After the relentless twists and turns of the pandemic, we know that business owners are looking for stability. No one could have predicted the events of the past two years. However, one thing is clear – a major transformation is happening right now in the employment space.
As business confidence improves, the job market is heating up faster than ever before, pushing talent retention to the front of every employer’s mind. With everyone feeling the impact of burnout and having time to reflect on their priorities and goals, it’s fuelling a mass exodus – and it’s happening in Australia right now.
The Work Institute suggests that the cost of an employee’s turnover to a business is about 33% of their annual salary. Along with productivity costs, time spent to fill the role and training periods for the new employee, it all adds up – and fast.
It’s a scary thought for business owners and HR managers, but there are things you can do to help retain your standout employees. One of those things? Implementing Employment Hero HR and Payroll.
Our all in one HR, benefits and payroll platform is custom-built to help you retain top talent – whether that’s through reward and recognition, benefits, a compelling EVP, or learning and development, and we’re here to show you how.
Reward and recognise your team
Most workplaces have company values that form the basis of why they do what they do, but according to Forbes, 52% of employees can’t recite their company values. Without every employee embracing your company values, how can your team champion them through their work?
By having the option for employees to reward and recognise co-workers who encompass your company values, you’ll create a values-driven culture that will continue to radiate positive vibes.
Employment Hero can help make your team champions of your company values. Employees can recognise their co-workers for great work and it can be attached to a company value when a co-worker goes above and beyond in their role. The best part? You can attach a monetary value to it, such as $10 Hero Points.
Want to say thanks? Our Shout Outs feature publicly acknowledges team members by saying thanks. Whether it’s jumping onto a call last minute, or assisting with a challenging task, Shout Outs are an informal way to show appreciation.
The power of employee benefits and perks
When your team are rewarded with Hero Points, they can put them towards goods from Discounts, Employment Hero’s online marketplace with access to savings on thousands of everyday items. Whether it’s movie tickets, discounts on health insurance, gym memberships or tech, you can shop online for all of your favourite everyday items at a reduced price.
What’s more, is that we’ve linked the discounts store to our savings tracker. This means our platform transfers the savings employees make through purchases in the discounts store to the employee’s personalised savings tracker. Employees simply enter their monthly spending on certain categories, and this feature will show them how much they can save by using the data from the discounts store. It’s benefits and financial literacy made simple.
But, it’s not just the financial benefits that come with Employment Hero. We’ve created our own content hub full of education, advice and tools that can help your team become physically, mentally and financially well.
Employment Hero users have access to:
- Financial education resources including expert advice and financial tools to help employees work towards their financial goals.
- Mental health resources including advice from industry experts to help everyone feel supported in their workplace.
- Physical health resources to help everyone live a healthier life at work.
Develop your people
Keeping your team engaged is one of the most effective ways to retain top talent. You need to actively invest in their learning and development, as well as offer opportunities for growth.
Empowering your team to manage their own learning is just as important as any other part of their role. Giving them the opportunity to learn ranges from brushing up on a course they may have previously completed, learning new concepts or practices, or ensuring that they have the right knowledge and skills for their role.
The My Learning feature summarises the learning content assigned to your team, and provides a direct link to access this content in our Employment Hero Learning platform. They can also use this feature to access the full library of content within your organisation’s learning platform if you want to browse, review, and assign yourself additional learning material. It’s one of the easiest ways to manage employee learning and encourage professional development.
Support your team with an employee Assistance Program (EAP)
Did you know that untreated mental health conditions cost Australian workplaces an estimated $11 billion per year? It’s a confronting number, but only solidifies the need for employers to provide support for their team. Employment Hero’s EAP allows your employees to produce their best work by supporting them in times when it’s needed most.
What is an EAP?
An employee assistance program (EAP) is a confidential counselling service provided free to your team as a workplace benefit. With in-person and telephone support available, your team and their family will have access to 24/7 counselling with qualified psychologists and professionals. It’s a great way to support your employees’ mental wellbeing and show that you provide care beyond work.
If your team is feeling mentally unwell, it’s important to identify that this can impact their performance at work. The past two years have been an unsettling time and performing well at work may not be possible for many. When your employees feel like they have their mental health under control, their morale will subsequently improve and feel better about all aspects of their life.
“After just one session I felt a huge weight off my shoulders. Not only did my counsellor support me through a dark period, but she also gave me coping strategies that I still use today. My employer may never know just how grateful I am for our EAP, but the sessions I had with my counsellor were literally life-changing. I hope I don’t need to use it again, but it’s a huge comfort to know it’s there if I do.” – Anna, EAP user.
Get serious about goal setting
When it comes to retaining top talent, you want the entire team to feel aligned and working towards the same goals. If no one feels aligned or individual goals aren’t connected to the broader company objectives, this can become frustrating and give off the impression that the business is disorganised – especially if your top performers are highly ambitious and goal-driven.
With Employment Hero, you’ll have access to Goals, which uses the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework that focuses on transparent company, team, and employee goals. When using OKRs effectively as a team, all your employees are aligned to your company goals. This means that your entire workforce will have visibility of the company goals and how both their team and themselves can contribute towards the one overarching goal.
Improve communication with one on ones (1:1s)
We often hear that internal communication is a pain point for many small and medium-sized businesses, and chances are your employees are feeling the same way.
One on ones (1:1s) are a recurring weekly or fortnightly catch up that an employee has with their direct manager. This is time dedicated for the employee to talk through how their past week or fortnight has gone, as well as commit to things for the future. It encourages conversations of learning and development, whilst showing you care about their career journey. It also opens up the lines of communication and allows for improved professional relationships.
In Employment Hero, you can create a scheduled and recurring one on one with your employees, including the ability to create pre-set talking points and questions. The feature also includes note-taking and commenting features, allowing you and your direct reports to record the conversation that takes place.
The power of employee happiness surveys
Employee happiness is one of the most important factors when it comes to retaining staff. Happy, engaged employees will always be easier to retain, than those who are disengaged and coasting through their role.
With this being said, you want to ensure that employee happiness remains high to minimise the occurrence of employee turnover. You can do this by sending around surveys and asking your team to anonymously rate how they’re currently feeling at work and why. It’s a great way to get an honest snapshot into your workforce, allowing you to identify any areas for improvement.
The Employee Happiness feature in Employment Hero allows you to report on your employees’ happiness via a scale graph, showing happiness as a score from one to ten and what comments your employees left. It gives a broad overview of how happy your team are feeling and you also have the opportunity to respond to your employees’ comments to gather further information on why they left a particular comment, whilst maintaining anonymity.
Watch us in action
Your retention strategy with Employment Hero starts now.
To reduce turnover and retain your star employees, you want to enhance their work experience. You want to make them feel valued and appreciated because if they’re feeling satisfied within their roles, they’re less likely to seek fulfilment elsewhere.
Retaining top talent right now is tough, but with a game plan in place and some shiny new HR system in place, you can do this.
Our team of HR and business specialists are ready to show you how you can retain top talent with Employment Hero. They can walk you through a demo and show you exactly how to get the most value out of our software. Get in touch today so you can retain your employees tomorrow.
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