The cost of replacing staff can be a hefty blow to both your financial situation and the satisfaction of your customers. And if you’re in an industry that is feeling the affect of Australia’s skills shortage, it can be a long, repetitive and frustrating process to get the right staff.
To shore up the long-term stability of your workforce, the focus is ultimately about getting staff to stay. The first essential step to this outcome is to choose people in the first place that have the mind-set and motivation that makes them likely to stay.
You then need a strategy in place to keep your staff happy and productive. By investing in your staff you are setting yourself up for success.
A good working environment is a combination of the physical space and the company culture. The space in which your staff work should be physically comfortable by making it bright, ventilated, temperature controlled and uncramped.
A space that is attractive and well decorated will also be more pleasant to work in.
Don't forget about company culture as this can have a significant impact on whether an employee stays.
Create a culture that allows your staff to feel valued and included by being friendly, inclusive, positive and respectful in order to get staff to stay. This can start with a single person with the right attitude that spreads throughout your business.
You need to stay competitive in the salary market to attract and then retain the best staff. Make sure you keep abreast of what the market is paying and review this and your employees' salaries regularly (at least annually).
You may not have to pay the highest salaries in the market to attract and retain the best staff as they will be attracted (and will choose to stay) based on a combination of factors including culture, working conditions, company reputation and room for career advancement.
There’s also may be other incentives you might want to offer as part of the package to get staff to stay, such as use of a company car, gym membership or flexible work hours.
An engaged employee will perform better and be more likely to stay in the long term. Foster a culture in which your staff feels trusted and has a sense of ownership over their roles and the outcomes of their work.
Make sure staff know what is expected of them, provide feedback and support. Keep the lines of communication open and clear. Encourage them to share their ideas.
Keep staff in the loop and share the future plans for the business. It's important they feel they're important to the business and that they're making a real contribution to its success.
Recognise great staff and a job well done.
Recognising staff could be as simple, but effective, as mentioning someone's great work at a staff meeting. Or it could be tied to remuneration such as a bonus or pay rise, or even a movie ticket or restaurant voucher, you would be surprised how well that works.
Most employees want to progress in some way, whether it be via promotion into a more senior role, upskilling to a different role or access to new challenges within the same role.
To get staff to stay, make sure your employees can see a clear career path so they can envision their future with your company. Find out about their aspirations and help them achieve them. Offer careers, not jobs.
Offer a staff development program, access to mentors, additional training or study time.
With a rock-solid approach to recruitment and a staff retention plan in place, you’ll be able to focus on running your business and not on replacing staff.