9 Tips to Reduce Employee Turnover and Increase Retention

In today's fast-paced business environment, high employee turnover has become a prevalent concern.

This creates a wide range of issues for companies looking to stay competitive. Not only is it important to hold onto top talent, but frequent hiring in general can lead to increased costs and a dent in profitability.

So how do you maintain a healthy employee retention rate?

In a nutshell, keeping employees satisfied and engaged is the best way to do it.

However, if you’d like a more comprehensive deep dive on this topic, here are nine essential tips to reduce employee turnover and increase retention:

1. Hire People That Actually Fit Their Role

A good way to hold on to a good employee is to make sure they actually fit the role they’re applying for.

But this fails to occur when a company cannot accurately define what it is they need.

They think they’re looking for Role A, but they actually need Role B—and it’s only after the employee starts that both parties learn this fact.

The employee may adapt and discover they’re more than happy with Role B. But whether they do or don’t, they may still harbor feelings of distrust.

Before hiring for a new role, make sure to internally reflect on what you need exactly—and communicate that effectively to the potential hire so there are no surprises later.

2. Make Sure Your Company Culture is Defined

One of the most important things you can do as a leader is accurately identify your company culture.

The more in tune you are to what your company stands for, the easier it will be to find employees who are the right fit

If your company values are hazy and unclear, you’ll hire employees that don’t actually fit your team.

Or maybe you will—but it’ll be from luck, not awareness!

Good team chemistry is crucial to building a company with a low turnover rate. It doesn’t matter how talented someone is if they don’t fit in with your tribe.

Gauging how an employee will fit in can be hard to assess from the outset—but defining your company culture is a great way to start.

3. Create a Soft Landing For the Onboarding Process

Once you’ve hired the right employee, it’s time to make sure their onboarding experience is as smooth as possible.

This will be their first introduction into their day-to-day routine, and it can leave a lasting impact—for better or worse.

For one, ensure that they’re welcomed with open arms. This means giving them proper introductions to fellow staff members and allowing them time to get settled.

But it also means laying out the red carpet from a professional standpoint as well.

Is there a system in place educating them on the intricacies of the company? If the new employee is at an entry-level position, is there a training program in place that provides them an easy trajectory for quick assimilation?

It may seem unnecessary, but first impressions count in the workplace just like they do everywhere else.

That's why we at Brand's Payroll offer HR Next, a service designed to streamline employee integration.

With HR Next, you benefit from automated onboarding, training modules, and real-time feedback mechanisms.

Speak with an expert to learn more about HR Next and how it can revamp your onboarding process and increase employee trust.

4. Offer Competitive Compensation

A higher salary speaks volumes in ways that many other things cannot.

In today’s economic climate, don’t be surprised if a staff member whom you thought was loyal leaves for a better paycheck. Employees usually have families to take care of, and that’s where their loyalties lie before anything else.

Is it the only thing employees care about? Absolutely not.

But with everything else being equal, this can certainly tip the scales one way or another.

In order to prevent high turnover due to salary, make sure your employees are happy with their starting salary. Find a balance that prioritizes employees you’d hate to lose, while also staying within the realm of what’s fiscally realistic for your company.

5. Take Actions That Show Positive Recognition

Beyond the scope of material paychecks, keeping an employee happy can be done in a multitude of ways.

Sometimes the best way to make them feel good about their job is to outwardly recognize their accomplishments—and even reward them for it.

Acknowledgement covers a wide scope of expression—from offering them a simple “thank you” to giving them a full on bonus.

Anything within this spectrum can make an employee feel appreciated, heard, and valued, and this goes a long way!

In fact, according to Netsuite, 75% of employees said that getting positive recognition encouraged them to stay with their company for longer.

6. Emphasize the Importance of Work-Life Balance

Prioritizing work-life balance in your company can also contribute to a healthy employee retention rate.

Many employees, especially those who have families, don’t subscribe to the whole “live to work” mentality. They have more of a “clock in, clock out” mindset.

On the other hand, there are employees who are more than happy to work on the weekends and after hours, whether it’s because they’re motivated to succeed or because they absolutely love it.

But don’t be surprised if many of your employees don’t fit the mold of the latter. They will likely seek to protect their work-life balance—so the more sensitive you are to that, the more likely you are to manifest loyal employees.

7. Create Opportunities For Career Growth and Education

Providing your employees with opportunities to grow and develop themselves professionally is one of the best ways to keep them around.

It lets them know that they’re more than just a robot assigned to one specific role. It shows them that you view them as a versatile professional with plenty of room to expand.

It’ll also remove any feeling of stagnancy that they may have. Sometimes employees leave companies simply because they’re looking to do something different, and don’t see any possibility of that happening in their current situation.

So if you provide employees with opportunities to learn new skills and even try them in practice, it’ll give them the feeling like anything is possible, encouraging them to stay for longer.

8. Emphasize Progress During Performance Reviews

Here’s one that you might not expect—performance reviews.

Performance reviews can sometimes make or break an employee. If you conduct them in such a way that prioritizes the bottom line and nothing more, it can make the employee feel like a cog in a machine.

This doesn’t help whether they’re reaching their goals or not.

If they’re not reaching their goals, they’ll view themselves in a deficient way and feel like they aren’t a good fit. If they do reach their goals, they’ll be content but constantly on edge over what may happen if they slip one month.

The solution is to have healthy and open communication with your employees. Help them understand the rationale behind certain KPI metrics, and why they should be motivated to reach them.

Instead of making everything results-based, place a strong emphasis on growth. Acknowledge the hard work they put in and ask whether or not there are areas in which you can help them achieve their goals.

9. Frequently Communicate With Your Employees

Finally, one of the most effective ways to increase employee retention and reduce turnover is to keep the communication lines running.

It’s so incredibly important to converse with your employees to ensure you’re on the same page as them.

Don’t assume that you and your staff members are all going in the same direction. Misunderstandings happen in life all of the time, and such is true in the business world too.

Sometimes, the conversations that ensue aren’t easy. But having a hard conversation now is better than letting things rot unchecked beneath the surface.

Ultimately, the more you talk to your employees, the more grateful they’ll be—and they’ll be a lot more likely to stick around for years to come.