There seems to be an impression amongst the general working public that their business leaders don’t care about their welfare.
While not, generally speaking, true, this perception has its origins in years of inflation amidst stagnating wages, going back to the formation of the first union. The catalyst, however, for this most recent round of workers showing their dissatisfaction with the status quo was the reaction of most companies to the first wave of the pandemic.
In a frenzied panic, business owners laid off scores of employees, narrowing down their staff to a skeleton crew in an attempt to pad their bottom lines, then sent their remaining employees out into a virus-riddled public with minimal protection.
Moreover, these skeleton crews were required to compensate for the sudden lack of available coworkers, with some officials doing the work of two or three people and others being forced into unpaid leadership roles.
When put that way, the reasons for the labor shortage appear to be pretty clear: employees are fed up with being treated like they are disposable, dispensable, and are ready to be valued and compensated in the way they deserve. And for the first time in years, they have the leverage they need to force the changes they desire.
Whether you’re struggling with getting new employees on board or working hard to maintain the ones you have. You know that making your employees happy (especially at a crucial juncture like this) is one of the most important things you can do to ensure your success, despite how much the happiness of employees has been neglected by companies previously.
If you’re struggling with what you can provide your employees to incentivize them to stay and how you can attract new ones, you’re in the right place.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
1. Optimize Your Website
If you’re trying to recruit new employees, one of the best things you can do is put your best foot forward. Suppose your website looks old or janky, or your application process is full of bugs and requires applicants to enter the same information over and over again.
In that case, would-be applicants can draw quite a few conclusions about your company from that experience: namely, that you are disorganized, not with-the-times, and cheap to boot, because you aren’t even willing to put money into your own website.
To rectify that, you may want to consider hiring a web designer in your area: for example, if you live in Kansas City, you may want to hire an experienced Kansas City web design company to help you revamp your site. Hiring a company close by also gives them the ability to provide prompt support if something goes wrong.
Since the majority of recruitment happens online nowadays, and cautious candidates will be conducting research on your organization before they accept a position to make sure you’re a good fit, this is one of the best things you can do to ensure you get interest in your open positions.
2. Upgrade Their Tools and Tech
Speaking of investing money into your employees, the tools that your employees use to complete everyday tasks may need an upgrade post-haste. No matter your industry, whether your employees are trying to use a glitchy POS system to take customer orders at a restaurant or they’re using 40-year-old monitors to try and get some accounting done, being stuck with broken or ineffective tools has an effect both on productivity and employee morale.
If you’ve been getting complaints about your employees’ gear for a while now, it may be the time to invest in new tech. The difference in employee morale will be immediately apparent, and it’s likely that the investment will pay itself off in time as your business runs much smoother.
3. Increase Your Benefits
Above all else, the thing that makes most employees choose to work and stay at a particular job is the big C: compensation, and we aren’t just speaking about how much they make per hour. Benefits like paid health insurance, dental, or even paid time off and vacation time are all highly sought after by would-be employees and likely things that your current employees wouldn’t complain about if they were to receive them.
While some businesses will hesitate to consider this particular item on the list, as paying for such things gets expensive quickly, consider this: afford it for higher-valued positions, not lower-value. You want to reduce turnover, and that will require some kind of investment from you, especially as employees get more vocal about these kinds of things: if you want to stay competitive, measures like these are certainly effective.
No matter what niche you operate in, you can’t get something for nothing. This is especially true of employees: in order to compete with other companies in the race to obtain and secure employees, you will have to invest more in your talent than you have previously.
Consider ways to do that without erasing too much of your bottom line, and remember: employees always appreciate monetary benefits, instead of a dollar-store thank you card. One of those two things is likely to earn you an employee for life, whereas the other is likely to leave you with one less coworker.