Keep Your Employees Happy (part 2)

Last week we discussed the fact the economy is improving and employees no longer feel lucky just to have a paycheck. They are now in a position to demand more. We explored some of the ways to increase the chance that they stay with you long term. Today I would like to take a deeper dive on some additional ideas on how to keep your employees happy.

Compensation is always an important factor in ensuring that people are satisfied at work. The challenge is, when you give someone a raise, after a period of time, that goodwill starts to diminish. Instead of giving the employee a significant raise all at once, why not break it up into smaller incremental raises. It removes the complacency and provides you with more bullets.

Provide benefits that vest. This is a way to take care of employees, but also ensure they take care of you long term by not leaving. Assume you have a person earning $60k per year. You are thinking about giving them a $10,000 raise, but want to find a way to ensure they don’t leave. Why not structure it as deferred compensation? They know if they stay for 3 years (as an example) they will be entitled to the $10,000. It makes it harder to leave, as they will always have money in that account. A potential employer will have a more difficult time recruiting them as they would most likely have to make them whole before the employee would consider moving. You can even provide vehicles for the employee to invest the money while they wait for it to vest.

Everyone appreciates food. I had a job where if you stayed in for lunch, the firm would feed you. It probably cost them $10 for the food each day. The extra hour I spent working instead of going out was worth far more to the firm than the $10 they paid for the lunch.

At my children’s school they recently hired a new head master. The first thing he did was provide teachers with free lunch every day. It was a huge boost to morale. If you fed your employees lunch every day, over the course of a year it would probably amount to about $2500. Even if you did it once a week, it’s a nice touch.

Holiday and birthday parties are a very inexpensive way to build loyalty. It can be as simple as organizing everyone to bring in a dish. It’s great for morale. As the leader, you buy the cake. It’s inexpensive and you’ll create lots of goodwill.

Make a big deal about work anniversaries. If an employee has been with you 5,10,15 years or more, make a big deal about it. It creates a sense of belonging. The recognition goes a long way.

Know the names of your employees family members. Take interest in their lives. Ask how they are and share family stories of your own.

The bottom line is that people want to feel appreciated. Find ways to make the feel good about themselves and you’ll earn their loyalty.

If you know someone that can benefit from this message, please pass it along.