It’s never been more difficult for employers to retain their workforce. You’ve likely observed this first-hand. There’s high employee turnover and difficulty filling important vacancies, resulting in already over-worked employees needing to take on additional responsibilities. Maybe you’ve even experienced this in your own role. Even those who are currently in a job are likely to be looking for new opportunities; according to Ajilon, around one-third of full-time workers reported that they were actively looking for a new job.
There are a number of reasons people are leaving their current positions for new opportunities. Commonly cited reasons include:
- Bad bosses or managers
- Ability to get paid more elsewhere
- Feeling that performance reviews were unfair or inaccurate
- Missing out on promotions
- Feeling underappreciated or disrespected by coworkers, managers, and bosses
The statistics show that people are constantly looking for their next, better opportunity. This seems to be especially true for younger employees who are less likely to stay put for long periods of time at one organization. But it’s not just Millennials and members of Gen Z who are feeling the itch to find something better. HR Drive reported that half of their survey respondents reported that they would sacrifice up to 29% of their salary to work a job they enjoy. It seems that behind the flashier things – money, benefits, promotions – many people simply want to enjoy their job and be treated well.
Workplace culture is universally important
Workplace culture plays a huge role in employee satisfaction. According to Jobvite, just under 50% of job seekers rank workplace culture as being very important during their job search process. When recruiting new talent to your organization, you simply can’t afford to miss out on such a vast portion of the talent pool because your workplace culture is unhealthy or unenjoyable.
Positive workplace culture isn’t something you can force. It must be cultivated over time by upholding high standards of treatment for all employees and hiring positive, motivated individuals who will seamlessly fit into that type of environment. While challenging, it’s certainly worth the effort to improve your organization’s workplace culture. Given the high monetary and time costs of dealing with employee turnover, improving your workplace culture and demonstrating appreciation and respect to employees will pay dividends for years on end. Luckily, there are two simple changes you can implement right away to move your workplace in the right direction.
Respect and embrace differences
The first key to a healthy workplace and fulfilled employees is to move past simply tolerating those who are different from us. If you’re lucky, your workplace is filled with people who sound, look, think and act differently from each other. That’s a huge advantage and should be seen as such. A change in mentality from tolerating those who aren’t exactly like you to embracing and respecting these differences will shift the culture of your workplace is a much healthier direction.
Most importantly, this mentality must be adopted by everyone in your team, regardless of their rank or position. This is because everyone in the company either interacts with customers directly or supports the people who interact with customers. In either scenario, the way they do their job and treat their colleagues will impact the service that is provided to your customers. Just as healthy bodies start from the inside out, the same is true for businesses. You simply cannot deliver excellent, respectful service to your diverse range of customers if you don’t extend the same treatment to your colleagues.
Be aware of how your actions are impacting others
The second secret to success when cultivating a healthier workplace is to encourage your employees to seriously consider how their actions are impacting others, even beyond your immediate team or department. These can be simple things like giving people personal space, cleaning up after yourself in common spaces, and asking before you take or move items that don’t belong to you. These are small considerations; they require little effort on your part but make a huge difference in setting the standard for better treatment of colleagues. They also make the workplace a happier place to be. When team members feel respected, they produce better work.
To learn more about how you can support your employees in creating a workplace culture that no one wants to leave, contact a ServiceSkills representative today and request a free demo of the Internal Customer Service Training series.
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