Make your business a magnet for talent

5 strategies to hold on to your best employees.

1. Provide clear job descriptions, goals, and regular reviews.

   Employees require communication and feedback to succeed. Written job descriptions and reviews encourage productivity, ensure accountability, and help manage mutual expectations. If like many growing companies you don’t have a library of job descriptions, search online for the best matches and tailor them to your needs. You could also develop a standard job description and provide it as a resources to your employees to use as a template when hiring for a new role.

2. Invest in your employees’ training and development.

   As your business grows, employees may need additional knowledge and skills to continue delivering your product to the market. The more training and education you provide—both on-site and off-site—the more you demonstrate your company’s commitment to your employees’ success. Many businesses offer employee development—including tuition reimbursement and savings plans—as a specific benefit, but you can also enhance the quality of your workforce by offering a paid day to attend a training seminar or workshop.

3. Offer coaching, supervision, and advancement.

   Employees want attentive managers that work with staff members and help advance their careers. While perks like game tickets or spa packages may boost company morale, educating employees so that they’re able to advance their careers will benefit them and your business much more. Create training programs that grow additional skills, responsibility, and pay. If you don’t create opportunities for your employees to shine, another employer certainly will.

4. Encourage financial well-being.

   When your employees are financially strained, they’ll likely bring that stress into work, reducing productivity, impeding collaboration, and putting customer relations at risk. What can you do? Help your employees understand day-to-day budgeting, credit, and retirement with workshops and online tools that focus on their financial well-being.

   Fifty-seven percent of companies have financial well-being programs for employees in place already and another 19% are currently working on creating them. Why? To increase employee loyalty to the company, among other reasons.^{Disclosure 1}

   When employees feel you value their financial success, productivity and loyalty improve.

5. Offer something bigger.

   Everyone wants to be a part of something great. Purpose-driven companies keep their staff involved by setting goals beyond profits. Ask your employees how they think your business can make a difference. Even small things, like a company-wide volunteer day, add value to your culture—that combination of behaviors, standards, and traditions that make your business unique.

   As a business owner, you need a compelling story for employees to grab on to, be a part of, and believe in. Use your narrative as a powerful magnet to attract the best employees and move your company forward.