How to Retain Great People

How are you increasing the chances of keeping great team members onboard?

If you employ or manage staff in any capacity, you’ll know what a sucker punch it can be when a great staff member turns in their resignation, perhaps out of the blue, or even hints at the idea of moving on.

Finding great staff is like winning the lottery but keeping them long-term can prove tricky depending on a variety of factors. Post pandemic, we’re seeing trends that reveal keeping great staff is becoming even more challenging but there are some essential things you can do to keep great people in your team, longer.    

Why do you want to keep great staff in your team in the first place?

The most obvious reason would be because they’re great. You can trust them, they are reliable, they show up and they do great work and you don’t have to worry about them – what’s not to love about keeping great staff?

The great players in the team you already have are part of what makes the fabric of your culture vibrant, strong, safe and productive but what happens when you lose a player? 

Take one of those major players out and there’s an immediate gap in your team and output, no matter how quick or great the new hire may be. There’s still the time it takes to recruit, as well as training, potential cross-training and re-training before they’re playing at or near the same level as their predecessor. You might also find your remaining team under stress as they juggle additional workloads that may become unsustainable. This can impact productivity and profitability as well as erode your once-blooming workplace culture.

Let’s not forget the personal cost to you, as the manager or owner of the business faced with losing a great staff member. The departure of a key staff member can cause stress, frustration, exhaustion as well as grieving your team member as they depart. There may also be a lot of bargaining in your mind about what if I had done this? could we have done that?  and wishing you could go back and change the outcome.

Why is it so hard to keep great staff right now?

It’s harder than it’s ever been to keep great people at the moment with such a competitive market.

People are also tired, burnt out and there are a lot of questions about what work means and looks like since the pandemic for a multitude of reasons.

Add all of this together and you might find that even your most loyal of staff are feeling exhausted, don’t feel connected to their work anymore, keeping an eye out for greener pastures on the horizon or may even find themselves pursued by other companies offering things that you won't even be aware they want.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal that the national turnover or resignation rate rose to 9.5% from Feb 2021 to Feb 2022. This is the highest percentage this statistic has been in a decade, since 2012. In numbers, that means that approximately 1.3 million people changed jobs and is what we call a high job mobility rate.

Combine this with the unemployment rate being consistently low, you can start to see why it’s much harder to keep great staff now than it was even 5 years ago.

What can I do to keep high performing employees and staff?

Money might be the first thing that springs to your mind. “I can just throw more money at them to keep them.”

The increasing trend of the Great Resignation demonstrates that unfortunately, money alone isn’t a primary motivator for keeping staff in their roles, no matter how much you throw at them.

This is why it’s important to have a plan and understand these 3 essential elements to keeping great people in your business for the long term.

3 Essential Elements to retaining staff long term:

1. Making the right decisions

• Hiring the right people, not just the first person that comes along, but the right fit for the role and for your team.
• Ensuring that you place leaders in roles who have the skills to lead and understanding what makes an effective leader for your team.
• Being positioned to take up opportunities when they appear often means getting your proverbial ducks in a row and keeping them lined up.

1. Harness greatness

• Set your staff up for success across the board, particularly making the onboarding experience for staff seamless and enjoyable from the start.
• Review their roles regularly to pulse-test staff satisfaction. Sometimes boredom can be the reason great staff decide to leave – they’re simply not being utlised to their full potential and they can’t see any future career development if they stay.
• Communicate regularly and clearly with your staff so you get to know them. This can also give you an early heads up if something changes with them. With communication, it’s crucial that you listen to what your staff tell you with an open mind – sometimes the things you don’t want to hear are precisely the reason that great staff decide to leave.

1. Complete alignment in the following areas will prime your team for success:

•   No amount of great culture, systems or process is going to make up for a clash of values clash with your team members so be clear about what your values are and check during the recruiting process that they match the person you want to hire.
•  This comes down to how they prefer to do their work and whether that’s possible with what you’re offering them. Hiring someone who wants a 50/50 work from home/office split hoping they’ll come into the office full time isn’t going to end well.
• Reward and recognition. It’s vital to understand how your staff like to be rewarded and recognised and do both of these things regularly with them. Nothing makes us feel warmer and fuzzier than being told that we’re doing a good job. The more specific you are, and the more you understand how your staff like to receive rewards and recognition, the greater chances that your staff will appreciate and respect the culture you’re cultivating.
• Community and sense of belonging. There’s nothing more compelling than feeling like you belong to a community of like-minded individuals who respect each other and do great work together. So continue to cultivate a community that your people want to belong to but try not to jam it down their throats as something that needs to be done in a specific way. This sense of belonging will tie directly into the values alignment between your business and your staff so remember to highlight this connection at regular intervals.

Key takeaways to keeping good staff and increasing staff retention in your team:

Never assume that your best staff won’t leave you. Keep communication lines open and put regular touchpoints and structures in place that allow you to check in regularly with staff satisfaction and allow you facilitate opportunities for growth within your team or business over the long term.

And last, but not least, ask for help when you need it. Putting all the structures and workflows in place to maximise the benefit to you and your people isn’t something that can always be done by you alone. This is where strategically engaging experts can streamline these processes for you and ensure that your foundations are setting you up for success in the long term.

An Invitation to join a thriving business community       

If you have questions about keeping great people in your business, I’d love for you to join us inside our free Facebook Group where you can connect with other like-minded business owners, leaders and managers to discuss all things HR: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia