12 Company Employee Engagement & Retention Strategies

Employee engagement and retention should be every company’s priority. Your company wouldn’t stay afloat without the excellent work of your employees. So, how do you know if your company is doing what it takes to retain your employees? Here are 12 employee engagement and retention strategies that can help increase job satisfaction.

Orientation and Onboarding

Each new hire should be set up for success from the very beginning. An effective onboarding process should educate new employees not just about their jobs but also about the culture of the company and how they can thrive in it and make contributions. Don’t neglect this very important initial step. The support and training offered to the employee can set up their entire tenure at your company.

Mentorship Programs

Partnering a new hire with a mentor is an excellent element to include in your extended onboarding process, particularly in a remote work environment. Mentors not only welcome new employees into the company, but they can also provide guidance to them.

The great thing about this is that the new employees gain a lot of knowledge from experienced employees, and in return, they provide new perspectives to their mentors.

However, this isn’t to say that mentorship opportunities are only limited to new employees. Your existing employees and your overall outlook on employee retention and team job satisfaction can greatly benefit from mentor-mentee dynamics.

Training and Development

Upskilling is crucial nowadays as technology continues to advance and affect the way we work. You gain new skills and abilities when you upskill, so training your employees would not only improve themselves professionally, but it would also have a significant impact on your company.

Prioritize your employees’ professional development. Invest in them by giving them time to join virtual conferences, paying for their continuing education, or providing reimbursement for their tuition.

Employee Compensation

It’s important for companies to give their employees the appropriate pay, meaning employers should assess and adjust salaries on a regular basis. Even if your company doesn’t have the financial capacity to increase the salaries immediately, try to think about how else you can offer other forms of compensation, like bonuses. Additionally, enhancing health care benefits and even retirements can help increase the employees’ job satisfaction levels as well.

Perks

Offering perks can make your workplace stick out to possible new hires and keep current staff engaged while improving employee morale. Remote work options and flexible schedules are great perks that a lot of employees find the most appealing. Additionally, paid parental leave is also a great perk for professionals with families.

Wellness Offerings

At the height of the pandemic, many employers have improved and expanded their wellness offerings to their employees. This made the employees feel more supported, and their well-being were prioritized. Examples of wellness offerings are retirement planning services, stress management programs, and even fitness class reimbursements.

Acknowledging Big and Small Milestones

Another important employee engagement and retention strategy is to highlight the outstanding achievements your team has accomplished. This can be that time your team finished ahead of the deadline on a significant project or a certain employee has reached their five-year work anniversary. Grab a hold of that opportunity to celebrate the milestone together. It can be a memorable and meaningful moment for everybody, even if you celebrate it virtually.

Communication

Hybrid and remote work has highlighted the importance of effective workplace communication. The direct reports should emit the aura of being able to approach you with questions, concerns, and ideas at any given time, whether they work remotely or on-site. It is your responsibility as a leader to ensure you’re promoting constructive, timely, and positive communication levels throughout the whole team. Ensure that you also connect with each team member regularly and proactively in order to get a feel of their job satisfaction and workload.

Continuous Performance Feedback

A lot of employers are ditching the yearly performance review for recurring office meetings. These one-on-one meetings give you the opportunity to have a conversation with your employees in terms of their short and long-term goals professionally. Furthermore, you should also help them picture their future with the company.

They say never to make promises you can’t keep, so it’s crucial to establish realistic and attainable plans in order to accomplish their goals.

Recognition and Rewards Systems

It’s natural for everyone to feel appreciated for their work. Gratitude coming from their employer definitely makes a huge impact. Don’t forget to thank your direct reports who exert a lot of effort in helping the company. Additionally, some companies develop rewards systems as a means to incentivize excellent ideas and innovation.

Promoting a Healthy Work-Life Balance

Having a healthy work-life balance is crucial for job satisfaction. Employees have to know that their managers understand they have responsibilities outside work. Being able to recognize and maintain that balance is more of a challenge when working remotely. Be sure to encourage employees to establish boundaries and take time off work.

Flexible work arrangements

A lot of companies know that even if their offices have reopened, there are employees that prefer to work remotely or in a hybrid setup. If you don’t present that option, it can cause employees to resign and look someplace else. Consider the options you can offer to your employees–a hybrid setup, flextime, or just simply allowing them to work remotely completely. These are great suggestions that can take off any of your employees’ unwanted stress and ultimately boost employee engagement and retention.

Effective change management

We all know how the pandemic caused a huge shift in every company, but that shows that every workplace needs to deal with change in general, whether it be good or bad. Employees turn to leadership for reassurance and insight during this period. If your company is undergoing a significant change, it’s important to keep your team aware of it as much as possible, as it can help ease any anxieties or woes they have. Broadcast announcements either in a group call or meeting or individually. Be sure to allot time for questions and concerns.

Final Takeaway

The 12 employee engagement and retention strategies mentioned above are some effective ways to increase your employees’ job satisfaction levels. Make sure to reassess your efforts on a regular basis. This means staying up-to-date on market standards for benefits and salaries, as well as the best strategies for establishing an appealing workplace culture with excellent manager-employee relations.

While there may be some employees that will leave your company sooner than you’d expect, you can make it tougher for them to make a decision. And if they still choose to leave your company but they knew that they were supported and valued, they’re more inclined to share good things about your business and maybe even come back to work for you in the future.