As the Philippine economy shows constant growth and an increase in foreign firms establishing in the country,
From offering competitive salaries and benefits to developing a culture of innovation and shared rewards based on company performance, here are some key strategies to implement as part of your business’ employee retention program.
1. Provide a Competitive Benefits Package and Generous Salary upon Job Offer
Many companies offer health insurance along with 20 to 30-day leaves per annum, but benefits packages widely vary depending on the industry and the employee’s level of seniority.
2. Train Your Employees and Promote From Within
Help your employees enhance their skills. This could mean sponsoring a series of training and other enrichment programs beneficial for their development and promotions to make them feel valued and motivated.
3. Provide Unique Job Perks That Will Be Hard to Resist
Money is not the only thing that makes an employee stay in a company. Providing some great perks and a good work environment can help make them stay. You’ve probably heard about Googleplex. This Google HQ offers some lavish job perks like, Razr scooters, gourmet food, and dry cleaning.
Clif Bar, on the contrary, has a 115,000-square-foot office equipped with a bouldering wall, yoga studio, and fitness center that would make any employee want to spend more time at the office. Aside from their top-of-the-line facilities, Google and Clif Bar are known to offer flexible work schedules and long vacation leaves.
Local corporations such as Resorts World Manila and Reuters Philippines offer free shuttle service to their employees. Small to medium businesses and startups can also offer simple perks that can satisfy and motivate employees. Something simple like a doughnut day every Friday or free pizza on Mondays. In addition, offer regular team building and bonding exercises to empower your staff and instill your organization’s culture. Make company outings relevant and in-line with your core values, as well as making them fun!
4. Focus on Family
Filipinos have strong family ties, so offering benefits that revolve around the family can help. Events like family days, days off for special family programs and bringing of pets in the office are good retention ideas to help you stay focused on family.
Also, consider revising your policy regarding leaves and adding some perks that would benefit your employees’ families. In Facebook, new dads and moms receive reimbursement for adoption fees and day care, four months of paid maternity or paternity leave, and $4,000
For a startup company, you can implement a 5-day emergency family leave policy per annum. But perhaps one of the most reliable benefits that can be offered for retention is to regularly increase benefits to extended family members of your staff as their tenure grows. You can offer life and medical insurance products that extend to your long tenured employee’s family members.
5. Get Managers Involved
One survey says that the biggest factor that can harm employee work-life balance is a bad boss. More than their character, the quality of supervision an employee gets from his or her superior is a critical aspect to consider.
Get the managers involved and invested in their teams. Require them to coach their employees, and promote good performers .In addition, have them discuss with each employee what the company expects from them. This may help them excel in their performance and increase their morale.
6. Create Transparency and Open Communication
A good relationship between employees and management matters. When employees have the ability to speak their mind freely, it makes them feel valued and appreciated.
Make it a point to listen to their suggestions, solicit ideas, and offer a comfortable environment for regular meetings by implementing an open-door policy. Create a culture where employees can feel free to recommend improvements, and speak with their superiors without fear for of insulting them.
7. Recognize and Reward Employees Who Meet Performance Goals
Good employees deserve recognition. One way of showing that is by offering financial rewards such as individual, team and companywide bonuses for hitting certain goals or targets. Non-monetary recognition programs such as giving certificates, vouchers, or prizes such as travel and gadgets are highly desirable.
The Filipino job market has taken off, and is extremely competitive. You are competing with plenty of other businesses to attract the top talent. Even when you have them on board, they may be receiving calls from headhunters who are out there trying to poach the best staff for their clients too. Therefore, it is essential to be creative and learn what keeps your employees engaged and enthusiastic about working for you, versus what may make them susceptible to leaving. Conducting an interview or survey among your employees can strengthen your retention strategies, and this regular form of engagement can provide a chance to get out ahead of problems before it becomes, too late to save an underlying situation. Combine an attractive workplace culture with competitive remuneration, innovative benefits that increase with tenure, as well as regular communication in order to improve your retention of top talent.
Have you implemented any of these employee-retention tactics? What other effective ways have you tried implementing?