How to Retain Employees in a Post- COVID Landscape?

The present scenario is not hidden by anyone; people are in a lot of pain as well as trying to survive in this mess of real nightmare, known as COVID. This has disturbed almost every organization from large to small, but still we are fighting with this situation to be survive and trying to get rid of this situation by taking all proper precautions. This pandemic outbreak has led to expansive challenges with business and work. Many have lost their jobs, some have but with no security.

Apart from this, ‘What about the employer?’ Every organization needs a team, planning and people to reach to their goal but without employees it is not possible. Always remember that it’s good to be over-planned than under, especially in cases of pandemic. Now, the situation clicking in every employers mind is How to retain the employees in a post – COVID landscape?

As an employer, you always want to grow higher and higher but also take every possible step to protect your business in all possible ways. Here you will get some major points which are really effective to retain your employees during Covid.

1. Communicate on One-to-One Basis

People’s opinion about the workplace or work culture of your company may vary as their needs are different from one another. For communication, best way is to talk with all your employees to feel like a family and build your trust of being with one in any tough situation like this pandemic. Also by one-to-one talk, your employees will understand the story you are sharing with them about your company and thus, employees will relate the situation with their own life stories like hopes, dreams, goals and concerns. A true employee engagement is fulfilled only by one situation and that is the overlapping of goals of both the company as well as the employer.

Also go for some weekly feedbacks, where the new targets, planning and strategies leads to collaboration among the employees and employers, as well as creates a positive environment and helps in building a re-engagement within your company.

2. Make Attractive as well as Beneficial Programs

In today’s situation, health care is one of the best cares and as an employer, providing beneficiary and attractive programs will help an employee at the time he or she falls sick for some time interval can relate you like a family. Programs like medical insurance, financial incentives, retirement savings plan, child care plan, health club memberships along with training and mentoring your employees helps them to stay motivated and this lead your company in increasing the productivity and maintain the bond of trust.

Other activity programs like annual fest, complaint cell and counseling departments should be organized to understand the mindset of your employees with giving them personal touch-up.

In today’s Work From Home situation, your company should organize some loyalty bonus perks, comprehensive health plans and wellness programs to stay competitive which will surely increase your company’s retention rate in lesser than the time you have planned for.

3. Appreciation & Acknowledgments are the Game-Changer

Everyone loves being valued, appreciated, encouraged and acknowledged, so it is good to celebrate people’s success but don’t make your employees feel down when failure occurs. You must give them credit for their new try, though the outcomes are not received as per demand but by appreciation you are boosting their will power to work with more accuracy. This will give a new energy to the employer-employee relation with a long-way bonding.

People note “Great Job” or “Thank you” from the seniors, manager or any mentors and other achievement rewards for hitting goals, breaking goals or hitting their monthly numbers take them beyond cloud nine. These small efforts to raise your employees can be a game-changer and is obviously appreciated by your employees as well.

4. Flexible Work Policies & Transparency

The working patter is now changed by many companies during this time of COVID where some asked to work from home some provided a paid leave and some half-shift scheduling availability. But this flexibility also increases the work load pressure as the teams can’t collaborate properly and due to this work from home job, many employees faced a lot of stress which also affected their personal life.

To overcome such hurdles, online collaboration tools are declared as a best option where the meetings, brainstorming, project management, and target tracking helps to build trust in between the employees and the company. These tools also give benefits of assigning tasks to the other teammate in case of any problem. By using these tools like zoom, asana, Monday.com in the pandemic situation, company provides an online platform to the employees for employee engagement programs. Such positive innovative steps show your concern about the employee and maintain them to stay in your business with long term working.     

5. Creative Compensation & Opportunities

To retain employee, company should also focus on the employee who deserve fair compensation. One of the main reasons which take employee to quit is a lack of compensation. A target bonus or salary hike are some the best way to retain top performers as new hiring may be quite costly. Many employees feel to contribute more as being capable of doing works which give them good number of opportunities. As an employer, assigning right tasks and opportunity to your employees make them more responsible and also increase employee satisfaction which helps in retention.  

Conclusion

Companies, which take proper care about the employee’s well-being, are more likely to be more productive and have higher retention rate. In an organization, the employees are to be treated like a family. In this mess of COVID pandemic, some points must be noted to know about the life of employees, how are they being impacted by the lockdown’s? How can you help and support them?

Communication is a great way to reach any goal, talk to your employees and make sure that they understand that they’re valued and you really want to retain in the company. Make plans for some regular feedback reviews to know more about the inner talks about the company. Provide them proper compensation, opportunities and flexible work-life balance.  

Acknowledgment is a necessary tool to motivate your employees and your appreciations and rewards will give you appreciation, like a give and take of respect in any company. Thus, to avoid and manage high employee turnover, the only helpful key is retention for a healthy work-life.