Globalization brings the opportunity for companies to join the global market, diversify, and hire from a wider pool of talent, but it also comes with a variety of challenges.
According to Zenefits research conducted on 600 U.S. businesses, roughly 64% of company owners reported it’s harder to retain employees than it is to hire them. Finding, hiring, and educating a new employee to understand the processes and business culture is a costly and resource-heavy process. Because of this, employers have started to shift their focus to keep the most valuable company asset: employees.
On top of that, 81% of employees reported they’d consider changing their job for the right position in a different company, even if it means they’ll take a significant pay cut. Salary isn’t the most critical aspect of a job, and professionals have started to seek perks and benefits from the workplace.
If you understand the importance of your employees and are looking for creative ways to retain your most valuable asset, you’re in the right place. We’re going to share a few tips to help you become an employer of the year in this decade and help you retain your employees.
#1: Create a Nice Company Culture and Environment
Setting up core values for your company ensures you will attract professionals who share and believe in the same values. It’s a prerequisite for building a creative and motivational environment where employees can thrive and produce market value. A well-established culture helps retain employees, as it supports building a community of like-minded and creative professionals.
Nurturing a company culture at all organizational levels is imperative in becoming an employer of the year, and here are a few reasons:
- Increases the integrity—Integrity and believing in a company and its leadership are crucial, especially in a global and dynamic market.
- Transforms employees to advocates—It’s evident that employees seek more than a regular paycheck. People want to feel they and their opinions matter and that they are a part of a community they believe in. If they feel this way, employees will promote and live the culture internally and externally, ensuring an overall better workplace and satisfied and motivated employees. Be sure to recognize the effort and good work your employees deliver and celebrate the company’s successes.
- Supports the onboarding process—Onboarding is a complicated process that requires resources and patience to train a new employee. If your culture focuses on employee needs, then cultural assimilation and understanding the workflow will be a much easier process for both sides.
- Creates a coherent team—Working in a company where everyone shares and lives the same values is ideal. A well-established culture ensures that your employees work as a team, which ultimately increases performance and employee satisfaction.
#2—Identify the Qualities of Employees You’re Looking For
Before starting with the recruiting phase, it’s essential to define the personal and professional qualities you’re seeking from your employees. The main reason is that hiring the right people will make a massive difference in the company. Once you’ve set the company culture, it’s vital to identify the core values and qualities of potential employees, which helps them understand the culture and share the same values.
In some cases, hiring top professionals will be counterproductive if they don’t share the same values, beliefs, and vision. Satisfied employees are a prerequisite for building coherent teams and a like-minded community and will push your company forward.
Hiring a person who lacks professional skills but shares the same values and understands the culture makes the onboarding process much easier and can increase employee retention.
Here are a few valuable qualities to look for while hiring new talent:
- Have a can-do attitude and motivation for learning new things and upgrading a skill set
- Share the same core values and beliefs as your company
- Are good team players
- Have independence
- Have leadership skills and high integrity
- Have self-awareness and the ability to honestly discuss their strengths and weaknesses and actively improve them
- Have solid communication skills
#3—Offer Benefits and Perks to Retain Your Employees
Nowadays, employees actively seek flexibility at their workplace, among other benefits and perks, which increases their overall satisfaction and work/life balance. It’s your job as an employer to satisfy your employees’ needs, as satisfied employees are your most valuable asset.
Did you know that 83% of Millennial employees believe work/life balance is crucial when deciding to get a new job? The current COVID-19 crisis necessitated transitioning many positions to remote, which drastically increases employee flexibility.
If you have doubts about working remotely, there are many reliable platforms that support remote work, such as schedulers and attendance trackers, and efficiently organize your employees and keep track of their performance.
Here are a few trendy perks you can offer to your employees to increase satisfaction and your retention rate:
- Offer a performance bonus.
- Provide health insurance and paid vacation time.
- Host regular teambuilding events.
- Allow your employees to have at least 1 work-from-home day a week with a flexible schedule.
- Offer professional development plans for your employees to develop in a personal and professional way.
- Offer free gym memberships and wellness programs.
- Enable your employees to invest in your company’s stocks.
- Offer discounts for your employees. For instance, companies such as Apple and Samsung give hefty discounts on their new products.
- Keep a modern office.
#4—Always Keep an Eye on Your Competitors
If you struggle with keeping your employees’ satisfaction high, it’s never a bad idea to check your competition and address this challenge. Learn and understand the ways your competition treats its employees, which perks and benefits it offers, and what its work environment and organizational culture are like. That way, you’ll understand what works in your industry and get a clear idea for creating an effective action plan.
Here are a few real-life examples of how some big companies keep employees’ satisfaction and performance at high levels:
- Microsoft—The software giant understands that its most valuable asset is its employees, and it offers a variety of benefits for its employees. For example, it ensures its employees have physical and mental health coverage, discounts, vacation time, continual professional and personal development, flexible hours, and remote work, among other perks and benefits.
- Toyota—As one of the leading car manufacturers, Toyota focuses its efforts on developing a pleasant work environment through diversity and inclusion (D&I). It believes that including professionals from different cultural backgrounds allows the company to understand problems from a different perspective, which results in creative and practical problem-solving. Through its D&I approach, Toyota directly communicates its values and core beliefs, which makes it a pleasant work environment.
#5—Focus on D&I
Because globalization is everywhere around us, it’s essential to adopt a D&I approach in your organizational culture. This approach has two aspects that work in synergy: diversity and inclusion.
Diversity is understanding, accepting, and respecting differences among employees when it comes to racial, ethnic, educational, experience, and other demographic factors. On the other hand, inclusion means involving all employees in work processes, which decreases barriers, intolerance, and discrimination internally.
For example, Ernst & Young Global Limited (EY) is a business consulting company that offers professional consulting, financial audit, and advisory services and is a great example when it comes to D&I. Its core value is accepting and respecting differences, which results in higher performance, as its employees feel they’re a part of a like-minded and progressive community.
EY believes that having different perspectives gives the company a competitive edge in a global and dynamic market. In putting different ideas and perspectives on the table, its succeeds in creating innovative and creative solutions worldwide.
Care About Your Employees and Continuously Improve Their Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction is critical in enduring a dynamic global market that experiences fierce competition in every industry. Create a friendly company culture and environment, identify the personal and professional qualities you’re looking for, offer perks and benefits to your employees, keep an eye on competitors, and focus on D&I. Strive to become an employer of the year, and your work environment, employee satisfaction and performance, and revenue will reflect it.
Chloe Sesta Jacobs’ “why” is people; she gets her kicks from intensifying the purpose and exploring the potential of those around her. She works as Head of People and Culture at Deputy, a robust scheduling software that can be used to manage your workforce in a variety of industries. Sesta Jacobs sees her work as an extension of her lifestyle and is constantly working on revolutionizing the people and culture space.