Some of us are fortunate enough to love what we do. Others, not so much. And while some of that dissatisfaction might boil down to issues such as career stage and development (or lack thereof), employer attitudes and policies can also dictate the extent to which workers are content. Seeing as how only 38% of all employees would rate their job as “awesome” or “great,” according to a new report from Alight Solutions, it’s clear that most companies have some work to do if they want to retain talent — especially since 54% of current workers are either passively or actively considering getting a new job.
Of course, the more employees you’re able to retain for the long haul, the less time and money you’ll sink into advertising openings, vetting candidates, and onboarding new hires. Here are a few things you can do to improve your employees’ work experience.
1. Rethink compensation
In the aforementioned report, only 50% of workers agreed that their base pay was enough to meet their personal needs (or those of their families). Though money isn’t the only factor that dictates job satisfaction, it’s certainly a key one for workers at all career stages.
That’s why it pays to get a better feel for how well compensated your employees think they are. You can conduct an anonymous survey or have managers address the issue directly with their teams during one-on-one meetings. Once you gather some feedback, reexamine your compensation strategy and see if you can do better. Sinking a small amount of resources into better compensating employees might save you more than you’d spend replacing them.
2. Offer more flexibility
Most workers today struggle to achieve a decent work-life balance. It’s no wonder, then, that 51% of workers say they wouldn’t even consider accepting a job if it meant having a less flexible schedule.
One easy (and no- to low-cost solution) for retaining workers is to offer up that flexibility on a silver platter. Let proven performers start dictating their own schedules (within reason, of course), and give folks whose jobs can be done remotely the option to work from home — if not all the time, then at least a few days a week. The best part? When companies are flexible with employees, workers tend to be flexible in return. And then everyone wins.
3. Make sure the environment is fun
Given the amount of time most of us spend at work, it’s not surprising to learn that today’s employees want a fun atmosphere when they’re on the job. This doesn’t mean that you need to install trampolines and air hockey machines throughout the office; it just means that you should work on creating an environment in which workers are able to easily collaborate, all the while challenging them with interesting projects. Along these lines, many workers define a fun office as one in which creativity is encouraged and employees are empowered to make decisions.
So there you have it: If you want your employees to regard your company as a great place to work, make sure you’re targeting the areas that are most important to them. A little extra effort on your part could spell the difference between retaining key talent and spinning your wheels trying to fill a void.