After all the excitement and stress of the initial startup period, there will be a point where you come to need more than just your own pair of hands to develop your business.
Especially during the early stages of a business’s lifecycle, the staff hiring process takes on added value. With limited resources and time to spend on recruitment, finding the right person to help take your operation the next level can be extremely difficult.
If you’ve managed to assemble a team of quality staff, retaining their services is absolutely essential to your survival. Alongside good training and progression routes, the benefits you offer will play a key role in keeping your team together.
So, why is retention so important, how do benefits matter and what should you be offering?
Why staff retention is important
Just as customer attraction and retention in your market space is fiercely competitive, attracting and keeping hold of good staff will be similarly aggressive. There is a growing realisation across all sectors that the market for highly skilled labour is extremely candidate-short, meaning replacing your star performer might be harder than you think.
Loss of a key team member results in disruption to operational performance and incurs significant recruitment costs. Likewise, the cost of a bad hire, especially to a start-up, is significant on a number of fronts.
In a world where quality people are key to driving business performance forward, a ‘next man up’ attitude will no longer wash in most industries.
What part do benefits play?
In recent years across such candidate-short markets, there has been a cultural shift in business where ‘why should we hire you?’ has become ‘why should you work for us?’
The fight for top talent has meant rises in market-average salaries, better incentives and companies looking to pounce quickly in hiring processes. The fact of the matter is, if your business isn’t offering ample reasons for staff to stick around, others certainly will be.
Of course, employees can be incentivised in different ways. A competitive remuneration package is obviously a good start. Visible and quick progression within the business is a key factor for most ambitious professionals, as are training and personal development opportunities.
In a start-up, however, elements like linear progression and constant boosts in remuneration may well be practically impossible, so it’s up to you to offer alternative impetus. This is where additional benefits come in as a key way of sustaining employee engagement.
The key perks
A generous and considered benefits package plays a huge factor in workplace wellbeing, which is paramount to good staff retention.
What should you be offering? Here are a few ideas:
- Pension: It’s now law that employers provide a workplace pension but offering a quality scheme with a better than average employer contribution will show staff you care about their long-term future.
- Annual leave: Again, a legal requirement, but offering the ’20 plus stats’ minimum is a great way to disillusion staff. 25 days tends to be a decent standard.
- Sick pay: Whilst staff are entitled to statutory sick pay, this is a significantly lower rate than their actual salary. Offering a boost on this, or sick pay insurance, again shows a level of care.
- Private medical: Offering even a basic level of private cover to staff will be seen as a bonus, with employers often offering medical cover as a loyalty-based incentive.
- Healthy perks: Following on from private medical, things like gym memberships and free fruit will promote a healthy and productive lifestyle in the office.
- Company share options: Equity options are a great way to show your key staff that things are on the up, as well as getting them further invested in the overall performance of the business.
- Bonuses: An obvious one but, if you can afford it, setting out a series of financial incentives to your staff for targets met is a simple method to make sure business performance matches your ambitious growth plans.
Many of these benefits come as a legal standard; however, many businesses adhere to the minimum requirements alone. Candidates tend to use this as an indicator of a bad employer, focused on the bottom line and not on their people (which is often the case).
On top of all the palpable benefits you can provide, you can also focus on creating a good working atmosphere, a lot of which comes down to your management style as the leader of the operation. Avoid micro-management, listen to, respect and encourage staff feedback and make an effort to make your team feel as though they are integral to the business, as indeed they are.
Even if you can’t afford the flashier benefits, sometimes all someone wants is to feel appreciated for their efforts. Carry that forward as a basis for your staff management, and your overall retention will see the benefits.