Be honest. How many times have you heard someone say “our people are our greatest asset” and rolled your eyes?
It’s cliché, but there is a good bit of truth to the statement. The truth lies in the simple fact that human and intellectual capital are expensive to replace. When you watch a good employee walk out the door, it’s like throwing $100 bills into a big bonfire. Losing a valuable employee can be a big hit, financial and otherwise, to your business.
To help, we’ve put together eight employee retention hacks that you can start putting into place this year.
1. Pay Your Best Employees a Competitive Salary
Let’s get money out of the way. It’s the number one reason why construction company owners believe good employees leave their company. While you don’t need to break the bank to pay more than every other contractor in town, at least be aware of what the going rate is for the types of employees you hire, whether it’s foremen, accountants, bricklayers or estimators. Pay them fairly and competitively.
2. Say More Than “Welcome Aboard” to Your Employees
Your retention efforts should begin at the time you decide to hire a particular employee. When they accept your offer, make them feel like they absolutely made the right decision by joining your company. On their first day, show your new employee around and introduce them to the rest of your crew. Pair your new employee with a friendly peer who already knows the ropes.
3. Offer Employer-Sponsored Job Training
Having the opportunity to learn new skills will be viewed by your employees – especially those who care about their jobs and want to do well – as a nice benefit, which in turn will most likely increase their loyalty to you. But just as important, you will be developing a pool of more skilled and efficient employees for your business. It’s a win-win.
4. Offer a Leadership Development Program
Your best workers should be trained and groomed to take on more responsibility, whether it’s mentoring young employees or managing the finance department.
Who knows, maybe that employee you’re grooming now will turn out to be the person who takes over your business down the road. Leadership development programs can keep good people engaged and increase their loyalty to your business.
When you give your managers leadership training, you’re more likely to retain your up and comers. Why? Because today’s managers will be leading tomorrow’s managers by example.
So ask yourself, what are you doing today to keep your star project manager on track to stay – and succeed – at your company?
5. Give Your Employees Frequent and Actionable Feedback
Feedback can be given in both informal and formal settings. The important thing is that you do it regularly, ideally after every completed job or project.
Your feedback will help ensure your employees know how they can improve and what they’re doing well. Make your feedback specific, transparent and actionable. For example:
- “You did ABC very well.”
- “I liked how you …”
- “Next time, try XYZ instead.”
- “The way you handled ABC allowed us to get the job done faster than expected.”
The vast majority of employees WANT to improve. But they rely on your feedback to know how to do that.
6. Make Your Business a Fun Place to Work
This hack is so easy to implement but sometimes falls by the wayside. Get to know your employees as people. Show them that you care, and be ready to share a laugh here and there.
Celebrate birthdays, put their name in the company newsletter or give your employee of the month a prime parking spot or a Friday afternoon off. Institute Taco Tuesday. Play a game of cornhole over lunch. Do you have a team that exceeded a goal? Treat that team to a catered lunch or an evening at the ballpark.
7. Get Rid of the Bad Apples
Nothing frustrates a high-performing employee more than a bad apple whose incompetency or bad attitude goes unaddressed by the boss. Equally as grating is the nasty customer who, time and time again, puts undue burden on your company and your team with constant criticism, last-minute requests and poor communication.
When is the last time you fired a bad apple employee or customer? If you’ve done it, did it make your employees happy?
8. Be Flexible
For some employees, a flexible work schedule ranks right up there with compensation and a good medical plan on the list of desirable benefits.
Although it might be difficult to institute a high degree of flexibility for your workers in the field, it might be possible to give your in-office staff a work-from-home perk or every other Friday off in the summer.
While this might not work for every business or every employee, extending some degree of flexibility to your best employees doesn’t cost your company a dime and could go a long way toward keeping them happy and loyal to you.
Need Help?
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