Quick Guide: 10 Steps to Employee Retention

Retaining employees might seem like a tough task. Especially when many sectors depend on the work force. At Hammer & Mop, we experimented and successfully created an environment where we enjoy nil attrition. This, considering the fact that our work force has not been to school. Here are 10 points that will help your employees fall in love with your company:

1. Hear Them Out. Everyone has something to say, something to contribute. Everyone has feedback to share. It is the senior management’s responsibility to hear the employees out, to make them feel comfortable, to make them feel wanted, to make them feel human. Listen. It will make a whole lot of difference.
2. Delegate Effectively. Share your responsibilities with well chosen employees. Create teams and create subtle levels. This works both ways. The employees feel important and your work load decreases. It helps you scale up, because the company starts running without you. And the CEO is not supposed to get stuck in routine jobs. Employees become responsible, and you make them accountable. You thus help create leaders in your organization. Delegate. It will make a whole lot of difference.
3. Smile & Pat their Shoulders. Simple manners and pleasantries go a long way. Let them know you respect their human nature, let them know you’re happy they are a part of your team, working hard for your organization to grow. Acknowledge their contribution, smile, be polite and crack jokes. Do NOT be pals with them, but be a jolly good boss. Good work demands recognition. Pat their backs, pat their shoulders, gift them good things when they achieve targets and boost revenues. Earn their respect, earn their affection. Smile. It will make a whole lot of difference.
4. Click Photographs Together. An organization is like a family. And you are all family members, working together, living together, sharing joys and sorrows. Let your employees know that you look at them like kin. Click photographs together and gift them framed hard copies. If your employees ask for hard copies before you offer them the same, you’re on a right track! The fact that they want those memories (with you in them!) makes you a good boss in their heads. Follow it up with other good-boss tactics. Be a human being. Be genuine. Click photographs with your team. It will make a whole lot of difference.
5. Share Your Vision. This is highly important. You need a motivated bunch working on a common goal, you need team members knowing what everyone is in for. You do NOT need zombies working for you, for money. Talk to them about your dreams, the organization’s dreams. Do not ‘own’ the company in front of them. Share the ownership, share the identity, share the responsibility. Make them understand that they will win if the organization wins. The organization is what they create. They control the reality, tell them, they control the future.
6. Share your vision with them, keep them motivated. Do NOT keep them working for money. It will make a whole lot of difference.Share Values. Remember that in my business, a good man can clean a table in a much better way than a professional who doesn’t really care. We, at Hammer & Mop, really focus on human values like sincerity and empathy. Keep things simple, keep everything connected to what an employee is at heart. Use apt analogies and examples to explain how a mindset can change results. Demonstrate how a healthy mindset can bring about a visible change in results. Keep things earthy. Keep things grounded. Keep things easy to talk about. Tell them that they decide how the organization is. Tell them that they define the organization’s personality. Decide on the values and execute. Share values with your employees. It will make a whole lot of difference.
7. Brand Well. If you have not branded your organization well, you are doing it wrong. Welcome to the information age. Welcome to the age of the Purple Cow, Permission Marketing and Social Proof. Create an identity, carve out a niche and live by it. Make sure your employees are educated enough to understand what it is all about. Branding is cool. Your employees would love it. They would be proud. They will wear your err, their brand on their sleeves. Brand well. It will make a whole lot of difference.
8. Invest in Relationships. Value relationships and invest in them. Understand people, know their problems, ask about their families and help them out from tight spots. Organize workshops, educate them, plan trips and invest in relationships. You should get along with all of your employees. Be a trustworthy boss, someone your employees can look up to. Make sure your employees get along well with each other, and that there is mutual respect. Build on it, work on it, it always helps. Like mentioned before, be one huge family. Encourage them to be frank and affable. Invite feedback. Execute swiftly, listen with all ears, see with both the eyes. Be a human being. Love them, they will love you back. Invest in relationships. It will make a whole lot of difference.
9. Give Them a Ladder. Do not give them cubicles, do not give them boxes. Give your employees ladders. Map out a path for them to grow, as a professional, as a human being. Educate them how both are linked and equally important. Tell them what your expectations are. Clarify why you have those expectations. Talk about their strengths, discuss their weaknesses, enable them to work on both. Connect them to people. Build teams within your organization with complimentary skill sets. Help your people out, they will help you out. Give them a ladder, encourage them to climb. Give them a nice sturdy ladder. It will make a whole lot of difference.
10. Have Valuable Conversations. Just sit down once a week with your team(s). And discuss all that is going on in the company. Discuss dreams, aspirations, complaints and perspectives. Discuss the present, analyze the past, construct a powerful future. Have valuable conversations with your people and thus build a thriving organization. Have valuable conversations and thus ensure you stay remarkable.

Sushrut Munje – Co-founder and CEO at Hammer & Mop, where he focuses on employee retention, efficiency and training sessions. Curator at Frankaffe.com, where he blogs with 8 co-authors. A proud Mumbai-based BNI member.