Keeping good employees is tough. There is always someone looking to hire them away. If you have an environment that does not value employees, give them opportunity for advancement, encourage contribution of ideas, then you will likely lose your best employees.

If you have a big enough organization where the possibility of advancement and pay increases are there for your employees to achieve, then your chances of keeping good employees are better.

One of the critical mistakes most companies make is in the process of bringing new employees on board. Most companies wait until the need for new employees reaches a critical state. While that is economically more feasible, often times new employees are not taught about the culture of your business. The company they came from may have different methods of accomplishing goals. It can quickly become frustrating for the employer, and the new employee when things aren’t done they way you expect them to be done.

You may be crazy busy, but things are going to become critical faster if you don’t take the time to stop, show them how you want things to be done, listen to their ideas, and integrate the two. Mutual respect and a sense of accomplishment is every bit as important to most people as the wage they make. In an environment where the services of your company are in demand, employees need more than wages as incentive to stay with a company.

Make sure when you hire someone that they feel like someone who will fit well with your other employees. And sometimes, might it not be better to look for someone who has great skills, but not necessarily in your industry. Perhaps training a new employees from scratch can turn out to be a better choice.

Jennifer Comer