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One of the most important aspects of running any small business is ensuring that you have an excellent team in place to carry out the day-to-day operations. It’s important that you hire staff who you feel can not only work well with each other but also with your business clients, who are the foundation of your organization.

Understanding the Reasons Behind Employee Departures

The most obvious reason an employee leaves a company is because of money. If a job pays less than others or offers no chance of promotion or raises, it’s no surprise that employees quit. But that’s not always why people leave their jobs. When employees are unhappy with their work environment or with their supervisors, they will often leave to look for better options elsewhere. This can become a serious problem if you don’t have adequate processes in place to retain high-quality workers.

Keeping All Employees Happy with Benefits

It can be difficult to keep employees happy and loyal to your business, especially when you’re operating in a service sector. A lot of job satisfaction comes from working with your hands or engaging in specialized work. With a service business, it’s important to keep all employees happy with benefits, including paid time off, flexible hours, and extra perks. Otherwise, you risk losing staff quickly.

Encouraging Work-Life Balance

Despite what you might read on your favorite news source, work-life balance isn’t an issue that plagues just big companies like Google or Facebook. Even if you own a small business and only have a few employees, it’s still crucial to make sure that your employees are happy. You can do so by encouraging a healthy work/life balance—and helping your employees achieve that goal. For example, provide lunch breaks or encourage them to take advantage of any flex-time policies you may have in place.

Supervising Effectively

Supervisors, or managers, are vital to any organization as they directly manage a company’s people. As a result, all staff report to supervisors who in turn report to higher-ups in terms of management hierarchy. Supervising can be difficult as it requires one to have good listening skills, excellent communication skills, and the ability to solve problems. With so many responsibilities placed on a supervisor’s shoulders, it is important that he or she maintains high standards of employee retention and management at all times.

Providing Useful Training Programs

Providing new employee training programs that keep staff engaged and motivated is a crucial part of retention. For instance, when you hire an employee with no prior experience in your line of work, it may be worthwhile to offer them additional training on company best practices. This additional training can help new employees get up to speed more quickly while reducing any attrition rate caused by a lack of understanding of how things are done.

Maintaining Great Communication Strategies

One of your biggest challenges as a small business owner is likely keeping an open line of communication between management and the employees who are working actively in the field with clients. If a client is happy or unhappy with the services your employee provides, the management in the company needs to be aware of this to reward the employee or solve the issue at hand. By maintaining open communication between the employee and the leadership in the company, clients will be happier and so will your employees.

Encouraging Company Culture

Whether your business has one employee or a hundred, fostering a positive work environment can help to retain employees who will stay longer and perform better. The main reason people leave their jobs isn’t because of low pay—it’s because they dislike their job or don’t get along with co-workers. So keep an eye on company culture and, if there are problems, address them immediately.

We’ve discussed what employee retention means to your service-based small business, and how retention strategies fit into your overall staffing strategy. Now it’s time to take action. Start by reviewing each of your employees as individuals: their skills and goals, their performance, and their motivation. This will help you determine where each person fits in terms of your business plan.

Utilizing Quality Driven Software is the first step in a successful employee retention plan for your service-based business. QDS can track employee performance, uncover quality issues, provide real-time feedback, and identify employees at risk for performance improvement. Visit qualitydrivensoftware.com to learn more and start growing your business today.