How to Retain Your Frontline Employees

Why do employees leave jobs?

You’ve probably heard of The Great Resignation - the period of time in 2021 when people decided to make a change in their work lives. In fact 4.1 million Americans left their jobs in November and December 2021 alone.

Much of this was due to changes in employee attitudes post-pandemic. With businesses calling people back into the office after furloughs and lockdowns, people decided to try their hand at a new role, or even move to freelancing or setting up their own business.

This may or may not have affected your business, but the truth is that the labor market remains very challenging for the average business owner. Which means that, more than ever, employers need to hold onto their best staff.

When it comes to retaining employees, finding the reasons why people leave is going to be as unique as your business and industry. But, generally speaking, employees leave jobs because of:

• Stress/high workload
• Lack of recognition (including missed promotions)
• Poor work relationships
• Feeling unchallenged or unfulfilled
• Low pay or lack of benefits
• Personal factors such as ill health, childcare etc

If your company sees a high turnover of staff, chances are that it’s a combination of factors that are causing the churn.

Employees may put up with relatively low wages, but if the job is also stressful, or team members make the job harder, then it’s a no-brainer to move on. There is always another job!

Finding out why your employees leave is a simple case of asking them when they hand in their notice. Or, if you prefer, you could also send out an anonymous questionnaire to your staff asking them about their opinions and attitudes to the challenges of the job. It’s easy to set up a questionnaire using Google Forms and Edge offers customizable staff surveys via SMS text message.

How you can keep your staff and reduce employee churn

In this post-pandemic work landscape, and with more people faced with cost-of-living challenges, business owners need to adapt or die. And no, this is not an exaggeration.

With employees the lifeblood of any company, giving people a reason to want to come and work for you and, importantly, to stay, needs to be part of your business strategy.

You’ve worked hard to attract those employees. Now how do you keep them on board?

Look at your company culture

Gen-Z and Millennial workers value some factors that Gen-X, Baby Boomers and even some older Millennials may dismiss or ridicule.

Inclusivity, diversity and sustainability are not just buzzwords.

These are now the new standards for modern businesses.

Look at any modern business operating online, and you’ll see references to any and all of these terms within their company mission and about us pages.

Meaning that, if your business is aiming to attract and retain a young workforce, you need to not just understand these terms, but embrace them.

Typical steps to improve your company culture in 2022 would include:

• Making your management more transparent and accountable
• Define your company values and, importantly, stick to them
• Prioritize the health and wellbeing of your workforce
• Nurture a culture of positivity by building a friendly team who are happy in their work
• Regularly meeting with your staff and listening to their concerns or feedback
• Providing consistent and fair feedback and guidance across your team
• Looking at how your company contributes to both the local community and global sustainability

Employee Recognition and rewards

If your employees are doing a good job, how do you recognize this? Although the ‘Employee of the Month’ is a classic method of highlighting an outstanding contributor, it can also be seen as favoritism and even ‘unfair’.

On one hand, recognizing a team effort is a good way to build a strong bond within that unit.

But also providing personal feedback and recognition for individuals can help to keep them motivated and focused.

In the world of online reviews and feedback, a valuable source of validation is a mention within a review. If an employee has left a positive impression which results in a glowing review, this obviously shows to the employer that they’re doing something right.

And for the employee, of course, positive feedback from a customer always makes the job worthwhile.

Employee Progression

Progression doesn’t always mean a promotion. Understanding what a business can offer an employee in the long term is key to retaining staff for an extended period.

Offering extra training and certifications can be a good way for an employee to feel like they’re progressing. Although, that does bring the Richard Branson quote to mind:

“Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so that they don’t want to.”

Putting it simply, investing in your staff and seeing them as individual people who want more from life can reap benefits in the long run.

Helping them to learn new skills and achieve their goals creates a happy and positive workforce. And happy, positive employees tend to be both better workers, and more loyal.

Employee Pay

The truth is that one of the best recruitment strategies is to offer competitive compensation. Whatever your industry, you need to be looking at ways that you can attract new hires, and the pay rate tends to be one of the first things that most people look at.

Pay is also key to employee retention, with longer serving staff expecting increases too. So this needs to be factored into any hiring process.

The bottom line

When it comes to attracting the best talent, and employee retention, it’s no longer just about money.

Job satisfaction is now more important than ever, in a world where people can easily switch to working online or starting their own business. More companies than ever are looking for ways to get an edge over the competition with regards to hiring the best people.

And, like many industries, technology plays a big part in this.

Solutions such as Edge are designed to improve employee performance by engaging them proactively with their job. Offering incentives for positive customer reviews and tracking employee performance means that employers can identify the top performers and keep employees engaged.

Winning more positive reviews, proactively solving problems before they become a negative review, and improving job satisfaction for your workforce are just a few of the ways Edge for Business can improve your business strategy.

Book your demo today and let us prove to you why Edge is the best solution for employee retention.