The weekend is coming up, so here’s our latest way to make sure your employees are satisfied.
Our own research shows that employees are always on the look out for new opportunities. From our previous articles about HR trends and retention, it seems that there are issues surrounding keeping your talent in your startup.
An employee from one of the leading Proptech startups in the region shared that they experienced a lower than average turnover rate with about 10% of their company leaving in the last 12 months. This is to be expected for most industries, but from our research, they seem to be an outlier.
Other CEOs and startup employees we spoke to reported between 20% and 35% staff turnover rate, including a Singaporean medtech startup that apparently lost almost 50% of their staff in the last year to other companies. Of the 13 companies we spoke to about these issues, that was the highest turnover rate.
Retain your top talent in 2019 , Jan 3rd 2019
This can be an issue and something most startups are familiar with and most likely, do not like. So here’s how you can combat this issue and keep your employees satisfied with their jobs.
Give your employees something to work for
Meaningfulness or the knowledge that your work matters, is often the biggest contributor to employee happiness. A sense of purpose can help keep a person motivated and loyal to their company.
Retaining people requires an incredible amount of personalisation. The factors that help any person feel engaged and motivated to contribute, and continuously learn and grow, can be very different from the next person. This is because each of us have different combinations of personalities, interests, values, experience, competencies, goals, etc.
There is no quick solution to retaining people. It is an on-going commitment, especially for the leaders of the company. By the time anyone feels like leaving the company, it is very difficult to get him/her back on board 100%.
Pulsifi CEO, Jay Huang
Retain your top talent in 2019 , Jan 3rd 2019
This can be a challenge for a busy startup, but is essential to keeping staff satisfied. One of the most effective ways of doing this is to create a common goal for the company – be it monetary like a sales target or even customer satisfaction through reviews and ratings. Measurable goals are a simple and effective way to show people that their contributions are helping the company succeed.
Giving your employees a purpose, must also come from the top, so showing excitement and celebrating successes shows your staff that this matters to you as well. If you don’t make it seem like a bland 9-5 job, then your staff won’t see it that way and want to come to work.
Recognise and celebrate great work
One of the quickest ways to demoralise your staff is to ignore great work and only focus on the negative. Employees need validation for their work, so making sure you track and celebrate their successes is part of your job as a boss.
This can be as simple as highlighting employee successes in internal emails or messaging channels. There is no reason not to use the company social media channels to showcase great work by your team, as it shows your customers that they are in great hands.
By making this a part of your company’s routine, it will help employees strive to work hard for recognition, while at the same time letting them know that their work is appreciated.
Create a career path for your staff
Uncertainty can be the biggest issue for many startup employees, so giving them a clear career path is crucial to their longevity in the company.
A recent Comparably study found that 65% of workers reported that workplace stress is a major issue for them. The interesting finding in the report was the main reason with 41% of the vote for the stress was ‘unclear goals’. Our money was on the commute or bad leadership, which were tied for second place.
Uncertainty and lack of communication are killing your employees, April 23, 2019
It’s important to highlight career paths even before you hire staff, so that incoming talent understands that this is a company that they can grow with.
Giving them goals and targets to reach, while ensuring you have the infrastructure and mechanisms to hold them in place is critical to building your team. In today’s competitive hiring market, your employees have many opportunities to consider other jobs. By focusing on your team’s overall satisfaction and growth, you can encourage employees to stay with your team and make positive contributions for the long haul.