Wrkio Blog

What is employee retention?

Employee retention determines how proficient a company is at keeping its talent over the long term. Retention also looks at the strategies companies use to maintain a stable workforce. You must use hourly employee retention strategies to secure your work environment if you hire hourly workers.

Why does employee turnover happen?

Before looking at hourly employee retention strategies, it is important to identify why employee turnover occurs.

Engagement is at the core of employee retention. If you want to consider hourly employee retention strategies seriously, you need to change your mindset from “how do we keep workers here?” to “how do we engage our employees and keep them happy at work?”

When there is a lack of engagement, your business will experience higher employee turnover. Along with engagement, other reasons for employee turnover include:

• Feeling unsupported/overwhelmed
• Limited career advancement
• Poor work-life balance
• Unhappiness with management
• Dissatisfaction with the company’s culture

Looking at this list of reasons for employee turnover, you can see where you must make changes to gain employee retention.

13 best hourly employee retention strategies

Hire the right people

You must hire the right workers to ensure you can retain your employees from the start. Always look for applicants with the necessary skills to meet your job requirements. You should also look for people that are a good fit for your company’s culture.

When screening your job applicants, pay close attention to their attitude and personality. This observation will let you know if the individual fits in your company. Also, consider diversity and inclusion, as this boosts your productivity.

Improve your onboarding and orientation

Another way to improve employee retention is by improving your orientation and onboarding experience. You teach your new employees about their job and company culture during your onboarding process. You should also tell your new workers how they can contribute and thrive in the company environment. Always try to set up every new hire for success.

Never skip this step, as the tone and support you provide on your employee’s first day will impact their tenure at your company.

Get to know your employees.

As mentioned earlier, engagement is at the core of employee retention; therefore, you must make an effort to engage with your workers beyond work tasks. Try showing interest in who your workers are and what they want.

You can ask questions such as: “where do you see yourself 5 years from now?” You can also ask questions based on their skill. These questions will help you understand their motivations, career goals, and dedication to the work. And in the long run, you can use these motives to keep them engaged.

Effectively communicate

Communication is so important daily and just as important in the workplace. One of the best ways to retain your hourly workers is by effectively and clearly communicating your expectations. Setting clear expectations leads to higher employee retention because your workers don’t feel frustrated or confused.

When your expectations are clear, your employees know exactly what is required from them and how they can succeed in their roles. Clear communication also increases productivity as employees know what they should or shouldn’t do.

Communication also works both ways. If your employees come to you with any work concerns, you must listen and talk through their problems. If your employees feel heard, they are more likely to stay with your company.

Provide a competitive salary

One of the most important hourly employee retention strategies is offering your workers a competitive wage. Most hourly employee industries provide low wages. You can set yourself apart from other companies by offering higher salaries than your competition. A higher salary shows that you value your employees’ work and appreciate their involvement in your company.

Provide opportunities for growth and training

Another great way to retain hourly employees is by offering training and career growth opportunities. Investing time in your employees’ development shows you are committed to their growth. Many hourly workers are open to career growth opportunities and a chance to become salaried workers. When you offer your employees training, you give them a chance to do so.

When your employee goes through training, it helps them become more productive, which benefits your business.

Provide better recognition

Recognizing your employee matters and simple positive recognition will do wonders for your employee retention rate. Since engagement is important, you must take employee recognition to the next level by highlighting the skill, talent, or strength your employee exhibits.

For example, if an employee did well in accomplishing a challenging task, compliment the employee by saying, “you did a great job completing that difficult task.” To take this recognition to the next level, try to be specific when giving a positive affirmation. Make sure to recognize their skill and why they are important to your business.

Give promotions

Internal recruitment is a great way to show that you appreciate your employees and want to help advance their careers. When you promote from within, you indicate to your workers that you are invested in their future. Internal recruitment also helps you save your time and money as you don’t need to advertise to external candidates.

Provide better work/life balance

79% of the workforce wants a better work/life balance. Try to be clear about the working hours and schedules so your employees can create a work/life balance. Hourly employees enjoy flexible work hours, so keep this in mind when creating work plans for your employees. Consider using a work management service such as Wrkio to help you plan and schedule your hourly jobs more efficiently.

Offer flexible scheduling

We briefly touched on this part in the work/life balance, and it bears repeating that you must offer your hourly workers a flexible schedule. Many people take up hourly work because they don’t want a fixed schedule. Therefore, you should try to schedule with employees to give them the necessary work hours.

You can use work management services such as Wrkio to manage your hourly jobs and keep track of every employee’s work schedule. It’s free to use with Basic membership, which allows scheduling of hourly jobs up to 60 days ahead. It also has a subscription-based Prime membership that allows you to manage hourly jobs beyond the 60-day limit.

Invest in your employees’ well-being

Investing in your employee’s well-being is becoming increasingly common, and this is an important retention strategy because it creates a positive work environment. Employees can’t always shut out certain parts of their lives.

If you think your employee is suffering from interpersonal relationship problems, poor mental health, and low self-esteem, you must try to help your employee as much as you can.

Poor well-being will affect your workflow and lead to low productivity or boredom. Invest in valuable benefits such as organizing workshops on health and wellness, coaching, or hiring an organizational expert to improve your employee’s well-being.

Offer employee discounts

One of the best hourly employee retention strategies is providing benefits to your workers. There are several ways to give your employees benefits; one is through employee discounts. An employee discount is a great way to show your workers that you appreciate and care about them. Such deals also boost workplace morale, leading to more productivity.

What are the benefits of employee retention?

You will reap many benefits if you successfully implement hourly employee retention strategies. Here is a list of some of the biggest benefits of a retention strategy.

Reduced costs

Turnover is expensive and time-consuming and can majorly disrupt your business operation. In addition, if you hire inexperienced employees, your customer experience may suffer, which will cause further revenue loss.

Better morale

When an employee is down and not fully motivated to do their work, it reduces the morale of your workforce. Positivity allows your workers to stay with your company for the long term. Effective retention strategies will keep your confidence and create a positive work environment.

Increased productivity

Retained employees tend to be more productive as they work in an environment that fosters growth. Increased productivity is great for your employees, and it is especially beneficial for the development of your business.

Less time on training and recruiting

Frequent recruiting and training will disrupt your workflow if your company experiences a high turnover rate. Instead of spending time on recruiting, you will be much better off employing retention strategies to maintain skilled workers.

Key Takeaway

Employee retention is important for your company’s growth and your workforce’s morale. Follow our 13 best hourly employee retention strategies to reduce your employee turnover rate.