Does it ever hurt you not to see your favorite waiter at your typical restaurant? You feel almost heart-broken to know he has left the job. That’s the kind of impact a good employee has on a customer.
Imagine this situation in a company where there’s a great team of Support representatives. Wouldn’t it hurt your customers when they didn’t find the same support guys? A recent study stated that a 5% increase in customer retention could increase a company’s profitability by 75%. And to retain a customer, you have got to keep your employees. Remember that the recruitment cost will always be higher than the price or retention because of the amount of time, money, and resources put in for training an employee. So what can you do to control attrition in your start-up? Some practical ways can do the work.
Transparency of communication
Remember that people always leave bosses, not companies. You need to eliminate the room for politics and create an environment of accountability. You can do this by implementing a transparent communication system.
Give them benefits with salaries
Medical or fitness program, insurance program or provident fund, etc. are some examples of services that you can offer to your employees along with the salary package. Many fitness companies, hospitals, insurance companies can give you employee concessions that would control your costs. Include small perks like coffee machines, free laundry pick-up, free photocopy, etc.
Motivational contests
To a great extent, an employee is motivated by the work environment and healthy competition. If he feels addicted to the work place, you have succeeded in your objective. Organize contests related to their work or completely unrelated creative games like fast typing contests, quizzes, races, badminton championships, etc. over the weekend.
Conduct “stay interviews”
Stay interviews are as crucial as exit interviews. Pick long-tenured employees and ask them to suggest ways of improvement. Tell them that their opinion matters to you. Ask them what they like most about your company and what would make them leave. These interviews give you severe clues about what makes employees stick and build goodwill among senior employees.
Create brand loyalty
One of the most effective ways to retain employees is to build loyalty for your start-up. Tee shirts, coffee mugs bearing attractive slogans or posters bearing quotes of their favorite business icons, etc., create a sense of belongingness and loyalty.
Goal training
Facebook’s Analog Lab informs that the employees are often given quarterly and monthly targets instead of 3-year or 5-year targets. An employee is more likely to nail it when he has an immediate goal in his mind. Conduct goal training on a monthly or quarterly basis and challenge them.
These are some cost-effective ways to help the employees see a long-term perspective with your start-up and make them stay longer. Retention can be crucial to the growth of a start-up today.
