Sales: Retaining Good Employees
Today’s business climate has plenty of challenges, not the least of which is retaining good employees. Below are some suggestions to help you Retain your Good Employees as well as attract other good people.
How to retain employees in three steps…
Keeping your best employees happy is an important part of retaining talent. Here’s how you can retain employees in three steps:
- Delegate responsibility. When you give employees important tasks to be responsible for, it makes them feel valued. Be sure to delegate interesting and important tasks and not only routine ones.
- Create revenue-sharing and rewards. Revenue-sharing provides opportunities to tie their results to salary incentives. Other rewards programs that can help retain employees include offering awards and high-demand gifts like gift cards, bonuses and paid time off.
- Consider generous benefits. When it comes to retaining employees, sometimes benefits can make the difference. Employees with good health care packages, plenty of time-off and other benefits that play into the company culture, are likely to continue working for the company that provides them with a high quality of life.
Best practices for retaining employees
If you’re a manager, you can apply these best practices to increase employee retention:
- Be respectful
- Have a strong leadership team
- Create a culture of empowerment
- Face challenges enthusiastically
Be respectful
When managers make employees feel respected they create a culture where employees feel comfortable offering opinions. This leads to transparency and the sharing of ideas between peers. It’s this kind of exchange that management should encourage by rooting all communication in respect for other employees.
Have a strong leadership team
Management interactions can impact whether someone has a positive experience with their job. Good managers retain employees with ease because they practice management strategies that keep the best employees happy with their position using rewards and positive reinforcement.
Good managers work to reduce the barriers that keep employees from doing their job, be it providing health care benefits or using accessible communication software, strong managers meet the needs of employees.
Create a culture of empowerment
To create a culture of empowerment means supporting employees at every step of their career journey with your organization. Some ways managers can create a culture of empowerment is by:
Offer transparency and communicate: Your workforce will appreciate clear transparency in your corporate communications. Communication and feedback between employees and managers should be a part of the culture of the company.
Support employee needs: Benefits can go a long way to support employee needs. Healthy, relaxed employees are going to be able to focus and develop skills. When employers support their employees the whole organization wins because employees are more effective.
Show character and be authentic: As a manager, it’s important to project an image of authority, but it’s also important to be human. Allow yourself to be authentic with employees in instances where it’s appropriate to do so.
Face challenges enthusiastically
Challenges offer a new opportunity for success. Managers who face challenges enthusiastically inspire employees that do the same. Conflict management is an important aspect of company culture. When managers show excitement for new opportunities to develop the team, the whole team benefits.
Employee retention FAQs
Here are two frequently asked questions about employee retention:
Why should managers measure employee retention?
By looking at employee retention data like turnover rates and reasons why employees leave, employers can understand how their managers are handling employees and what operational challenges are faced in daily activity. Measuring employee retention is a measure of managerial success that can be celebrated.
What is an employee retention policy?
An employee retention policy is a document that outlines strategies managers should adhere to in order to ensure employee retention. The document outlines a program that provides increased stability for workers and their families so they can focus on their routine responsibilities. It includes things like management strategies, benefits offered, human resource policies and more.
Roger Bostdorff is the President of B2B Sales Boost. He spent over 30 years with IBM in sales, sales management and General Management. B2B Sales Boost is a consulting company helping organizations improve their top line revenue and bottom line profit. He is also available for business speaking engagements. You can find more regarding B2B Sales Boost on the web at www.b2bsalesboost.com or calling 419-351-4347. If you would like to receive the B2B Sales Boost Newsletter please send an email to roger@b2bsalesboost.com.
