7 Ways You Can Make Your Company a Great Place to Work

Losing a great employee is costly. Your company loses time, money, and the information stored in that person’s brain about how things work well and what to do next. It’s clear that employee retention is a priority for you as a leader and for those working with people in your company, which is probably everyone within your company. The time to start addressing retention of great employees is now. Here are 7 ways you can keep your best staff members and create a desirable place to work:

1. Start at onboarding. Help newly hired people know what is expected of them, including your standards of quality and customer service. Clarity of expectations makes it easier to succeed.
2. Keep your Impact Purpose visible. Talk about your Impact Purpose and keep talking about it at every meeting. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves.
3. Be willing to have your mind changed. It’s one thing to collect employee suggestions; it’s quite another to decide to act on them. When people feel heard and that they affecting things, they’ll be more fulfilled.
4. Be empathetic and make sure your managers understand the importance of that too. In a LinkedIn survey, 25% of employees left their company due to personal issues, like childcare or elderly parent care challenges or other family issues. By providing a willing ear, you may be able to find a solution while retaining your employee.
5. Be kind. Compassion goes a long way in the workplace. Treating people with respect is a hallmark of a great place to work. Being people-focused in this way will pay off for your company, and also contribute to you as a leader having a better experience at work and as a human being. Even Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn’s CEO, changed his hard-charging leadership to strongly focus on compassion. LinkedIn has grown to more tha 250 million members and was acquired in 2016 for $26.2 billion.
6. Talk to people. One of the companies I know that has a significant impact even though they’re small is Askinosie Chocolate. Their CEO, Shawn Askinosie, does a regular gemba walk. Gemba is a Japanese word that means visiting the shop floor. He makes a point of talking with everyone. Your company may be too large to do that, but you can still talk to quite a few people, and make sure that your company’s management team do the same. This personal contact helps keep people engaged because they know you really care about them.
7. Share information. Open book management can be one method you can use to be transparent with employees. Some companies do regular weekly meetings to share financials, ongoing issues, and to discuss the future. Keeping people in the loop was #2 of the things employees indicated as most important to them. No one wants things done to them. They want to be part of it, to be informed.

Retaining good people requires less work than onboarding someone new. The Center for American Progress found that the average cost to replace an employee is 10-30% of their annual salary. Even if you’re feeling squeezed for time, making time for this will pay off. People spend more than a third of their adult lives at work. They want that time to matter, to be fulfilling and satisfying. And more than ever, they are prepared to vote with their feet about where they choose to work. Make employee relationships and retention one of your priorities as a leader. You won’t regret it.