Training and development are key to employee retention.

If employees feel that they are not well prepared and adequately trained for their jobs, they may get the impression to not being able to do their jobs. They may pursue opportunities that offer comprehensive onboarding and on-the-job training.

Always communicate.

Communication is a pillar of employee retention. When people understand what is expected of them, and are well prepared for their jobs, they will be very likely engage on the journey that lies ahead of them.

Create opportunities for and encourage personal development.

You want employees to receive the training they need to succeed at their jobs. Still, you should also encourage employees to develop skills that will help them in their overall professional and personal development. 
Developping additional skills while remaining on the job, will encourage employees to stay and rather propose new projects within their teams that will place them outside of their comfort zone and requires new skills, or take on a workplace opportunity that requires new skills, like organizing an online-seminar for customers or learning about selling services. 

Working with your teams and allowing them to create a path for development at work is a great way to encourage retention. It gives people a goal to work towards and can be a significant motivating factor.

Regular meetings where managers sit down with employees and discuss where they want to be, how they can get there, and what opportunities are open to them is a good possibility to engage with each individual and allows to develop win-win-situations for bot parties - the business and the employee.

Empower your managers.

Employees leave their jobs because of their managers and because they don’t feel supported by them. To solve this problem, make sure your business invests in dedicated training and tools for managers so they can effectively support employees and their development.
It also ensures managers are well equipped to have tough conversations with employees when necessary, like letting them know that they need to further develop specific skills or make changes to their job processes.
People want to feel that they (their bosses and their employer) are taken care about them, and proper training and personal development opportunities can ensure that this happens.

Show employees how their work affects customers.

A great way to show employees that their work matters is to make sure they know how their work impacts customers. For example, this could be a list of actual results from different clients, allowing employees to really see the fruits of their effort and how a client was successful because of the work they did.
Conversely, if employees don't feel their work matters or don't understand how they help the customer, they may be more likely to seize an opportunity where they clearly see how they are making a difference.

Provide actionable feedback.

Employees want to understand where they stand, so providing feedback is critical. They should know areas of high performance, as well as specific skills that need improvement.
Having and constructively providing this feedback shows employees that you care about their performance, how it affects the company and about their development.
Employees who don't receive feedback feel confused about their performance and insecure. Without guidance and coaching, they may go elsewhere where they are more likely to receive it.

Teamwork is dreamwork.

Rarely do people work in silos, so you should always encourage your employees to work together as a team so that they feel part of a community and are not working in isolation, but knowing they are helping to solve the needs of the business and customers.
Encourage your employees to get to know their peers, get involved in group situations, and work together to achieve better overall results.
You can also encourage employees to ask each other for advice and help.

Conclusion.

Retaining your employees often begins by hiring the right person. But even then, it’s essential to continuously work to make employees feel safe, comfortable, and able to succeed at their jobs.
 
If you’ve calculated your business’s retention rate and found that you want to raise it, leverage the tips on this list to begin lowering your turnover rate… or simply reach out to the Palmato Team to enroll in one of our development programs.