What Employees Look for in Companies That Make Them Come and Stay
While this shouldn’t be news to anyone, employees don’t like being treated like a number. Yet oftentimes, businesses forget this and think that their best employees are replaceable – or at least that’s how they treat the person that was poached by another company or quit.
According to Forbes, to replace a key employee, it can cost “between 70% and 200% of the person’s compensation”. Further, it may be difficult to find another employee with the same skill set and experience. Employers may have to look hard to find someone whose skills are comparable to the employee who just walked.
Why Employees Leave
Most of the time, employees have been giving signs for months or possibly years that they’re not happy. This unhappiness depends on the employee: wanting more money, bored, unappreciated, etc. Companies, however, very seldom ask an employee the reason for leaving before it’s an issue. There might be an exit interview where the employee will sometimes air their grievances, but by that time it’s too late.
Even when an employee is satisfied with their job, 85% of workers will still talk to a recruiter or keep their eye out for better opportunities. Additionally, there are companies who actively look for opportunities to poach your best employees by offering them a better work environment or salaries. In fact, with the economy picking up, some people are predicting that employee poaching may increase in 2014.
Basically, there is no single reason for why employees leave – but they will leave if they’re dissatisfied with some aspect of their job or working environment. So how does a business go about attracting and keeping good employees?
What Businesses Can Do to Attract Employees – and Get Them to Stay
It would probably surprise most companies that the number one reason for a person not taking or leaving a job has little to do with salary. Employees do want to be paid well, but they also want a lot more.
What good employees want from companies consist of:
Google may be viewed as the “Evil Empire” by many outside the organization, but it has figured out how to keep its employees happy. With everything from on-site “laundry facilities to volleyball courts, from nap areas to a slide connecting work floors”, the company has seen a 12% improvement in productivity because of employee happiness. Google demonstrates that if employees are treated well, they’ll not only stay, but work even harder for the company.
Another tech company, HP empowers its employees by rewarding them for volunteering, paying for up to 12 hours of volunteer time per quarter. These types of incentives keep employees engaged in and make them feel good about giving back to their community. According to LinkedIn, community involvement especially attracts and motivates Millennials.
Ross Perot famously used a “bounty system” to attract employees to EDS. Employees who referred candidates that were actually hired received a payment. And it wasn’t just a one-time payment; further incentives were paid “when the person started work, when the person passed his first anniversary, when the person received a promotion, etc.”
This system encouraged current employees to find great people – and to make sure that those people stayed, a win-win for both the company and employees. Employees want to be valued from the beginning. They’ll do their research beforehand. Companies with good reputations will get and keep the great employees.
What has your experience been with attracting and retaining employees? Let us know in the comments!