Small Business Owner’s Guide To Successful Employee Retention

Starting a new business is an exciting time, but it often requires learning how to deal with various barriers to growth.

Small business owners – especially those in their first few months or years — are faced with many decisions to make and processes to nail down. While the beginning phase can be exciting, it is also an important time for learning. One of the most important things to having a strong and sustainable business is dealing with these growing pains in a way that is good for you and your business.

The truth of the matter is that mistakes are bound to happen. But experiencing these professional hiccups early on can actually prove to greatly improve your ability to overcome larger obstacles later on, and make you a stronger and more competent leader.

Below, we break down a few growing pains that you might experience early on.

Hiring Smart

When it comes to bringing on new employees, especially early on, you want to make sure that these are people committed to growing with the company. Your first few employees are likely to face a lot of challenges with you as you go. So choosing someone who can potentially wear many hats, and is willing to be in it for the long haul, will prove highly valuable for your business.

Choosing the right person to bring onto the team starts with having a really clear vision of the type of personality you are looking for. Be mindful of who and how you hire, making sure you are waiting to find the perfect fit rather than jumping the gun and hiring someone who isn’t right for the company.

Though the hiring process may seem exhausting, being diligent will minimize the amount of times you need to go through it in the long run.

Offering Benefits

In today’s working environment, we see a plethora of benefits being thrown around by companies across all industries. Including a benefits package will increase your chances of attracting stronger hires. Employees are a lot more likely to stick around if they feel taken care of. While health care benefits might not be an immediate possibility, there are several other options you can offer early on.

The following are a few other benefit alternatives you can consider:

• Casual dress code
• Discounted gym memberships
• Complimentary work lunches
• Flexible work schedules
• Team-building activities
• Paid wellness breaks
• Company munchies
• Employee training

Training New Hires

Once the hiring process is complete, you’ll want to ensure that your new employees feel confident as part of the team. Oftentimes, this will mean making sure you have a comprehensive onboarding process. The goal is to have the new hires feel good about doing things on their own.

Without a comprehensive training program, your employees may begin to feel directionless, which will make their productivity suffer. Put time into developing a training program via videos, PDFs or an online lessons portal that can set your employees up for success, and that they can reference later.

Overwork and Work-Life Balance

With hustle culture taking the reins, many people can start to fall victim to chronic overworking.

But if you want to avoid your workers (and yourself!) experiencing burnout, creating a proper distinction between work life and home life will be important. Make sure your employees log off at a reasonable hour each night, and refrain from sending important emails after hours or on the weekends.

Delegation

With less people to rely on, especially in the early stages of a small business, it is easy to feel obligated to do every task. But this mindset can quickly become problematic when tasks begin to pile up and productivity is impacted. No matter how much you’d like to: you can’t do it all. So it’ll be beneficial to you and your team if you learn how to delegate.

Figure out which tasks need your attention, and which can be completed by an employee. This will save you the headache of an overpacked schedule, and make your employees feel like they’re part of the team.

Display Gratitude, Often

Showing gratitude is important to foster mental wellness and kindness in your workplace. A simple act of gratitude can be the difference between an employee feeling appreciated and feeling neglected.

You don’t have to make a big show about showing your thankfulness for your employees — a simple thank you chat, email or Slack message can go a long way and make your employees feel valued.

Ultimately, we all know that growing a small business will come with a number of challenges and awkward moments. These are part of the process. Cultivating a positive and hard-working team to navigate all the ups and downs together are some of the great ways you can set up a successful environment.

Source: thimble.com