Employee retention is becoming more and more difficult.  The average tenure for an employee between the ages of 25 and 34 is now 2.8 years.  This real statistic for most companies is actually worse because the average tenure figure includes public sector (government) workers, whose average tenure is twice that of private sector employees.

It takes an average of 1 year for a new employee to reach full productivity.  If you can only expect an employee to stay with you for 2 years you are seeking a replacement by the time the employee reaches their true potential.  Based on this model business are wildly overspending for staff that constantly rotates.

The answer is to invest in the people presently working for you.  Give your staff solid reasons to stay with your company rather than jump to a competitor.  One of the best ways a company can do this is by investing in training and growing staff members.  Here are 3 ways you can start building better employees that stay longer.

The average tenure for a person with a college education is 20% longer than workers without a degree beyond High School.  People that complete secondary degrees are demonstrating a higher level of commitment to their success and willingness to think long term.  Even if their curriculum of study doesn't directly relate to the job the ability to learn and greater dedication makes education a key to hiring longer term employees.

You want to keep the staff you have, offer college tuition assistance or college loan repayment programs.  Commit to your workers' education and ask them to commit to your company.  The expense of covering related college courses is much less than the loss of production in bringing in a new employee.  Plus you end of with a person that has more potential and could help make your company more money.

Engaging employees by building their skill set is a great way to keep them wanting to work for your company.  Every industry is competitive and leveraging technology to find new ways to outshine other businesses.  Do your company and employees a favor, make everyone more valuable with training that will add skills.  Things like advanced Excel classes, communication workshops, etc

Courses that are specific to your product or software that is used only for your company shouldn't count as part of this training.  Invest in helping your staff grow their skills in other areas that will benefit your company and make the staff feel like you care about their overall career health for the long haul.  There is a sense of pride in working for a business that is on the forefront in employee education.

Some of your workers aren't going to benefit as heavily from gaining a degree or receiving skill set training.  Most businesses have staff that perform jobs that are static in task and skill set.  An example might be a janitor that is going to be using the same tools to perform the same job for as long as they stay working for you in this capacity.  Here invest in making their job easier.

This can done through purchasing more advanced tools for the job that involve less manual work to complete.  Finding software that allows your staff to finish jobs with less data entry.  Upgrading the lunch room, getting better chairs, and in general creating a better work environment.

The first step is to decide that the value of keeping a current employee is worth investment.  Simply being willing to continue paying for a person to complete work isn't enough to keep current employees from considering other job offers.  You need to show a commitment to continually improving the work life and value of the people that work for you.

If you need some help or have more questions just ask.  We love to help.