Some businesses use traditional incentives to retain staff – cake Friday, health benefits, personal development, contests etc. That’s all great employee management but what about using I.T. to help retain staff?
Do you have an employee retention issue?
Nobody wants to say, Yes to this question but you still have to ask it of yourself for the good of your business.
Typically, the average employee turnover rate is 15% although this does vary depending on industry. The highest levels of turnover are found in private sector organisations in retailing, catering, call centres, construction and media. Industries with traditionally low turnover rates include legal, accountancy, education and the public sector. (Source)
Employees will leave a job for many different reasons but some of those could be within your power to correct. Some of the obvious reasons, you can’t always solve with IT but some which can be if you have the right solutions in place.
With the right I.T. solutions you can offer your team; Remote and flexible working, Enhanced communication, Work Motivation and Appreciation, Measurable targets and associated Incentives.
Remote and Flexible working
Remote and flexible working isn’t going away; it’s popular for a reason. It’s not limited to those who have families either.
Some people don’t want to spend an hour (sometimes more) to commute to work each day which could happen especially if you are based in London or if you have relocated your offices. Many people consider leaving jobs because of the travel time but what if you offered a solution that would allow them to minimise their travel time? Perhaps rather than eliminating is all together, you agree for them to be in office, 2 out of 5 days instead.
Additionally, how many times have you had parents call in sick because their child is poorly? They are fine but they need to look after their child. Their child could be poorly in bed and not need anything physically, then the parent may well prefer to be doing work rather than having a day off unpaid. Providing that opportunity would mean the world to them and to you it means less interrupted work, especially at the time of important projects.
In this digital age, there is so much technology to enable remote working:
- Laptops – most people have laptop docking stations and screens rather than bulky hardware that sits under the desk. Supply a laptop and they can dock it at home to work and also when they visit the office, they can dock and work there, too.
- Collaboration tools (such as MiCollab) – where they can access everything they need to do their job AND communicate with their team via video conferencing or instant messaging. Likewise, they can share documents and tasks can be set which means easy management, too.
- Company mobiles – to keep in touch with the office if they are out and about and also, to work whilst on the go.
- VoIP phone – a plug-in phone which uses the internet means they can take a handset home or they can use a softphone and headphones instead.
- Remote back-ups – there is technology which allows remote back-ups so your data is secure.
Communication
Communication is key but what if you have a manager who is based remotely, some large organisations even have managers based in other countries. How can they manage without communication? Is it easy for a member of their team to get hold of them? Another key reason employees leave is because they don’t feel appreciated, listened to or supported by their manager.
If someone is working remotely, using a collaboration tool (such as MiCollab) They’d be able to see what work has been done, productivity and be able to thank them for the work “in person” via video conferencing. You could set up regular 1-2-1 meetings – daily, weekly, monthly, but do them over video conferencing and address any concerns or better yet, praise them for the work they have done.
Additionally, with collaboration tools you have the ability to instant message/ see if someone is available to talk which means if a staff member is upset, they can easily communicate that they need to talk to you and see if that message has been received rather than an email getting lost in the ether.
Targets and Incentives
Most businesses set targets but sometimes, they don’t reach the people who are directly responsible for achieving those targets (which is counter-productive, to say the least!)
You need to make targets Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound which means that all parties need to be aware and agree to it. Once you have SMART targets, you can associate incentives with them.
Using a system to post the targets, talk about them and pull reports on whether they are being achieved would be useful to all involved. Targeting employees is great but sometimes it’s nice to see for them to see where they are in relation to reaching the target, particularly if they are in sales as they get competitive and push themselves.
A CRM system can be the answer to this.
Your businesses success will grow alongside your motivated workforce.
Why is it important to retain staff?
The main reason is cost. The cost to recruit, train and manage. If you already have someone in place who does the job really well and a slight adjustment to working conditions, pay or an employee benefit would be a lot less costly than recruiting and training someone again.
Another main reason is the impact on the organisation by losing that skill set and then the time is taken to retain someone else would ultimately impact productivity and possibly service.
Again, slight adjustments in your offering could change that and you could retain your asset.