Forward-thinking business owners understand that retaining their best talent is an ongoing effort that helps ensure a low turnover rate, creates their company’s future leaders, and makes their companies more sustainable over the long term.
Employee retention efforts often begin with businesses recognizing that the traditional methods of people management are quickly becoming outdated in the modern workplace, especially as more people are retiring than ever before. As new young professionals join the workforce, they expect a more practical, progressive style of leadership that focuses more on their experience as employees and how they can be active contributors to the company’s success instead of acting as a “cog in a wheel”.
The challenge for many leaders is transitioning their management style to accommodate the needs of the new crop of workers, so they become happy, loyal, long-term employees.
Here are eight strategies that will help you accomplish this:
1. Foster Open Dialogue To Increase Employee Retention
Building an inclusive culture where every opinion is welcome is crucial to creating employee loyalty. Giving everyone a voice will keep everyone engaged and help them feel like stakeholders in the company’s success. Encourage all workers to be part of the discussion and start feeling comfortable helping shape decisions.
2. Empower Your Employees To Succeed
Everyone has an innate talent or skill. Great leaders empower employees to use their best abilities to thrive in their respective roles and ply their skills toward the company’s mission. This will build trust with your team and, over time, help them reach their career objectives, making your business more sustainable and creating your company’s future leaders.
3. Be Flexible
Over the last two years, many workers have gotten used to more flexibility in when and where they work. With technology widely available to support the hybrid office, many companies are now adopting that model to help increase employee retention. This flexibility isn’t suitable for all roles, such as skilled trades. However, allowing as many office staff as possible to work remotely at least a few days per week will go a long way to maintaining high employee retention.
4. Offer Career Development Opportunities
Job shadowing, skills upgrading, and professional development training are excellent ways to help your employees reach their career objectives. It will also help them envision their position in your company years down the road, building loyalty and giving you well-rounded employees capable of confidently carrying out diverse tasks.
Read More: How Technology Attracts New Talent Into The HVAC Space
5. Show Genuine Appreciation And Respect
An effective way to demonstrate how much you value your team is by publicly recognizing their achievements and milestones. You can do many small things to show appreciation, such as announcing their work anniversaries, sending them personalized birthday cards, celebrating weddings and births, and offering support in times of sorrow. Also, be sure to recognize any big wins they help land for the company, which may incentivize others to strive for the same recognition.
6. Resist The Urge To Micromanage
High-performing employees don’t want to be micromanaged and will start looking for a job elsewhere if it begins to hamper their productivity. It’s better to focus on results instead of “checking in” on progress and asking how you can support them in hitting their objectives.
7. Use Emotional Intelligence To Improve Employee Retention
Your team should know they can come to you if they have a question or need help solving a problem. Using emotional intelligence, which prioritizes an empathetic approach when speaking with employees, will foster trust and openness with your employees. Emotional intelligence requires a good deal of self-awareness, self-management, and relationship management in order to apply it successfully, but the investment in developing those skills is more than worth it.
Read More: Solving The Labour Shortage In The Skilled Trades
8. Nurture Their Career Path
If someone excels at what they do, you might be tempted to keep them in the same position doing the same tasks indefinitely. Even if they enjoy their work, your employees can become bored, complacent, and disengaged from their duties over time. Offer the opportunity to try other roles within the company to demonstrate an interest in their career path, which will foster additional loyalty and dedication to your company.
Offering competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, and performance incentives is always the optimal way to attract employees, but it’s no longer enough to keep them there. Springbank Mechanical Systems is proud to be a progressive, inclusive employer that recognizes hard work and celebrates our employees. If you’re looking for an exciting career in the growing HVAC industry, reach out to us anytime to discuss our current job openings.
Gregg Little, Paul DeThomasis, and Hugo Lopes are co-owners of Springbank Mechanical Systems. You can reach them at 905-569-8990 or via email at gregg@springbank.com, paul@springbank.com, or hugo@springbank.com.