5 Simple-But-Not-Easy Ways to Make Your Employees Stay in the Company

A successful company requires a strong workforce that is dedicated to its mission. Strongly engaged employees work from the heart. They often do not notice the time as they are busy in paddling hard in order to bring the boat to certain direction while enjoying the journey as well. This is when company leaders provide positive environment to make their people happy. And we all know that happy employees are beneficial to the company as they have higher levels of productivity and greater potentials for leadership roles, not to mention the high cost of recruitment and onboarding of new employees.

Here are 5 simple-but-not-easy ways to make your employees stay in the company.

1. Have a clear Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Why would a highly talented person choose to work in your company? EVP is a clear set of benefits an employee receives from the company for the value of knowledge, skills and experience they bring while working in your company. Way back in my HR management class, we were asked to list down the things that would motivate us as employees and reasons that would make us want to work for a company. Ideally, we put down all the perks and conditions together, by-far creating a long list of employee benefits. We classified the benefits according to the satisfaction they give to an employee, one is monetary and the other one emotional. Guess what? 70 percent of the list went to the column under emotional satisfaction. To name a few : work-life balance, recognition and appreciation, professional growth, autonomy, flexible working hours, holidays, a good boss, learning and development, and so on. While everyone likes the idea of a fatter pay check and bonuses, it is not always the money that keeps talented people to stay motivated and contribute to company's growth. A clear EVP must state not only the monetary benefits but also the emotional satisfaction one would get in exchange of his knowledge, skills and experience. There are various non-monetary perks which are very attractive to employees and likewise budget friendly for the company. Free Yoga classes, Cricket Friday, flexible working hours, employee break room, relax dress codes are few examples that really create HR buzz!
2. Create a comprehensive job profile for each position and make the job descriptions clear to each employee. Clarity builds mastery. Job is easier when it is clearly defined and well-understood. Job profile which is the product of careful job analysis, is the value of end-state deliverable expected from a job. Job description describes the activities the person will undertake to do the job. It is an effective tool to guide an employee about his functions, duties, tasks, responsibilities reporting relationships and working conditions. It is also important in setting the parameters for an effective performance management. For an employee, there is nothing more difficult than working in obscurity due to absence of a well-structured written job descriptions. Again, clarity builds mastery.
3. Create Individual Development Plan (IDP). We all come to the workplace to create a better future. If each employee can see the professional ladder that would make them further envision a career growth in the company, those people will be encouraged to stay. Internal training, cross-training or inter-department training, mentorship, opportunities for continuing education are all part of IDP and will help in creating career path for employees. IDP should be documented.
4. Create an atmosphere of trust. If you are following the TV hit Game of Thrones like me, you might probably recall what Daenerys Targaryen, The Mother of Dragons, said to Jon Snow. "What kind of queen am I if I cannot fight for my people?" That holds true for any organization. An effective leader protects his or her team. An effective leader does not put his team members down. It makes a big difference when your people follow your instruction because they have to, rather than when your people walk extra mile along with you because they trust you.
5. Work hard and play hard. When it calls for a celebration, pop the confetti. Celebrating is a form of reward to your people. And rewarding them is a recognition of their efforts. Besides, it will give them a chance to have a break from work. It is very important to celebrate together as this creates a kind of bonding and camaraderie among the employees which is also a contributing factor to employee engagement.

There are still many ways to make your workplace a happy environment but these five are literally simple and can be implemented immediately. The not-so-easy part? To sustain. Traditional managers tend to implement but eventually get sidetracked and fall back to the old habits. Bottomline? If you want your people to stay, don't manage them. Lead them.