6 Ways You Can Retain Employees Aside From Salary Increases

Imagine you have a star employee, or maybe you already do and you don’t have to imagine it, but think about how difficult it would be to replace them. 

Good hiring takes time and then you have an adjustment period with new staff where they need onboarding and time to get to know the culture. It costs your business a lot of time and money. Sometimes this investment works out and sometimes it doesn't. So if constantly replacing employees is bad for business what should you focus on to prevent this? Employee retention. 

Salary increases are an obvious way to retain employees however they might not always be feasible or enough on their own. Here are 6 ways you can retain employees aside from a salary increase.

Include work-from-home options

Working from home brings a lot of flexibility to employees' lives from removing the commute time to making it easier to take care of responsibilities outside of work such as children and pets. 

Working from home might not be everyone’s cup of tea, some people prefer to have their tea at the office. But during the pandemic when many people tried working from home for the first time, there was positive feedback. This survey from the National Office of Statistics reports 78% of employees claim that they have a better work-life balance when working from home.

The key is choice. Give employees more liberty to choose the environment where they'll feel the most comfortable. Not only will it indirectly increase their productivity, but it will keep them satisfied with their working environment. However, choice does not always mean giving your employees complete free reign, for example, if your employees are never in an office they might not feel like they’re part of the business which would make it easier for them to make the decision to leave. The choice might look like giving your employees the option to work 2 days a week from home or for everyone to be in the office together 2 days a week.  The right flexible working arrangements for your business will depend on the culture you want to create.

Give them room to improve

With time, it's expected that an employee will outgrow their position, which makes it a lot more challenging to stay focused on the job. Can you imagine doing something every day that you don’t find challenging or stimulating? 

Forcing the same tasks will worsen the situation, and before you know it, the employee will start to consider a way out (typically another job somewhere else). 

That's why it's important to provide learning and promotion opportunities to keep them happy and excited by the opportunities available to them to help them grow. Be open to suggestions from employees about the skills they would like to develop and provide them with training opportunities. This might seem like a difficult thing to do in a small business, but there are lots of opportunities and we are experts in developing career plans that fit small businesses.

If you would like support from People Management Partners to design career development plans, our Pay-As-You-Go service might be just what you need.

Reduce work hours

We’ve all seen the four-day work week in the news. It is gaining lots of interest, and for a good reason - it’s reported to keep workers productive, engaged, and less stressed. 

If your business is not ready for a four-day work week, why not cut hours on Friday from nine to three? Removing two hours from the working week might not seem a lot to the company when compared with the rise in employee satisfaction.

Create an inclusive workplace

An environment where everybody feels respected and heard, without prejudice or discrimination, is an environment where everybody wants to stay and thrive. 

For example, when the working environment is accessible physically, employees feel like they belong. When employees get the opportunity to share their opinions and work without fear of judgment, they will feel a lot more comfortable in the workplace. Overall, when the workplace is inclusive, people want to be there. 

Creating an inclusive workplace is a process if you would like to learn more about this topic, have a read of our blog.

Concentrate on team building

Teamwork really does make the dream work! Nothing increases productivity like a strong team that knows each other's strengths and weaknesses. Not only does it make them more motivated and efficient, but it creates a personal bond apart from their business tasks. The friendly interactions that people have in the workplace can make them want to be there. 

How do you do this? You can do team-building excursions, brainstorming sessions, and contests.

Don’t forget to recognise a job well done

Maybe it is so obvious that it is easy to forget, but there is a lot of value in recognising an employee who does good work and saying thank you. If you’re looking for some ideas on how you can thank your team, here is a blog post.

In conclusion

Retaining your employees and keeping them satisfied is more straightforward than spending time and money in their finding and training their replacements. 

Salary increases and bonuses are the simplest and most effective methods for doing so; however, you might not be in a position to offer large pay increases. By adding these methods to your employee retention scheme, you can offer employees a great incentive to stay and be part of your team.