While it’s no secret that staffing shortages continue to be a problem, even more daunting is how hard a time many businesses are having retaining valued employees.
The pandemic caused many workers to reassess their priorities and goals. Much of what we took for granted about what people value and expect from a work environment was scrapped, and new, unfamiliar forms took shape.
In the wake of so much upheaval,
- How can you understand the shifts that took place?
- And what can you do to ensure your most prized team members stick around for the long haul?
Why are so many people leaving their jobs?
Before you can make the changes needed to improve employee retention, you first have to understand the most common reasons people are leaving in pursuit of their ideal work environment.
- Compensation
In the past, people typically stuck it out for many years with one employer in the spirit of career advancement. Now, however, employees aren’t willing to undervalue their time and skills and gone are the days when accepting additional unpaid work or responsibilities was seen as a privilege or opportunity for advancement.
It’s not always easy to hang on to staff when flashier offers are out there in the market but whether faced with a limited or fixed budget or, depending on your location, pay equity laws, the trend in current high compensation rates is just not possible for some employers.
Larger compensation packages are a great way to attract quality candidates, but due to falling inflation, they’re merely a short-term solution that causes ripple effects for years to come.
- Flexibility
During the height of the pandemic, we were all regularly reminded that time is finite and valuable. The result is that people are no longer willing to settle for a work environment that doesn’t value them as human beings instead of cogs in a machine.
“Hustle culture” is out, and strong work/life balance is definitely in. People want to work in environments that understand they have lives outside of the office.
- Stagnancy
Employees no longer want to stay in a position where they feel like they’re just spinning their wheels. Without opportunities to advance or take on new or different challenges, team members get bored, or worse, feel unseen and unappreciated.
It may seem silly to mess with success and promote team members killing it in their current position, but holding employees back only pushes them towards new opportunities elsewhere.
- Poor Management
There’s a common saying, “People don’t quit companies, they quit managers.” Even if your company is top-notch, unpleasant managers will cost you valuable team members.
Sometimes, people who were excellent employees lack the skill set to lead effectively. Other times, managers are too overworked to provide proper support. Either way, it could be causing you to lose great team members.
So, how can you get them to stay?
While offering a great salary helps you obtain and retain employees, keeping your team intact is more than just throwing out big numbers.
Fill out the form below to download our latest ebook for a more detailed plan to retain your most valuable team members!
In it, we visit the problems above in greater detail and also provide a list of strategies you can act on now to build a culture that helps employees feel valued and encourages them to stay with your team.
Xenium helps small businesses resolve challenges like talent retention every day.
Schedule a call here to learn how Xenium’s Complete HR + Payroll service transforms the human resources experience for both you and the people under your care.