It’s a question you had better answer before the business is put at serious risk. If you’re having trouble keeping hold of employees, it’s more than an annoyance. The cost of undergoing the hiring process and training new recruits will build up to the point your business can’t sustain them. You need a serious look at why your people aren’t staying with you and what you can do about it.
The work environment is a mess
When people join a team, they’re going to care about the kind of environment they work in. They’re going to care about how safe it is and the risk of accidents. They’ll think of the health impacts of working in an environment with poor air quality and low lighting. They’ll grow to hate a maze of cubicles with drab walls and fluorescent lighting. People shouldn’t be treated like drones by their environment, provided with just enough space and light to get work done. You need to think of the office as an asset, how a little more effort in décor and comfort could make it a much more comfortable environment and how that might make people happier to work there.
There’s no sense of community
The boss, the work, and the office aren’t the only things that matter. Some of the worst work environments can be tolerated because of the sense of community and the work relationships built in the company. But those relationships don’t always build themselves. The employer can play a huge role in breaking barriers between themselves and the team through company team building. Whether this means the occasional day of team building exercises or a fortnightly shared meal or drink at the end of the weekend shift, you can do a lot to stoke the fires of a business community that can drastically improve employee morale.
There is nothing but dead ends
That said, you can’t expect people will tolerate anything just because they like a work environment and the people in it. Everyone has a goal, everyone wants to get more out of the time and effort they put into a job. Even if you can’t offer a vast range of internal promotion opportunities, you should invest in your people. Offer them training, new skills, and experience in handling new responsibilities. Give them some upward momentum if you want them to stick around longer.
The business isn’t well-run
Simply put, if you or your managers aren’t able to keep the business running well and put too much of the strain on the employees, they won’t stand for it. A well-run business knows how to make the most efficient use of all resources available to it, employees included. If you’re not looking at ways to make workloads more manageable and to get rid of busywork and wasted time, then your team has to make up for it. They have to work harder because you won’t work smarter. Your smartest employees are going to take that as the sign of a sinking ship and swim away promptly.
The employer-employee relationship is about a lot more than the pay and benefits offered for the work done. It’s about the day-to-day of what it means to work for you. If you can’t improve it, you’ll never have better luck sustaining a loyal, motivated workforce.