Retaining employees is not always the first thing that you think of when starting a journal.
So, you have your journal idea. You know what you want to achieve. But you need people to help you get there.
Unfortunately, sometimes the idea of retaining employees gets lost in the mix. Here, we’ll go over reasons why employees leave companies and how you can keep them from leaving.
Why do employees leave companies?
There are lots of reasons why employees might leave a job. Sometimes, retaining some employees can be impossible in certain situations. After all, people’s desires and goals can change over time. But employee retention is something that you should think about regardless.
Sometimes, motivations to leave a job might be completely out of your control. If someone is planning to change their career or wants to move to a different country, these are simply factors that you have little sway over. There might be ways to retain these employees, but often these will only serve as short term solutions and the employee will leave in the end.
Other times, there are things that you can actively do to ensure that employees remain happy. Here, we’ll look at 4 different elements about a job that can lead to poor employee retention:
- Employee wants a higher salary;
- Employee wants to feel valued;
- Employee wants a good work–life balance;
- Employee wants their job to reflect their values.
These four examples will be looking at employee-centered motivations and how you can address them.
Employee wants a higher salary
It is unavoidable, but pay is directly linked to employee retention. If employees are underpaid, they will feel as if the company is not interested in retaining them and will start to look for other opportunities.
In addition, some sense of financial growth over time is also necessary. If an employee starts working for your company in their mid-twenties, their life circumstances might be very different five years later. They might have gotten married, had children, faced difficult life challenges, or purchased a house. All of these things might lead to a very real need to make more money and to improve their financial stability.
Making sure that you are able to keep employees requires that you have some sense of what their financial situation might look like in the years to come. Remember, different stages in a career have associated expertise, and that should be rewarded accordingly. Retaining employees means you need to acknowledge what people are worth.
Employee wants to feel valued
An employee wanting a higher salary is a bit of a “tangible” idea. The idea of being valued is a bit more challenging to implement. But it can be critical when it comes to retention.
How does one show an employee (or even a team of employees) that they are valued? Because everyone has a different set of expectations, sometimes the best thing to do here is to make sure that you are demonstrating the effort. That might be more important than the specific thing itself.
For example, you might include an “end of month dinner” in your budget, and while the employee might not necessarily like the restaurant choice, the act itself is far more important. The opportunity for your employees to talk and socialize outside of a work context can help them to feel happier. Small gestures can have major impacts on employee retention.
Another opportunity is to make sure to offer your employees the opportunity to make suggestions (and for you to take those suggestions to heart) to improve their jobs or company culture. You might not always use all the ideas. But being able to participate in the discussion at all can be helpful in fostering a good work environment. Another element that might be relevant is the management styles that a company uses.
Employees want a good work–life balance
Employee expectations have changed over the years. Every country and every generation has had different ideas of what a good work–life balance looks like. Because this changes over time and generation, it’s important to pay attention to what all your employees think about this. Even though you had a great set of expectations and benefits in the 1990s, that doesn’t mean that they’ll be enticing to someone born a decade after you instituted those policies.
Keeping in mind that times change is crucial to make sure that you can retain employees in the present. Sometimes, a major global impact can have a radical impact on employee retention. For example, the COVID pandemic made “work-from-home” a common place work condition.
Years later, many companies have kept this (or at least a hybrid model) practice because it has helped in retaining employees. In other cases, it has helped draw employees to companies. For many people, these are now non-negotiable conditions. As times change, the factors that contribute to a good work–life balance change with them. Listen to what (all) your employees have to say about what a good balance is and try to meet those needs.
Oftentimes, employees will be willing to pass on a good salary if the rest of the work seems like it will negatively impact the work–life balance.
Employee wants their job to reflect their values
Presently, many companies are focused on brand awareness and image. They want to ensure that customers have a positive impression of the company. Sometimes, seemingly small acts can have a disproportionate impact on a company’s reputation.
But it’s also crucial that your employees have a good impression of the company. You want your employees to believe in your company. To believe in your brand.
But, in order to accomplish this, you have to give them something to believe in. Running an academic journal has some amount of “built-in” good will. You’re involved in an industry that is focused on extending the growth of academic research and knowledge at a global scale, but what your company does specifically also matters.
Do you get involved in the community? Are you involved in larger philanthropic projects? Do you participate in a cancer run? Do you raise money for a children’s hospital?
All of these are examples of things that can give your company a sense of a moral and ethical alignment. This might be something that has a major impact on how an employee views your company.
Why retaining employees matters
There are many reasons why retaining employees is important. Some of the clear answers relate to investment costs.
Training employees takes time and money, and if you constantly need to train new employees, this impacts your bottom line.
Your employees can be one of your most powerful marketing tools. Happy employees can be very powerful to help promote your business.
Prospective employees are also usually reticent to start working at companies that are known to have poor employee retention. Consider the savings and benefits to your company and you’ll be able to see how retaining employees can be important to your company.