In today's competitive business environment, companies are finding themselves relying heavily on an asset that in the past was somewhat taken for granted – employees.
The employee is no longer a number that punches in at nine and out at five. They are the gear in the machine that produce the ideas, manufacture the goods and appease the clients – and they are expecting more. They are expecting improved benefits packages, flexible work environments, better wages – and businesses are trying hard to keep up. Yet with all the improvements that companies make, there is always someone around the corner willing to do a little better.
That’s why it’s important for employers to be more involved with their employees, ensuring that they are getting what they need and making them part of the team. Too many times, workers are kept in the dark, expected to do a job without really knowing why they are doing it or what’s being accomplished. Employees need to have direction. They need to know where the company is headed and how their job impacts the business as a whole.
It seems that in many cases employees are hired for a job and then stagnate over time. Annual reviews focus on how a worker did over the year, but rarely discuss where they’d like to go and what their ambitions are. Without direction, there can be no improvement, no job fulfillment and no success.
Another way to help decrease attrition in the workplace is communication. Employees are more loyal when they feel like they’re "in the loop". If possible, ask employees for their input on important decisions. It is also important to ensure that employees feel that management is 100% interested in their input. They need to know that their opinions matter. Employees need to feel that their employer cares about them on a personal level.
Avoiding employee "burnout" is also important in decreasing attrition within the company. Employers should offer job diversity for employees that perform repetitive tasks. It will not only help break up the monotony for the employee, but will also provide cross-training to spread out the workload.
It’s important to keep employees involved. The more control the worker has over their work, the happier they’ll be with the feeling that they have a choice. Also, employers should ensure that they are not trying to do too much with too little. It’s all right to ask for 110% occasionally, but spreading workers too thin is just another road to "burnout".
With the employee pool becoming shallower on a daily basis, the need to retain workers is growing at a rapid rate. By taking simple precautions and reviewing business practices, companies can keep employees happy and avoid costly attrition.
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