gone by, salary and job security would have been the main concern for workers, but we’re now realising the importance of giving people a real work-life balance.

The fact is, to create the best employee experience, leaders need to be on top of all of these things. Let’s look at some of the ways you can improve your staff retention rates and boost engagement.

Provide Genuine Career Paths

It’s human nature for people to want to advance their position in life. Some do this by starting a family. For others, it’s all about their career. Everyone’s motivations are different, but when it comes to the workplace, people want real career progression opportunities.

There are two extremely visible ways to show people that you offer a strong career path. Firstly, try to promote from within. Obviously, you want the best talent out there, and may look to hire from outside your organisation occasionally. But wherever possible, promoting from within lets people see that there is a way to climb the ladder.

Secondly, professional development is essential. Investing in the proper training, mentoring and professional development courses makes it clear that you’re supporting the long-term goals of staff – not just their daily work.

Recognise Staff Achievements

For a moment, consider these numbers. According to a 10-year study conducted by OC Tanner, a whopping 79% of people who left their job did so because of lack of appreciation. It also cites that recognition is the number one thing that inspires people to do great work.

This tells us that genuinely recognising staff achievements is crucial to retaining your top talent. There are plenty of ways you can do this, whether at an individual or team level. Many companies hold quarterly rewards and recognition events, where individuals are recognised for going above and beyond. You can also consider taking the team out for a meal, drinks or just a fun event at the completion of a big project.

These types of recognition come with a cost, obviously, but acknowledging good work doesn’t have to be expensive. A genuine verbal recognition and thanks when an employee does something impressive is often all that people need to feel recognised.

Focus on Professional Development Courses

Professional development courses in Australia are easy to find, and they can provide great benefit for your company. Firstly, staff are learning valuable skills that help them perform better. That’s always a good thing! But secondly, professional development courses show your staff that you’re committed to developing their career.

Whether it be training in influencing and negotiating, business writing, presentations skills or leadership capabilities, these courses can really help with staff retention. Employees know that these courses are an investment in them, which makes them feel valued. You’re also giving them the best chance to succeed when it comes to internal promotion opportunities.

For combined benefits of staff up-skilling, career development and staff retention, investing in professional development courses can really establish your company as a destination employer.

Flexible Working Conditions

As we touched on before, work-life balance is the most important factor in staff engagement. Staff want to feel that they belong, regardless of their situation outside of the workplace. Offering flexible working conditions creates that sense of belonging.

People’s circumstances change. That employee who was always first in the office and the last to leave now has a family, and wants more time with them. So, are there ways you can arrange that? Can they work from home a couple of days a week, or leave early to pick the kids up from school? Even temporary flexibility is something to consider. If someone has a sick relative, for example, allowing them to work from home may be perfect for them. They can manage their family duties while still contributing fully to their work.

Obviously, flexibility has to be viable, but employers should always consider ways they can align business needs with those of their employees.

Create a Human-Focused Work Culture

A human-focused work culture is one where statistics, performance metrics and sales aren’t the only thing that matters. It’s about creating a workplace where people can feel comfortable being themselves and bringing their whole personality to work. It can be as simple as leaders knowing what their team members’ spouses and children’s names are, or their interests outside of work. Talking to staff as humans rather than employees creates an environment where people feel they belong.

One simple way to do this is to acknowledge and celebrate life events, such as staff birthdays. You may even be aware that a staff member plays a sport on weekends and they’ve just won a big game. Celebrate it in the office! It may be something as simple as a congratulatory email shared amongst the team, but it goes a long way to making people feel they’re appreciated.

In fact, according to research from Globoforce, staff are 79% more likely to feel they belong if they’ve had one life event celebrated at work. This increases to 90% for 5 life events. It’s all about recognising the things that matter to your staff, and understanding they have important lives outside of the workplace too.

Where business used to be all about the customer experience, we’re now seeing that it all starts with the employee experience. With people more ready than ever to seek opportunities elsewhere, staff retention should be high on every company’s radar in 2020. If you need to find the best professional development courses in Australia to keep staff motivated, we’d love to hear from you at MCI Solutions.