Employee engagement and retention are necessary to maintain solid work and achieve organizational growth and continuity. In 2022, Paychex found in a study that within the next 12 months, 48% of employees wanted to change companies. The following year, Gallup’s 2023 State of the Global Workplace reported that 51% of employees actively sought a new job. Finding ways to offer more than the pay and benefits negotiated when hiring is key.
Most importantly, when employees leave an organization, what they know goes with them. Turnover can lead to lost productivity, lost time, and increased costs, not to mention uncertainty and lowered morale in the workplace. Here are five possibilities after pay and benefits that an employer can give their employees to help retain their talent.
1. Offer Employees Schedule Flexibility
Flexibility at work looks different for each person, and the industry that person works in is more than the hybrid or remote option. More than 66% of employees desire flexible remote work options. The flexibility would allow employees to avoid using their time off to go to medical appointments or leave early for family needs by enabling them to make up time later or start the day earlier.
How to: Allow flexibility for early departures by setting a business rule all employees can use. Consider offering your employees opportunities to work more on a day of the week or pay period so they can work less another day to get to the appointment or take care of personal emergencies. Doing this ensures employees aren’t stuck working eight hours if they need to leave early. If they work nine hours in one day, that could be the difference between getting to a necessary appointment and keeping the employee happy with their current work situation.
2. Offer Career Development and Growth Opportunities
Providing learning and development opportunities, leadership training, and internal routes encourages employees to picture themselves with a long-term job with the company. Sometimes, employees are so focused on completing their work that they forget what they learned about the organizational opportunities they heard about during onboarding.
How to: Don’t just share what you know; show your team where they can review the company’s online education portal. If your organization has a mentorship program, show them how to use it or point them toward its guidance. Open their minds to upskilling, which will help them develop in their positions and see that they are encouraged to grow rather than do the same job until retirement.
3. Offer Feedback Outside of Performance Reviews
Regular recognition, constructive feedback, and public employee appreciation enhance workforce engagement. Employees who feel needed and valued are more likely to stay with an organization, but when it comes to feedback and recognition, scheduled performance reviews and required check-ins may feel forced.
How to: Rather than scheduling feedback, be open to providing feedback as it feels proper or necessary remembering to praise in public and reprimand in private. Gallup recommends weekly or ongoing conversations, while Indeed recommends using a team meeting as a good time to give recognition. No matter where the feedback occurs, be honest and straightforward, but don’t be cruel in your delivery under the mask of honesty. Consider the feedback that truly helps the person receiving it when delivering feedback.
4. Offer People Your Full Attention
You may not realize that multitasking to get things done has become your standard way of working. By doing that, you are not giving people your full attention for a 30-second discussion. This instant turnoff can set a tone of “Don’t talk to me.”
How to: When your direct reports, your boss, or someone in another department comes to you, don’t take a call while you are talking with them unless you can tell them in advance, “I’m expecting a call that I have to answer.” If you are sitting, push yourself away from your desk, turn your phone over so you don’t peek at it, and face the person giving them your full attention. If you are limited in time, be sure to let them know or offer to set a time to meet with them.
5. Offer Employees Space to Do Their Work and To Think
Real estate is costly, but when personnel are in an office, sometimes the difference between getting work and then getting innovative work is the accessibility to individual space in an office layout. Giving employees space does not mean each person requires a particular office or a door. When employees aren’t given a proper amount of space or must share a cubicle on the same day or shift, this may lead to being physically unable to move around comfortably or not having all the material needed to do their jobs.
How to: Check with your state or your company’s Real Estate department to determine if a specific amount of space is allotted for cubicles. The California Department of General Services previously had standards that were deleted in 2020 as standard, but it’s still online to review.
No matter the size of the cubicle layout, companies can install tall dividers (around six feet tall) between desks rather than short (around three feet tall) whack-a-mole-style cubicles. Tall dividers allow some semblance of privacy for employees to do their work without others’ curiosity or nosiness. It also provides a sound buffer between cubicles to prevent phone calls or other chatter from disturbing others.
When organizations only look at pay and benefits packages, they may miss what employees enjoy for them to stay. Employees recognize that employers can offer them more, so organizations should consider these five possibilities to offer employees when looking to retain talent and ensure continuity.