Employee retention: 4 ways to stop the turnover without a pay rise

Staff retention can seem like a never-ending task for managers as modern-day employees seemingly change jobs at the drop of a hat.

However, when it comes to retaining employees it doesn’t have to be a continual game of cat and mouse.

Here are 4 fundamental things (that don’t involve a pay rise) that managers can put in place to help drive greater employee retention within their teams.

1. Encourage people to work the way they want

If you haven’t heard, the office 9-5 job is dead.

In a post-pandemic world, one of the best ways for staff retention is to give your team more flexibility in their jobs.

And what that looks like for every employee is different, which is why you need to have individual conversations with each of your team members about how they’d like to work.

While your company might espouse flexible working as one of their employee retention strategies, some employees will be hesitant to request their specific wants and needs for fear they won’t be seen as a true ‘team player’.

So as a manager, the impetus is on you to encourage your team to take advantage of those flexible working opportunities.

In your 1-1 meetings with your team members, ask them to consider how they’d like to engage in flexible working and for them to report back with a proposal for you. This greater flexibility will help drive greater staff retention within your team.

2. Be clear on your expectations

A sure-fire way to kill staff retention is to keep your team members in the dark about your expectations and desired outcomes.

It can leave them questioning their efforts and ‘if they’re doing the right thing’.

This can be in relation to the expectations for their outputs (i.e. the work they complete) as well as how they work, both autonomously and within a team.

How an employee works (and setting your expectations for this) is especially important when considered within the flexible working context. To truly allow your team to work flexibly and help increase your employee retention, you should:

• Set your expectation: what is it you want them to do and how should they do it?

• Be clear on the outcomes you want: what do you want them to achieve?

• Offer your support if needed: tell them that if they’re unsure or have any blockers to let you know.

• Give them the freedom to complete the work.

Setting these expectations should be considered one of your employee retention strategies as it will help instill confidence in your team that what they’re doing and how they’re doing it is correct.

3. Align individual’s values with their work

Believe it or not but staff retention is not always directly related to earning great money.

Sure, a pay rise might keep them on a little longer but sooner or later they’ll just start looking elsewhere if they’re not engaged and fulfilled in their roles.

A better way to drive retention among your team is to allow them to do work that aligns with their personal values.

When we talk about personal values, we mean the things that resonate deepest with each individual team member.

This can include their morals, the character attributes they want to be known for, and the things they stand for, etc.

Once identified, these personal values give an individual clarity to their internal desires. When linked to their jobs, the values act as a natural motivator and help lead to greater fulfillment and employee retention. 

The key is to unearth your team member’s personal values and then link these with their role.

4. Don’t be afraid to lose poor employees

For many managers, the thought of a staff member quitting can be daunting - even if it’s the most mediocre of employees.

And it’s understandable why, given how time consuming and distracting it can be to find a replacement (not to mention that some managers may view it as a failure of their leadership).

However, it’s not unreasonable to say that holding onto a mediocre employee can actually be more work than finding a better replacement.

Think about it, it typically takes much more of your time and resources to manage a mediocre employee compared to that of your star performers.

There’s simply more ongoing nurturing and constant contact required, and in the worst cases they may need some type of performance management.

So if you have some quiet quitters in your team - those team members that simply do the bare minimum - keep this in mind. 

If they express a desire to leave, don't try to appease them in an attempt to shield your ego or from fear of the short-term hole they’ll leave in your team.

In the long-run, you’ll be better served finding a more suited candidate. You might be asking yourself how this helps drive employee retention.

Well, in many cases when you lose a team member, it creates a vacuum for someone else in your team to step-up and fill.

For example, there might be a more junior person who’s more ambitious and looking for the next step in their career. You might just be surprised who fills that gap, and this will of course drive retention with those budding superstars!

Employee retention strategies: don’t do it alone

If you’re in search of more ideas for increasing employee happiness, engagement and output, we can help.  

Our specialist coaches perform as an extension of your team, and use researched, evidenced-based techniques to help create your own high-performing environment.

Want to find out more?