fbpx

Company Culture: How to Improve Employee Retention and Reduce Turnover

Learn practical tips on how to retain employees and improve your company culture.

Do you empower your employees with the opportunity to express their opinions of the job process, or possibly even reward them for a job well done? In today’s fast-paced business environment, without a system to motivate and reward your team often times employees will feel unappreciated, lack of motivation to get the job done, and resent not receiving a pat on the back for their stellar performance.

Generally, if (and when) employees are acknowledged for their efforts (or given a chance to provide feedback) it comes at the end or beginning of the year. If this is how your company culture rewards productivity — do you think this common process is really as effective as it is meant to be?

Would it be beneficial to your employees if appreciation of your team’s hard work were acknowledged on a more frequent basis throughout the year?

People are Loyal where Loyalty Runs Thick

Plain and simple, if you want to retain highly-valued employees then sustaining year-end motivation throughout the year is the first step. Employees thrive when they have passion, autonomy, and a sense of being validated and appreciated.

If you can create a company culture that genuinely acknowledges the contributions of your employees and rewards them, then you have a winning strategy to increase employee happiness, motivation and loyalty.

For example, performance reviews have a greater impact when they are done more frequently and when employees feel they are part of the process of establishing goals and milestones. This small change in your performance evaluation strategy will promote shared accountability with management to achieve business goals.

Employees want to feel personally motivated, passionate, and acknowledged for the difference they make on an ongoing basis. This extends far beyond financial compensation; intrinsic rewards of an individual being validated and empowered are equally as powerful.

Money isn’t the Only Reward, Nor the Greatest

Employee benefits, such as paid time off (PTO) and flexible working days and hours, are as important to employees as an increase in pay, if not more so. Having a policy that encourages employees to develop a work-life balance and pursue projects of personal passion and growth – on the company’s dime – is an employee retention strategy that forward-thinking companies are adopting.

When individual passions are rewarded (and the pursuit of them are actively encouraged), this leads to a more well-rounded, happier, and healthier individual – which leads to more innovation and productivity and, in some cases, may reduce sick time and healthcare costs.

Here are some examples:

– Hold a monthly team luncheon honoring individuals who achieved set goals and milestones goes a long way toward inspiring and motivating employees.

– Create events year-round that surprise and delight employees can be highly motivational and memorable over the long-term. These type of company events can include retreats and offsite trips to exotic locales for the best-performing teams, or booking local celebrities for a special company anniversary, sales conference, or holiday party – or for no reason at all!

For example, when I was at Apple, I arranged for artists to perform at sales conferences, marketing events, company anniversaries, holiday parties, and VIP partner events. On occasion, we’d have a surprise performance, like the time Mötley Crüe dropped by to play during the lunch hour. Our employees were thrilled! 

A a small business owner think about budget-friendly ways you can reward your team more often and track the results.

 

© YFS Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Copying prohibited. All material is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this material is prohibited. Sharing of this material under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International terms, listed here, is permitted.

   

In this article