Holding on to reliable and hardworking hourly employees can be difficult if you’re not providing your workers with adequate reciprocity. There are more than a few ways to ensure the people working for you feel valued enough to stick with you for the long haul. Read more to learn several helpful ways to keep your workers content and reduce hourly worker turnover.
1. Make the Work Interesting
People desire to learn new and exciting things. A workplace doesn’t have to feel like an assembly line from Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. One key way to minimize hourly worker turnover is to provide people with fulfilling tasks and duties. If possible in your industry, you’ll likely find that productivity increases when you encourage your hourly workers to listen to music or an audiobook while they carry out their work. People enjoy being creatively and intellectually stimulated. Celebrate this and try to get creative yourself about how to make a routine job a bit more exciting. Make it a conversation with your staff and collaborate on ideas to excel in this area.
2. Create a Sense of Community
Promoting a community-centered work environment has been shown to boost company morale. People want to feel excited and energized when they come to work. This doesn’t necessarily develop naturally, especially if the work is a little mundane. A great way to establish a sense of belonging at a company and to diminish hourly worker turnover is to prioritize people’s need for community. Make your employees look forward to coming into work by planning outings and fostering relationships that go beyond just sitting next to each other in a cubicle five days a week. Monthly after-work socials or even kickball games at a nearby park can be a fun way to get to know each other in a more relaxed setting.
3. Offer Perks & Benefits
Remember reciprocity. Your employees want to know they are valued by their employer. Another key to reducing hourly worker turnover is to provide your employees with perks and benefits that make sure they’re well-provided for. Health and dental insurance, paid time off, medical leave, and 401(k) matching are just a few examples of perks and benefits you may want to consider for your employees. Of course, not all of these measures are possible for every employer of hourly workers. Get creative and figure out how to incorporate perks and benefits for your employees and see what you can give back to them beyond their paycheck. After all, they are helping you make money — more money than they’re making if you’re doing it right. It will probably feel great to give a little something back when you can.
4. Money Talks
Ahh, money. It’s what makes the world go round. It is, at least partially, why you started your own business in the first place. The way you pay your employees shapes how much they feel valued by your company. This is crucial in reducing hourly worker turnover. Paying your workers a competitive wage will go a long way in ensuring their loyalty. Do your research and decide what you think is truly fair.
Consider the type of work they’re doing and compensate your people; otherwise, you can expect to be constantly in the market for new employees. Finding competent employees who will work for minimum wage long-term is borderline impossible. People know their worth, and it’s important to show you do, too. We’re not suggesting sending your company into bankruptcy to accommodate human worth, but if you want to keep good people on your payroll, cough up a fair to generous rate and see how the reduced turnover helps your business run more smoothly.
5. Promote from Within
Employees love to know upward mobility is an option. Most workers don’t aim to stay in an entry-level position permanently. Promote employees who have shown their loyalty and hard work to your company rather than hiring external candidates. Employees tend to stick around at a job where they can envision a bright future for themselves. Providing people with an option for growth within their existing company will reduce their motivation to seek employment elsewhere. Of course, don’t force a fit where it doesn’t make sense. If hiring outside of your existing company makes the most sense, it is always an option. Just be sure to entertain all possibilities — you may be surprised how frequently the right candidate for a position was right under your nose the whole time.
Cultivated engaged, content employees is key to being a good boss and business owner. Be the kind of person you’d want to work for, and make sure you’re compensating fairly. These measures will go a long way toward making your workplace an environment that attracts great employees. There’s always room for improvement. Follow these steps and watch as your hourly worker turnover significantly decreases.3.
