Retention Ideas that Reach Across Generations
For many years, the popular belief was that base salary is the main motivator for employees to stay happily employed with their current company. However, over the years companies have discovered that money is not the sole motivational factor and have shifted the thinking to other programs and benefits besides compensation to keep employees happy despite their generation.
A few key motivational factors and retention ideas that help keep employees happy:
- Offering leadership opportunities to new employees can help them mesh into their work environment. Opportunities to fulfill this role might include a mentorship program. For many, there is natural instinct to pass on and share knowledge and past experiences with the younger generations. This can be accomplished via training sessions, mentorship sessions, presentations, and team assignments.
- Enabling employees to have and enjoy a balanced work and personal life. Giving them flexible start and end times in addition to the core business hours or offering telecommuting when possible can be a major attraction for potential employees.
- Offering career growth options within a company are not necessarily tied strictly to seniority but can also occur with the addition of extra responsibilities, cross-training, certifications and other educational opportunities combined with reimbursement programs that can add to the employee’s growth within their field. People like to know that they have room for movement and responsibility within their career.
- Giving performance feedback and praising good efforts will motivate employees to continue to work hard. Employees, regardless of their tenure or generation, all want to know their self-worth to their employer. Any of your employees who are open to feedback, good or bad, and utilize it to become better are the employees that value their positions.
- Involving employees, to an extent, in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the organization whenever possible will give employees more respect of the organization. In some cases, there are topics that cannot be discussed outside of the executive level. However, some information can and should be made available whenever possible. When employees start feeling their job security is threatened, it is typically at that point that they will start looking outside of the organization for a “better opportunity”.
- Having control and ownership over one’s own work, can drive people to continue their work and to work harder in the future. A simple “job well done” can go a long way when it comes to rewarding and acknowledging employees. Other incentives for good work can be a program such as “Employee of the Month”, or getting a closer parking spot for a week. These rewards can help boost moral within a work environment and foster a healthy competitive atmosphere amongst employees.
- Having a BYOD policy. There is a growing need for businesses to recognize and accept the use of smart phones and tablets within the workplace. They are a means for exploring new opportunities and instant interaction with potential employees. Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, is a trend that companies can make reasonable accommodations in order to increase employee involvement and production.
Sources:
http://www.cioinsight.com/books-for-cios/slideshows/ten-ways-to-motivate-your-employees ; http://www.nfib.com/business-resources/business-resources-item?cmsid=51508 ; http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2013/01/ask-eig-under-threat-sequestration-how-do-i-motivate-my-team/60905 ; http://www.diversityjournal.com/5026-how-to-attract-retain-and-motivate-todays-workforce
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kristen Gaustad, CTS specializes in infrastructure support positions such as all levels of network infrastructure and systems configuration. Over the course of Kristen’s career with Whitaker IT, she has proven herself as a valuable recruiter helping develop the government division that she now leads. Kristen is currently a member of Texas Association of State Systems for Computing and Communications (TASSCC).
