Good employees need to be nurtured – otherwise they will leave and find another job elsewhere. If all your good employees keep quitting, it could be time to consider why and to take action to prevent further resignations. Below are just a few tips for stopping good employees quitting.
Know when good employees are becoming disengaged
Employees are likely to show signs when they are becoming disengaged. They may start grumbling more about work or you may notice that they start putting less effort into tasks that they once put a lot of pride into. They may even start to become less punctual or may be taking more time off. Use an employee engagement model to help track when employees are becoming disengaged. By spotting the warning signs early, you can then find ways of remotivating these employees before they commit to quitting.
Make sure that you’re providing some sense of reward and progression
Rewarding employees and offering progression are an important part of maintaining loyal employees. Good employees are not going to want to keep going the extra mile if they’re getting no reward for it. The least you should be doing is praising these employees, however rewards like monetary bonuses, gifts like work phones or extra paid time off can be other great rewards. As for providing a sense of progression, it’s important that employees have something to aspire to within the company. This could include the chance of promotion or simply letting them play a bigger part in helping to grow and improve your business.
Allow employees to assist you in finding new recruits
You may start losing your loyal good employees if you keep hiring poor new recruits who do not work well within the team. Allow your best employees to help you in the search for new employees. This could include looking through applications together or even letting them sit in interviews. Your best employees can then help to choose future colleagues who they know they will work well with.
But don’t keep burdening them with the task of training and onboarding
Your best loyal employees are likely to be the ones who always end up burdened with the task or training and onboarding new employees. You may be putting extra pressure on them that makes it more difficult for them to keep up with the rest of their work. Try to share the job of training and onboarding new recruits rather than leaving it all up to one or two employees.
Identify toxic employees and deal with them
A single toxic employee can demotivate everyone else within the team. This could be an employee who loves to complain and criticise or it could be an employee who always makes mistakes and always shifts the blame onto others. There may even be a workplace bully in your workplace who is deliberately making it hard for your good employees out of jealousy. Whatever the case may be, you need to make sure that this toxic employee is dealt with so that they don’t keep driving other employees away. This could include having a serious talk with them and encouraging them to change their attitude, or it may involve simply dismissing them if they have caused too much trouble already. Don’t try to stay neutral – stand up for your best employees or else you’ll alienate them.