Benefits and Compensation

Employee Engagement and Retention—32 Things to Do

Most experts believe that engagement is not all about money. There are actions you can take that could be effective at retention of high potential and/or key player employees. For example:

  • Talk to the employees and let them know that you value their services and that you have high hopes for their futures at your company.
  • If your total rewards package includes many benefits beyond salary, be sure that employees are aware of all they are getting beyond the paycheck.
  • Establish a mentoring program to help high potential and key employees that upper management wants to help them succeed.
  • Use stock options or other forms of payment that vest over time.
  • Involve the employee in intriguing projects (“Next month we start implementing X; I’d like you on the implementation team, or, We’re establishing a companywide task force to explore X; I think you could contribute a lot to that.”).
  • Offer special opportunities (“The president of the company is visiting next month; I’d like you to get together with him and explain your proposal for X.”)

And, of course, in a more general way, do those things that will make your workplace a “great place to work.”


Find problems before the feds do. HR Audit Checklists ensures that you have a chance to fix problems before government agents or employees’ attorneys get a chance. Try the program at no cost or risk.


Here, from BLR’s 99 Ways to Keep Employees Happy, Satisfied, Motivated, and Productive, are a variety of engagement suggestions:

  • Offer price discounts for company’s products/services to employees.          
  • Have a family day at work.
  • Present employees with a shirt or jacket with the organization’s logo.
  • Offer free vending service.
  • Sponsor a health fair for employees.      
  • Offer discounted family-oriented activities for employees.
  • Encourage employees’ spouses to travel with them on business.
  • Celebrate the company’s milestones.     
  • Allow employees to work flexible hours.
  • Include pictures of employees in company advertisements.
  • Have top management meet with small groups of employees
  • Allow employees time off to visit their children’s schools.
  • Give employees opportunities to express how they feel about their jobs.
  • Don’t punish employees for looking for another job.   
  • Publicize the company’s efforts to protect the environment.
  • Offer more cross-training opportunities for employees.           
  • Offer a career development seminar.      
  • Send employees to a “ropes” course.      
  • Develop a guest speaker program.          
  • Give employees access to openings in other parts of the organization.
  • Give employees time off to perform community services.
  • Allow employees to work at home.          
  • Give employees the opportunity to visit other parts of the organization.
  • Provide developmental assignments to employees.    
  • Give performance feedback more often than once a year.
  • Update employees’ personal computers.           

Do You Have to Consider These Engagement Options?

No, of course not. But where’s the blame going to land when your people are all leaving?

Figuring out what the players in the trenches are thinking and what they are up to—are critical tasks for 2013. Are all of your managers and supervisors acting according to your policies and applicable laws? Treating employees right? How can you tell what’s really going on in your organization? There’s only one way to find out—regular audits.

The rub is that for most HR managers, it’s hard to get started auditing—where do you begin?

BLR’s editors recommend a unique product called HR Audit Checklists. Why are checklists so great? Because they’re completely impersonal, forcing you to jump through all the necessary hoops one by one. They also ensure consistency in how operations are conducted. That’s vital in HR, where it’s all too easy to land in court if you discriminate in how you treat one employee over another.

HR Audit Checklists compels thoroughness. For example, it contains checklists both on Preventing Sexual Harassment and on Handling Sexual Harassment Complaints. You’d likely never think of all the possible trouble areas without a checklist; but with it, just scan down the list, and instantly see where you might get tripped up.


Using the “hope” system to avoid lawsuits? (As in: We “hope” we’re doing it right.) Be sure! Check out every facet of your HR program with BLR’s unique checklist-based audit program. Click here to try HR Audit Checklists on us for 30 days!


In fact, housed in the HR Audit Checklists binder are dozens of extensive lists, organized into reproducible packets, for easy distribution to line managers and supervisors. There’s a separate packet for each of the following areas:

  • Staffing and training (incorporating Equal Employment Opportunity in recruiting and hiring, including immigration issues)
  • HR administration (including communications, handbook content, and recordkeeping)
  • Health and safety (including OSHA responsibilities)
  • Benefits and leave (including healthcare cost containment, COBRA, FMLA, workers’ compensation, and several areas of leave)
  • Compensation (payroll and the Fair Labor Standards Act)
  • Performance and termination (appraisals, discipline, and separation)

HR Audit Checklists is available to HR Daily Advisor readers for a no-cost, no-risk evaluation in your office for up to 30 days. Visit HR Audit Checklists, and we’ll be happy to arrange it.

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