With more and more businesses being set up in the same location, the competition between companies to recruit and retain the best and brightest staff possible becomes bigger and bigger. Traditional benefit offerings and outbidding each other on salary ranges is just not enough anymore today.
We therefore have to start looking at alternative ways to to keep our valuable staff interested in staying with us – and not just because we made a better counter-offer on another opportunity that opened up to them.
Whether you are an established business or a startup, the problem begins very early during the recruiting process: the potential employee does not get a sense of job security if the office is small and bootstrapped, and you have a very limited salary budget.
So what can we do to attract and retain talent without diluting the market by changing salary ranges or offering unreasonable benefits? Here are 5 affordable quick wins you can implement right now and will bring results within a few weeks:
1. Offer financial advice and/or life coaching.
There are many ways the HR team, managers and senior executives can help staff by advising younger employees on life choices, mainly how to spend their hard-earned money. Even if most of your younger staff members enjoy getting their cash and even more spending it, they will appreciate it if the company cares about helping them making the right financial decisions.
2. Eat together.
There is no need to offer daily free breakfasts and lunches served by the company’s private chef, eaten between the pool table and xBox game room – you’re not Google or Apple yet! Why not organize a weekly lunch for each team or even the whole company for management to provide a quick update on the business? You can even offer it as a treat at the end of the week. Just make sure it’s healthy(ish).
3. Set up a homey, comfortable environment.
Even if you can’t afford the latest open-space office with huddle corners and cozy sofas, there are other ways to make your staff more comfortable and at least feel a little at home. Consider getting environmentally friendly, bright LED lightbulbs, or a couple of big indoor plants. Decorate the walls with your logos and achievements, and perhaps install a couple of Bluetooth speakers for those late nights. Keep the mineral water free flowing!
4. Provide great tools and technology
Long gone are the days of having to spend a lot of money on software licenses, delivered to you in sealed boxes. Nowadays, for a modest sum you can make sure all your staff has the right tools they need and request to do their job more efficiently, thanks to software-as-a-Service and open-source web apps. And don’t skimp on your office Internet connection – that’s always money well spent.
5. Engage regularly in both good and bad times.
Reach out to your people as often as possible – in bad times like during storms, as well as in good times just to share your latest client success or someone’s birthday. There are many ways and technologies to regularly communicate, so find the right one for you and your teams, from Slack to SMS to an old-fashioned Wiki Intranet, everything works.
About Us
Our cloud-based payroll and HRIS solution for the Philippines is doing a lot of research on employee engagement. We are confident we can play a part in reducing the attrition rate in your company. Please contact us on info@philpay.ph if you have any questions, or are interested in a product demo. You can also sign up yourself on http://www.philpay.ph.
