How to Retain Employees in Your Practice

2016 • Content

Employee retention is an ongoing challenge at best and a never-ending nightmare at worst.

Though Watson Wyatt Consulting reports that more than half of small businesses don’t have a formal strategy for retaining employees, here’s why you need one. According to Deloitte, the cost of turnover is as much as 1.5 to 2 times an employee’s salary, and that doesn’t include soft costs like morale and productivity.

Tip: “Meet often and ask questions, even when you’re not sure you’re going to like the answers.”

2X The cost of turnover is as much as 1.5 to 2 times an employee’s salary

Here’s some of what you can do to help retain employees.

4 KEY ELEMENTS

There are four main elements to any retention program—performance, loyalty, communication, and competitive advantage. As entrepreneur.com points out, it is definitely NOT all about money.

PERFORMANCE. Measurable objectives are important, but the happiest employees are ones who feel they are working to achieve specific goals that contribute to the business.

STEPS TO TAKE: Have some fun. Use contests and small incentives to motivate staff. Encourage good performance by promoting from within. Make sure managers coach their employees. That’s especially important for millennials, 63% of whom say their leadership skills aren’t being developed, according to Deloitte research.

COMMUNICATIONS. Schedule regular staff meetings in which you welcome comments and suggestions.

STEPS TO TAKE: Conduct stay interviews…asking key staffers what they’d change and why they’ve stayed. Meet often and ask questions, especially when you’re not sure you’re going to like the answers.

LOYALTY. It starts with hiring the right kind of people…those who demonstrate a team spirit.

STEPS TO TAKE: During an interview, ask questions to find out how long candidates stayed at previous companies. “Look for someone who plays team sports, who has committed to volunteer or does activities outside of work,” says Dan Pickett, CEO of Nfrastructure, an IT company with an almost unheard retention rate of 97%.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. Everybody wants to work for a winner. Be sure the way you position your business says you are one.

STEPS TO TAKE: Make sure your benefits are as competitive as other businesses in your area. Offer small perks, too, like bagels on Friday. And commit to education. “Learning must be a core focus of any strong organization,” says Kevin Griffin, CEO of GE Capital, where “every employee, regardless of level, takes at least 40 hours of training a year.”

Whether it’s about loyalty, communications, or any area of employee retention, you need to look at the age of the worker. For most employees over 45, it’s about “the job.” For younger workers, however, it’s about a lot more. Deloitte research found that 56% of millennials won’t consider companies that don’t share their values. And 87% say the success of a business should be measured by more than just financial performance.

How do your employees measure the success of your practice? Do you communicate with them regularly on how you’re doing and ask for their input? Tell us on Facebook here what positive steps you’ve taken to retain employees.