In a business era that is typified by mechanization and technological advancement, the age-old resource – human beings – still remain at the forefront as one of the most important business assets.
But are businesses doing enough to develop and maintain this critical resource?
Whilst there is truth to the old saying “Nobody is irreplaceable,” the importance of maintaining a stable and happy workforce cannot be underestimated.
The importance of human resources:
Keeping a finger on the pulse of staff performance and productivity becomes increasingly harder with the increased scale of business. With expansion and growth comes the potential for impersonality – workers can find themselves and potentially overlooked in an increasingly busy and diverse workplace.
Maintaining control over this key factor is at the heart of this discussion of improving staff retention, and effective software systems to help achieve this are readily available. The core HR payroll platform offered by XCD is a perfect example.
The impact of poor staff retention:
The notion that nobody is irreplaceable, together with the abundance of potential candidates to fill a position when it becomes vacant, can lead to complacency with management that can prove damaging to the business in the longer term. It is worthwhile to consider just how poor staff retention can negatively impact the business.
High staff turnover and corporate image:
With today’s reliance on internet-based employment agencies and services comes visibility of a company’s employment patterns.
High staff dropout rates and the subsequent repeated job vacancy advertisements are immediately visible to internet users, and search engines will retain traceability of the previous history with respect to a business organization.
When this is taken together with the fact that job advertisements increasingly allow for comments by previous employees and others with respect to the hiring company, the potential for a developing negative corporate image increases.
A high turnover may also impact general staff morale.
The financial cost of staff turnover:
As well as the potential for image and brand damage, a high staff turnover also represents a financial cost to the company in terms of downtime, cost, and time involved in on-boarding and training new staff, as well as advertising and hiring outlay.
The benefit of acknowledgment and reward:
Having discussed the down-side, there are some simple fundamentals to improving staff retention. People generally need to feel a sense of worth, and sometimes a simple acknowledgment for a job or task well done can increase worker satisfaction immensely.
Similarly, incentives and rewards for effort can reap high returns in staff satisfaction and loyalty.
The trick in a large workplace is to track staff productivity and performance to permit acknowledgment and incentives to take place. A good software application for HR and payroll permits this level of tracking and control to occur.
Staff motivation and loyalty programs:
To focus thinking on methods of improving staff retention, consider the following:
- An employee of the month – Instigate a regular program to formally recognize a noteworthy achievement.
- Staff photo-board – Consider a staff noticeboard to further advertise achievements.
- Staff memberships – Offer discount memberships with gyms, restaurants, or shops.
- Commissions and bonuses – Consider offering a bonus for meeting/exceeding targets (individuals and departments).
There are some simple factors at work here, and understanding them can put a business’s streets ahead of their competition.
Consider the term ‘human resource’. Maintaining a sense of personality in an increasingly impersonal workplace is the key, and establishing workplace programs and IT support infrastructure will help the business to achieve it.
