Plan for retention
Leslie Carver 
Have you noticed how many businesses are hiring? Your employees may be considering other opportunities so you need a plan to retain them!
Everywhere you turn, you see organizations looking for employees. Jobs are posted online. Signs are hanging in windows with “now hiring” banners placed outside. Some employers have ongoing weekly open interviews. They are desperate and willing to do just about anything to get the attention of your employees. I just heard an ad on the radio this week offering $5,000 sign-on bonuses! Do you think $5,000 could lure some members of your team? How would you feel if you received a resignation letter next week?
Before your employees even think about leaving, you need to regularly communicate with them to understand why they should continue working for you. Do you offer insurance benefits like medical, prescription, dental, and vision? What about short- or long-term disability? Do you offer life insurance with options to buy more coverage? When you review these benefits throughout the year (and not just during open enrollment), employees are more likely to remember what they have.
Do you offer paid time off? Is it in one bucket or broken up into categories like vacation, sick, and personal? Remind employees how much time they can take off throughout the year and if they are eligible for more next year. If you have a plan that gives more time after an anniversary date, this may encourage your employee to stay longer.
Now think about why your employees may want to leave. Are they working a terrible schedule? Is their boss rude or difficult? How well are you paying them? If they have a horrible boss and work a schedule that doesn’t allow them to live the life they want to live, that $5,000 bonus is going to be very enticing! They don’t even have to be scared of what the new boss will be like because they already know how to work for a jerk. Do you see where I’m going here?
The great news is you can do something about this if you want to! If you really don’t know how to improve the situation, talk with your employees. Let them know how much you appreciate them, and you value their opinion. Ask them if they can recommend any changes to make their time at work better. You might be able to offer some flexibility with schedules or put something temporary in place for the summer. For example, some employees love the idea of working four ten-hour days. You may be able to keep them through the summer with just that one change!
Finally, if you really have a rude manager leading a team, you need to prevent further damage quickly. Remember, employees usually leave their employer because of a bad boss or coworker, not because they hate their job.