How to keep hold of your high valued employees.

So, you’ve put in your time, effort, and money to find the most AMAZING candidate…

Congratulations – we love it when a plan comes together!

Your hard work and dedication have paid off, now it’s time to put your feet up, right?!

Wrong.

Many businesses will pull out all the stops to find the freshest candidates. However, once they’ve been secured, those businesses can be guilty of taking their eye off the ball…

Staff recruitment is vital to all businesses. Employee retention is a just as important, yet it rarely ever receives the same level of attention.

It’s therefore no surprise that some star-employees might begin looking elsewhere…

An employee has asked to leave – what do you do?

Most people’s go-to solution? Money.

But what if you don’t have the budget to offer them a raise? What if they’re not motivated by money? Are you simply resigned to losing them?

Don’t go down without a fight. Here’s a few ideas that could help change the mind of your wantaway employee…

Make them feel appreciated

In 2020, 68% of remote employees had lost interest in working hard.

Why? They believed their efforts were simply unappreciated.

The same study found that a whopping 75% of employees believed their wellbeing would significantly improve if their superiors would simply show them more appreciation.

Do your employees feel valued? Are their efforts noted or praised?

When you NEED one of your team to go the extra mile, an employee who has done so previously without recognition, will probably be feeling a bit less inclined…

You don’t need to shell out on extravagant gifts (though I’m sure they’d be appreciated!). In reality, a ‘thank you’ goes a long way.

Show your employee how important their work is, how important their contribution to the business is and how they’re making a difference.

Create opportunity for feedback

Don’t leave your employee stuck between a rock and a hard place.

No opportunity for feedback, leaves no opportunity to change their situation. They’ll end up feeling hopeless and powerless, seemingly leaving no choice but to jump ship.

If one of your staff is unhappy, you should know about it long before the reality of leaving the business confronts them. Opening up communication channels allows problems to be raised and dealt with, long before they develop into an ultimatum.

Be open, be receptive, be willing.

If your employee can alter the situation that’s driving them to leave, you might just change their mind…

Development Opportunities and Goals

Think about how your current role looked this time last year - what’s changed?

Have you taken on more responsibility; learnt a new skill; expanded your knowledge base?

If none are true of your employee, this could be their motivation for leaving.

Setting objectives and supporting personal development prevents staff from feeling directionless and gives them a goal to work towards.

How much have they helped develop your business? Isn’t it time you gave back on that investment?

Flexibility

Working from home felt like a luxury to many before the pandemic, but now, it’s an expectation.

From a recent poll of the UK’s 50 biggest employers, it was found that 86% do not plan on bringing staff back to the office full-time.

Are you still sticking with the strict 9-5?

A rigid working pattern might work brilliantly for you, but it could be affecting your employee’s work-life balance.

Not providing this ‘benefit’ puts you at a serious disadvantage to competing businesses, and naturally, could cause your workers to look elsewhere…

Ask them what THEY want!

It sounds simple, but you’d be surprised how often this is overlooked.

Talk to your employee, put the ball in their court. Find out what makes the employee tick, what they value, and ultimately what they want to achieve.

If both parties are willing to have an open and frank conversation, you’ll uncover the reasoning driving their decision to leave.

Only once a problem is identified, can it be solved.

Fingers crossed…

We hope that one of these options brings a mutually beneficial solution to you both, helping you secure your most talented employees.

If you need further help, support, or expert advice in managing challenging situations like these, get in touch.

Remote On-boarding: Four Ways to Make Your New Employees Feel Welcome.

When you’re growing your team remotely, it presents a set of challenges, including, HOW to make your new employees feel welcome in an online environment. After all, this is new to all of us and there isn't a simple guide with answers. It may feel a bit like going from level 3 to level 30 in one swift movement.

Mistakes may seem unavoidable (and are ok!), however, this article will help you focus your on-boarding efforts on the four key areas to avoid any major mistakes and to make sure every new joiner feels trusted, valued, and committed to your company.

1. Create an Effective Induction (Onboarding Experience)

Creating a suitable and engaging induction for your new employee is hard to achieve online, it can easily become overwhelming with meetings, new software, and limited social interaction.

Ensuring that you provide new employees with the relevant information regarding their role, expectations, your company cultures and values, software, health and safety and many more, can seem almost impossible to achieve.

Stripping it back to the most important details, making the induction as role-specific and tailored toward the employee as possible, will help you create an engaging and welcoming induction.

Remember, some things can be covered at other points during the first few days, it does not have to be an avalanche of information!

Re-evaluating the quality and practicality of your inductions, and their compatibility with remote working is especially important.

If a new employee feels as though the induction was rushed, uninformative, or unproductive, they’ll probably feel less excited about the job and, in turn, may not stay with you in the long term or provide you with their best work.

Contrastingly, arranging the information in a clear, accessible, and simplistic way can provide a new employee with the perfect foundation to build their place in the company, settle into their new role, and start work.

Feeling welcomed in this way will encourage an optimistic, committed attitude that will be far more productive!

Making these changes may seem daunting, but it’s doable and can have a vast impact on the employee’s perception of your business.

2. Encourage Social Links

The most common issue raised with remote working is loneliness, and therefore the impact that it can have on one’s mental health.

This is only worsened for people entering new companies, where they do not have the social links that come with an office environment.

Providing opportunities for social interactions and building those relationships that would usually be formed in the office, is key. For example, arranging short, regular ‘catch-up’ meetings with your employees can enable you to learn a bit about them. Encouraging regular communication with other employees is also important, following up on emails, reaching out and suggesting some out-of-hours social activities to get to know other members of the team.

It is important that the employee feels included and comfortable reaching out to others, putting themselves forward and making an effort. They are far more likely to create these bonds despite the lack of physical socialisation.

Consider facilitating a buddy-up programme with relevant team members and walk-and-talk activities connecting more people and helping to build new bonds.

By being proactive in this, employees can begin to form relationships with other members of the team from the get-go, and continue to positively engage with the work, workplace, and counteract this feeling of loneliness that is so prominent in the remote working world.

This also promotes better mental health as they feel a sense of belonging, form a support network, and are less likely to burn out or feel lonely.

3. Supply Necessary Equipment and Access to Support

One of the biggest issues with remote working can be internet access, and maintaining a strong network connection throughout meetings. Ensuring that new members of your team have access to up-to-date technology and reliable software will enable them to work more productively, and prevents these issues before they arise.

Additionally, doing this makes the employee feel valued and encourages them to stay productive and committed from the start.

Ergonomic issues are also on the rise, with people working at tables of the wrong height, or on unsupportive chairs. So, much like with the technology, making sure that your employees are well supplied for, when needed, can increase productivity hugely and prevent ergonomic issues before they progress.

Furthermore, providing desks, chairs, laptop stands, etc. creates a designated workspace for your employee and will help them to separate their work and home lives, and therefore have a positive impact on their mental health, as this is another growing issue with remote working.

Alongside this, providing clear mental health support networks is increasingly important with remote working, as people’s body language and mood can easily be hidden. Making a new employee feel supported and valued is of high importance.

4. Set Expectations & Trust your Employee

Be sure to arrange when and how you will be checking in with your employees!

Have a general schedule and make it clear the best way to reach you, and how soon to expect a response. Do not leave them in the dark and, in turn, they will be open with you about any issues, questions, and uncertainties they may have.

Similarly, ensure they have links to all the relevant support contacts (wellbeing, IT, HR, etc.) in case they ever need them - those contacts need to be there and accessible from day one!

There can feel as though there is less communication and structure when working remotely, so ensure that this communication does not suffer. However, if you make new employees feel that they are being overly supervised, it can be perceived as a lack of trust and can have a negative impact on their work.

Mastering this balance is not easy!

So, communicating with your team and understanding what system will work best for each member can be extremely beneficial here, speaking to new members and finding out how they would like to feedback and keep track of progress can begin to build that sense of trust that is imperative with remote working.

---

Do you need help with building your remote programme and setting up the induction both from the tech and people angle - get in touch to see how we can help.

What if HR designs employee experiences and creates compliant and engaging workplaces for early-stage businesses. We do this by bringing together top Experts from relevant business areas and making it easy to work with them on-demand.

5 tips for building a startup culture your people will love.

‘A company’s culture is the foundation for future innovation. An entrepreneurs’ job is to build the foundation.’

Brian Chesky, Airbnb

---

Over half of the British workforce want to start their own business, and there’s plenty of things for them to consider before they start. Creating the right culture is one of them. Unfortunately, culture is not something you can buy; it’s more complicated than that. A company’s shared values, attitudes, goals and practices create its unique culture, and it’s essential to get it right. If a great culture can enhance employee motivation, engagement and reduce retention, imagine the impact of a negative culture. So how do you create the right culture for your startup? Firstly, remember that every company is different and no disrespect to you, but what works for Google or your startup competitor, may not work for your business.

Here are some top tips to consider.

1 – Embrace your youth

Startups are young, they’re developing, and they’re open to options. One of the great things about a startup is that the culture is new, and therefore you can shape it. You don’t need to rid the culture of old habits or bad practices, because you have a blank page. So, consider what’s important to you and create values that support your goals and attitude.

2 – Define your values

Values help create your startup’s identity, and they pave the way for the company’s beliefs and culture and influence hiring decisions and behaviour. Therefore, it’s essential to consider and define your company values before you start developing your business. Then, you can ensure they’re lived and breathed from within!

3 – Consider who joins

A candidate may tick many of your recruitment needs, but if they don’t buy into or support your startup values, they may not be a fit. And it goes both ways; some people may not consider you a cultural fit for them! So, when you hire, carry out a thorough evaluation (through interviews or a combination of assessments) to ensure that you can fairly assess their suitability and cultural fit.

4 – Speak to your people

It’s essential to build a culture of engagement, open communication and a culture where people aren’t afraid to speak up. Employees need to feel loved, and recent data showed that only a third of employees felt like they belonged in their company.

You can gain regular feedback from employees to gauge how happy they are and action results where necessary. While you’re at it, ensure each individual understands their role and how it fits into the wider business. And it may sound obvious, but don’t forget to update your people on company wins and news and praise individuals for a job well done.

5 – Lead by example

No pressure, but you have to be a role model for the culture you’re creating. Live and practice your values, speak to your people and take pride in your behaviour. If you’re rude, consistently late or dismissive to your team, then that’s the culture you’re encouraging. Remember that old classic, ‘walk the talk’? It goes a long way.

Culture isn’t formed overnight; it takes time to cultivate and mature, a bit like a fine wine. It’s up to you to be patient, nurture your culture, keep an eye on it and review it over time. Pulse surveys can give a good insight into the culture as can longer employee feedback surveys when the time is right. And finally, remember that your company values may change over time, so assess these to ensure they still fit as the business develops.