10 Ways to Retain Employees That Don’t Involve Money

How to Retain Good Employees

There are two things that unite every manager and business leader, in every industry, and in every country.  First, they want the best talent working in their organization.  And second, they want their talented workers to stay.  But this is no longer the working environment of the past generations when people remained with the same company or organization for an entire career.  Times have changed.  Today’s workforce is not afraid to jump to new positions when opportunities present themselves.  While increasing employees’ salary may help hold onto talented workers, it is not a guaranteed solution.  Even if it were, when organizations do increase a dissatisfied employee’s wages as motivation to stay, there’s a good chance the employee still leaves within a year, anyway.  Then there’s the reality check; every organization has its financial limitations.  For this reason, we wanted to outline some other ways of retaining employees that don’t require you give them a pay bump in the hopes they stay.

What Employee Retention Really Means

When talking about employee retention, many managers believe that the term simply means employees don’t quit.  But this is a short-sighted belief.  Just because an employee has not quit does not mean he or she feels fulfilled in their career, nor does it mean they are not mentally checked out.  Further, he or she may be looking to move on but has not yet found the right opportunity in order to jump ship.

RELATED: When an Employee Quits: What To Say, What To Do

When we speak about employee retention, we are actually talking about an employee’s reasons for staying.  As managers, we want employees to say “I do not want to look elsewhere, because…”  While salary and compensation are certainly important factors you should consider, an employee’s decision to stay in his or her job is also influenced by several other variables – career growth, personal enjoyment, and working with great people, to name a few.

And why should we care?  For starters, as managers and business leaders, we all know that when an employee leaves it is disruptive to the organization.  Further, turnover is an expensive process, in terms of time, recruiting and training expenses, lost productivity, and the departure of knowledge.  Retaining good talent and maintaining an engaged workforce is therefore just as important for managers as are the results they achieve.  With that, here are 10 ways to retain your talented staff that do not involve a salary boost.

1. Flexibility of Hours

Recently, a friend of mine told me about his job.  The general sentiment was that he didn’t necessarily love his job or the work he did.  When I questioned him why he stayed, though, it was clear his motivations where rooted elsewhere.

“I have enormous flexibility” he said. “If my son is sick, I can stay home and work or make up hours in the evening, if needed.  Also, I can take him to an appointment in the morning, or pick him up after school when needed.  I still get my job done; but I can just do it in a way that let’s me there for him when needed, and I really value that.”

His message made it quite evident that pure flexibility, which allowed him to take care of his family whenever needed, was more than enough to keep him with the company.  In today’s environment, where both parents often want careers, offering flexible working hours is a great way to retain staff.

In the words of my friend, “If I take another job, I may never get this flexibility again, or it would take a really long time to earn the trust to get it.”

2. Allowing Employees to Work Remotely

Allowing employees to work when they want is a great retention strategy.  Similarly, allowing people to work where they want is also a great way to hold on to good employees.  Modern technology enables today’s workforce to login from just about anywhere.  Consider letting employees work from home, either occasionally, or full-time.  Doing so allows employees to avoid painful commutes, or to work from 1,000 miles away while tending to the family farm.

Another reason to offer a remote work option is to address situations when your employee’s personal situation changes.  Examples include times when an employee’s spouse takes a job in another city, or they have to take care of a sick relative.  Allowing remote work situations can prevent an employee from deciding between their career and a personal situation.  This, in turn, is often a reason they will stay.

RELATED: How to Make Sure Remote Workers Are Actually Working

3. Providing Opportunities for Advancement

An obvious and well-known reason employees leave their job is to pursue opportunities for promotion or advancement that do not exist within their current organizations.  One way of combatting this, naturally, is to promote worthy employees and to fill open roles from within.  Offering advancement opportunities helps employees continue to grow their careers without leaving the organization.

6 Reasons to Hire From Within:

• Reduced Cost When Compared to External Recruiting.
• Less Time to Fill Open Positions.
• Internal Candidates Already “Know” the Organization and Its Processes.
• Allows Employees to Pursue Career Ambition Within Current Organization.
• Employers Have Performance History of Candidates On Which To Base Decisions.
• Less Risky Than An Outside Hire Who May Not Fit the Organization’s Culture.

4. Hire Great People

It may seem odd to mention hiring when we are talking about employee retention strategies, but make no mistake about it: talented people want to work alongside other talented people. Nothing will frustrate your talented, hard-working workers more than being stuck working with low performers.  Even in difficult times, talented staff will tend to remain where they are if they work with other good, intelligent and talented individuals.  When opportunities to hire present themselves, always look to bring on the best people you can find.

RELATED: 8 Essential Interview Questions

5. Good Leadership

Just as good employees like to work with other talented workers, they also like to work for great leaders.  Among the many responsibilities of managers and business leaders, being great mentors – at work, and in life – may be among the most important.  After all, great leaders know how to get results through their employees.

RELATED: Your Leadership Style Defined in 9 Questions

But the reverse is also true.  Managers have reputations, and talented workers want to work for the people they admire, and whom employees see as great mentors.  From time to time, conduct a survey of your workforce.  Ask questions that pertain to leaders in the business.  Once complete, use the results to identify the most effective and influential managers in your organization.  These individuals can help other managers become more effective leaders.  Further, consider moving those managers who have a track record of poor leadership scores into other roles.  Great organizations have great leaders at every level.

6. Learning Opportunities

Young workers today rarely stay within a job for more than a few years before looking for something different.  While this often has to do with career ambition and job growth, many times it has to do with personal learning and skill development.  If an up-and-coming employee does not feel he or she is learning, that alone can be their motivation to look elsewhere for employment.  In order to prevent this from happening, find ways to provide regular learning opportunities that retain talented workers.

Examples of Learning Opportunities Can Include:

 

• Bi-weekly Lunch and Learn Sessions
• Guest Speaker Series
• Formal Training
• Continued Education Assistance
• Preparatory Courses for Industry Certifications
• Attendance to Conferences and Seminars

Granted, there can be some financial cost to such options.  But rather than seeing these as expenses, consider them to be investments into employees skills and knowledge, which in turn will benefit the organization.

7. Offering Job Variety

If there is one thing that will drive a good employee away, it is the feeling of monotony.  If after two years, an employee is still working on the same assignments, the same projects or in the same capacity, it may eventually lead to boredom and a desire for change.  To get ahead of this, maintain regular one-on-one meetings with employees to gather a sense of their satisfaction level.  When necessary, enable them to try something new.  This does not necessarily mean you have to move them into another department (though this is certainly an option).  Rather, a simple change to their duties, projects or assignments is all it may take.  Keeping things new and fresh helps employees remain engaged and interested in the work they are doing.

8. Opportunity to Break New Ground

A former colleague of mine went to work for a well-known technology company not too long ago.  But this company had a reputation: I warned my colleague that he would find himself working long hours in an intense environment and that he needed to make sure he was prepared for that.  He acknowledged but responded simply that he “would be working on cutting edge technology for a company who’s products earn global news coverage.”

In subsequent conversations, his tune has not changed.  He did not mind the long hours or the intense environment because he sees his efforts as breaking new ground.  The creation process is a highly motivational one.  Giving employees a chance to be part of, and work on something great can be a great motivator to stay and endure a challenging work environment.

9. A Reasonable Work-Life Balance

While there is something to be said about having an “up-tempo” or “high performance” work environment, there is also something to be said about work-life balance.  While energetic and high-performing workers are willing to go above and beyond, everyone has limits.  An intense work setting or one that pushes the bounds of a reasonable work-life balance is an environment that will eventually drive people away.

To combat a difficult work environment, offer enhanced paid time off (vacation) packages, and other forms of benefits that can offset or compensate staffers for a hectic workplace.

10. Work Stability

Business decisions are never easy.  Sometimes layoffs are required; restructuring is needed from time to time.  Bear in mind, though, that sometimes employees leave an organization not from the standpoint of desire, but sometime as means of survival.  Frequent and sudden jolts that bring about radical change – such as rapid hiring followed by sudden layoffs – can leave a workforce uneasy and motivate employees to leave.  Continuous restructuring and organizational change is likely to push good talent away, as employees simply worry about their job security in such a chaotic environment.

RELATED: Behind the Scenes of a Corporate Layoff

A stable work environment, in which broad change is kept to a minimum, is one that retains employees.  When big directional changes are required, though, those organizations that handle change management well earn employee trust.  Additionally, those companies that clearly communicate the reasons for change to employees are also the kind of place where workers tend to stick around.

Bonus Tip: Offer Days for Volunteering

A new trend in corporate benefits packages is allowing employees to take a given amount of work days each year to volunteer to causes they support.  No vacation day required.  Whether they take one day a quarter to volunteer at an animal shelter or a nursing home, this little perk is a great thing that organizations can offer that attracts and retains a talented workforce.

Final Points on Employee Retention

If you’re having employee retention problems, before looking at what others might be offering take a look internally, first.  Holding onto good people doesn’t always have to become a matter of money or giving them major salary boosts to stick around.  Rather, creating a rewarding, satisfying and stable work environment can be an effective way to retain your employees.  Ultimately, the reason people stay in an organization is because there are certain perks to their job that they simply do not want to lose by going elsewhere.

Looking for More on Employee Engagement?  You Might Like….

The Art of Mentoring: Shaping Young Minds

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