When your company is going through periods of rapid growth, there’s so much for senior managers to think about that employee retention can often slip to the bottom of the list.
However, to ensure you can sustain your company’s growth and manage it efficiently, you’ll need the services of those employees who have helped get you where you are today.
So, when you’re going through major changes quickly, how can you keep your best workers?
create a strong company culture
A strong culture will attract new talent and keep employee engagement levels among existing employees high. Indeed, Monster contributing writer Dr Steven Hunt, has highlighted how “culture is often a key factor in long-term organizational success”.
In addition, the Deloitte 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report found that “organizational culture, employee engagement and employee brand proposition remain top priorities”. LinkedIn’s 2017 Global Talent Trends report also revealed that for candidates, information on company culture and values is most helpful when considering a potential employer, so its importance can’t be overstated.
People often join companies for the culture, so you need to ensure that yours is maintained, even if you’re going through a period of massive growth. Make sure that the new hires you’re bringing on board will fit in with their co-workers and keep lines of communication open. This way, if employees have concerns, they know they’ll be heard.
make workers feel valued
Communication is just one aspect of making workers feel valued - and doing so is vital to your company’s employee retention rates. You should be ensuring you’re keeping workers at all levels up to date with recent developments in the company’s growth, as well as giving them a chance to have their say.
If you have a clear idea of where the company is heading, make sure you’re letting your workers know what their place is, so they can share in the vision. When people know they’re making a valued contribution, they’re more engaged, which makes them more likely to stay with your organization.
A study by Globoforce found that 55 percent of workers would leave their current job to join a company that better recognizes employees’ efforts. When your company is growing, it’s often easy to overlook the importance of recognizing employees, but you can’t afford not to. If the company is already unsettled, you need to keep your workers as satisfied as possible, and recognition is a major part of doing so.
provide opportunities during the growth
In order to keep your best talent, you need to give people incentives to stay. In the current employment market, this means you should be providing opportunities for personal and professional growth. This is reflected by LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report, which found that 44 percent of candidates reported the deciding factor for them when accepting their current company’s job offer was the possibility of career advancement.
Meanwhile, Deloitte's 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report advises companies wanting to develop the organization of the future to “build a culture of hiring from within”. The report's authors recommend that managers should be responsible for training and supporting internal candidates in new roles.
This means that during periods of rapid growth, your company should be investing in your workers’ futures by keeping them highly trained, in order to promote them when suitable. This has the added benefit of boosting productivity at a time when your business really needs it.
Employee retention is an art rather than a science, so it’s important to continuously analyze and evaluate the situation to determine whether different actions are required. However, the above steps will give your company a great basis for retention during periods of rapid growth.