It’s the staff that adds value.
This is true for almost all companies, especially in the accounting and finance industry. Employees can make a great difference between profit and loss. But, no matter how carefully you choose, hire and train the best people, it’s inevitable that your employees will leave. But, there are helpful ways to increase your employee retention and here are some few:
- Increase the Pull, reduce the Push One effective way to retain your team members to is to change the balance between the pull factors and the push factor. Increase the pull factors that make your staff want to stay, and reduce the push factors that makes them want to leave.
To do that, you need to remember the reasons why people want to stay and want to leave. Trust is a powerful factor, which happens when team members are valued within an honest and open culture. This then leads to employee engagement which helps improve employee retention.
What about reducing the push factors? You can carry out exit interview with all leavers. Take an open-minded approach to identify your push factors. Know what they are and start from there. - Pay well (not just in money) It’s not always about pay checks and bonuses. If you want to retain the best people, you need to know what compensation means to them. You need to find out what things affect their satisfaction. These can be professional growth or a flexible schedule to promote work-life balance.
The thing is if your staff don’t feel valued or do not have the incentive for their effort and ideas for your company, they’re more likely to move on. Which is why it’s worth the organisation’s time and effort to develop a robust approach to a mutually beneficial solution. - Give time to play It’s not only children who need to play; so do your employees. This may oppose the push for productivity, but a planned playtime can be beneficial for your organisation. It’s a great chance for employees to step outside of their daily routine.
Organising a team building is a brilliant idea to connect your top performers to other talented people in your organisation. With spontaneous playing and experimenting, trust that great things will come out of it. - Channel their restless energy Employees who excel at their craft are smart, curious, and industrious. This means, they become easily bored with routine tasks. They hunger for something new, interesting, and challenging things to do. Take this chance to harness their restless energy to your advantage.
Provide a stream of interesting assignments that creates an impact on your clients and your operation. Give perplexing problems with a few guidelines and a deadline to reach their maximum potential to finding a solution. - Recognise the warning signs People come and go and it’s inevitable that people will leave. Several reasons for leaving may be a feeling of being undervalued, poorly managed, low morale, or other external factors outside your control like recession and government policies.
Whatever the reasons are, having an effective succession plan and a measurable approach will help improve your staff engagement and save you money. As a by-product, it will also improve your reputation in your community and industry, which makes you an attractive employer to potential candidates.
The Outsourced Accountant helps accounting firms from all over the world grow their capacity, margins and profits through global outsourcing. Contact us to find out more about how we can help your firm.