Wellness, Perks and Growth
In the last year and a half, millions of employees from multiple sectors around the world have joined a mass exodus from the workplace. Many have tried explaining the mass exodus, but reports indicate it may be due to inadequate salaries, limited career advancement, poor work-life balances, general unhappiness with management or the company and numerous other reasons.
This so-called Great Resignation, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, has turned employment into a worker’s market. TikTok users have coined phrases such as “quiet quitting” and “act your wage” as employees find community with others who don’t feel properly valued or appreciated by their workplaces.
As employees decide what’s right for them, employers are having to reconsider what really makes their company worth working for. If you feel like your business may be at risk of losing top talent, or you have already begun losing your best workers to the Great Resignation, it is probably time to consider some employee retention strategies.
Here are ideas 10, 11 and 12 of 15 effective and proven strategies to boost employee job satisfaction and help you hold on to your best workers. We hope you find them useful.
- Provide Wellness Offerings
The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us that both physical and mental health are paramount to a happy, functional society. Taking care of your employees’ health doesn’t just include offering things such as flexible scheduling or remote working. You should also make sure that your workplace is clean and hygienic with health and safety protocols in place and that you have strict rules against employees coming to work while sick.
This also means providing sick pay to incentivise employees required to be at a location or to stay home when sick. Make sure to also provide quality health insurance with excellent coverage and numerous tiers and options so your employees know their physical health is valued.
Some companies have also found success in providing employees mental health time off to cope with burnout at the same time. This collective week of time off reportedly allowed burnt-out workers to not feel like they were missing important emails, meetings and project notes.
Also remember that “Are U OK” day should be EVERY DAY.
We have found that our pulse survey is a great help in ensuring managers of staff who are not having a great day are notified, and so can act in a timely fashion.
- Give Other Job Perks
While many of the retention strategies on our list this far may be seen as perks of a specific job, job perks can come in a number of shapes and forms. In addition to offering the basics, such as remote work, flexible schedules and good healthcare, you can give your employees discounts on things such as cell phone service, travel costs, car rentals, equipment and more.
We are seeing many Brownie Points clients adding Wellbeing rewards into their engagement programs, with gym memberships, yoga classes and massage at the office as options, for example. In addition, many clients now offer a range of Corporate Social Responsibility rewards such as paid time off for charitable work, planting a tree, adopting an animal etc. which makes people “feel good” without the burden of spending their salary.
There has also been a huge upturn in Gift Cards and Vouchers being added into rewards catalogues, as these are especially useful for employees in the lower paying sectors such as hospitality and aged care. While not replacing a competitive salary, these low cost rewards can really make a difference to employees.
- Foster Growth and Offer Professional and Personal Development
A great business recognises how important training is not just during the onboarding process of an employee, but a business with strong employee retention also recognises the value of continuing to invest in training and upskilling employees.
Upskilling your employees by investing time and resources and providing them access to additional education and training within their field not only makes them happier and more likely to stay with your company, but also makes your company stronger.
A thing to remember here is that it can cost up to 5 times more to recruit an employee than to engage existing employees, by upskilling them and keeping them, so tap into your talent pool and see the benefits of reduced staff turnover costs, increased loyalty and improved customer experience through continual training and upskilling.
If you would like to share your ideas about how you provide wellness programs, provide perks and drive your retention strategy, drop us a line at info@browniepoints.com.au. We would welcome your feedback.
Tony Delaney, CEO Brownie Points
