How to Encourage Employees to Stay on Board and Keep Working

One of the best things to come out of the global pandemic is that it forced almost everyone to evaluate their life and their circumstance and determine what is and is not a good fit moving forward. Unfortunately for many businesses, that meant employees leaving their jobs. While it is true that we cannot look backwards, only forwards, there is something to be said about taking this fact and using it to highlight the great things about working instead of focusing only on the sacrifices that one has to make to be gainfully employed. Instead of noticing this trend in job re-evaluation and becoming crippled by it, as a business owner, listen to your employees, pay attention to the trends within your industry, and adopt new ways to create a working environment that encourages employees to stay instead of one that gives them that one last reason they were looking for to leave.

Give Them Updated Tools

One of the worst things that a manager can say to an employee who is frustrated, and on the brink of quitting, is ‘make it work.’ While it would be impossible as a business owner to indulge and accommodate every request, of every employee, pay good attention to the common threads that exist between various teams and departments. As consumerism drives the demand for delivered goods, the logistics industry has had to rise to the occasion and not only keep their employees on board and happy but be sure that their practices encourage new recruits to join the team as well.

Consider reviewing a guide on ELD for trucks, implementing this as a part of your fleet management solution means that you are encouraging your drivers to focus on the road more than their logs, that your admin team has less paperwork to analyze and sort through, and that your maintenance needs will be better tracked so that you have to pull trucks off the road for repairs less frequently. All of these advantages help make your teams jobs easier, which is a sure-fire way to retain their employment and let them know that you do not want them to feel overloaded, misguided, or easily burnt out.

Be Flexible

Quite frankly, employees, and people in general, these days need flexibility. With so much of the world turned upside down, you cannot view today’s life with yesterday’s lenses. Whether it is a hybrid working schedule, more flexibility with PTO, or adjusting salary and pay scale to remain competitive, and hold onto employees that you value, you must learn to be flexible. This can be liberating for managers too, redefining how your businesses day to day looks can breathe some modernity into your operations and give managers some opportunity to genuinely engage as opposed to strictly monitoring productivity.

Communicate Growth Potential

Nobody wants to feel like they are on a hamster wheel professionally. Use this opportunity to talk to your employees about your vision for their employment long term. Instead of relying solely on annual reviews, instead opt for more informal one on ones with your staff where you can really learn where your employees head is at in terms of what they want out of their career, in general, and as it pertains to working for you. Setting up goals and timelines of how to get where they want to be can encourage employees to stay onboard and participate in the progression of their role and contribution.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the management of EconoTimes