Employee Retention: Get Creative and Keep Your Team Happy as Clams

Everything you need to know about employee job satisfaction to keep them happy and increase retention rate.

January 17, 2023
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How would you describe your job to a five year old?
What season would you be?
What is a weird food you have tried? Would you eat it again?
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Would you go in the mother-ship with aliens if they landed on Earth tomorrow?
What is your favorite season?
Do prefer working from home or the office?
What is your earliest memory of this job?
What is the best thing you have bought so far this year?
What is the earliest book you remember?
If you had to move to another country, which one would you choose?
You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
What was the last thing you ate?
What person from history would you add to Mount Rushmore?
What is a weird fact you know?
What is your favorite part of working from home?
Were the Spice Girls a good team?
Imagine you can instantly learn any language. Which would you choose?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Which fictional team is the best team of all time?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What do you usually eat for a quick lunch?
What simple food will you never eat?
Show us the weirdest thing you have in the room with you right now.
Would you rather stay at a hotel or an AirBNB?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
Are you more productive in the morning or at night?
Who is someone in your community that makes a difference?
Who was your most unique pet?
Choose one famous person from history you want on your team during a zombie apocalypse.
What is a good way to give back to the community?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
Is Hugh Grant funny?
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Would you want to have an imaginary friend today? Did you have one as a child?
What actor or actress would you want to play you in the movie about your life?
What is the best super power?
What is your New Years resolution?
You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
What is the best work holiday?
What is the first gift you remember receiving?
Would you rather join Metallica or Backstreet Boys?
What is the best example of a community you have seen?
What is an easy way to do something nice for someone?
Show us your phone background and tell the story behind why you picked this image.
What was your first job?
Pick any band to play at your funeral.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Which superpower would you give to your arch enemy?
What is the most obscure superpower you would want?
What emoji best describes how you are feeling right now?
If you could live in any country, which country would you pick?
Would you rather live in a city or a town?
What is your favorite holiday?
What is something you accomplished as part of a team?
What is your standard office lunch?
What is your most used phone app?
What is your favorite season?
Have you ever won something as a team?
Imagine you are a professional baseball player. What is your introduction song?
Beach holiday or ski trip?
Have you ever been to a funny comedy show?
Would you rather live at the North Pole or the South Pole?
What is your favorite song to sing?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Imagine you could teleport anywhere. Where would you go right now?
What is the most unusual job you have heard of?
What was the last thing you ate?
You can visit any fictional time or place. Which would you pick?
What do your family and friends think you do all day?
What movie do you wish you could watch again for the first time?
Show us your most-used emoji.
What was the most unique style or fashion trend you ever embraced?
What movie defined your generation?
You are stranded on a remote desert island. Are you alone or with your worst enemy?
What is your favorite knock-knock joke?
Have you ever told someone Santa is not real?
Do you know how to speak more than one language?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how much of a team player are you?
What is your #1 recommendation in this city?
What is your favorite holiday?
What bucket list item do you most want to check off in the next six months?
What is your favorite mythical creature?
What was the first way you made money?
If you could be great at any Olympic sport, which would it be?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
When did you start liking/hating mushrooms?
Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Do you take your PTO all at one time, or another way?
Which show do you remember most from your childhood?
Which beverage goes best with pizza?
Would you want to have a personal assistant follow you around everywhere and do what you asked of them?
Have you ever met your idol?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Would you rather live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
What is your hobby?
When you are alone in the car, what volume is the music at?
Imagine you no longer have to work. How would you spend a Tuesday?
What is your favorite type of sandwich?

It’s fairly easy to board the train of thought that when an employee quits, they can easily be replaced by someone else. However, did you know that replacing them could cost twice an employee’s yearly salary?

Employees should be one of your most valuable assets. So, it’s safe to jump off that train.

If you employ the right people for a job, it makes economic sense that you do what you can to hold on to them because the alternative is even more expensive.

When employees feel like their workplace is not meeting their professional or personal needs, they start to look for other opportunities. Ensuring that they don’t feel this way is important in retaining them. So, the key is to keep them happy, engaged, and productive.

In this article, we’ll discuss employee satisfaction, how it affects retention, and what you can do to improve the workplace.

How Is Employee Retention Affected By Job Satisfaction?

There is a direct relationship between employee satisfaction and retention - The happier your employees are, the likelier they will keep working in your company.

When you use effective employee engagement strategies, employee productivity and efficiency increase alongside retention - this is the positive effect of job satisfaction. Naturally, client satisfaction is important in any company. Think of it as creating a ripple effect when the reverse happens, it affects the clients. 

Consider these out-of-the-box creative ideas to keep your employers engaged and satisfied at work. 

Start making your employees happier now - book a demo today. 

What Is The Difference Between Employee Retention And Employee Satisfaction?

Employee retention is a measure of how well an organization is doing when it comes to holding on to their employers. On the other hand, employee satisfaction is a measure of employees’ fulfillment and satisfaction in their position within the organization and the organization itself. 

An organization with a low retention rate needs to make deliberate efforts to ensure employee satisfaction; they feed into each other. A company with a high retention rate will not only have happier employees but enjoy higher productivity and turnover at the end of a business year. 

Taking an employee satisfaction survey periodically will ensure that employers can stay on top of things and know when to put in extra effort to keep their workers happy. These surveys are an effective way to identify employees’ pain points and needs. 

It is easy to assume that employees only need better financial compensation to be happy and satisfied. While this is important, employers need to consider other needs.

Creating an employee satisfaction survey will ensure that you are not just assuming their needs but actually paying attention to them and their specific needs. When you incorporate the results from the survey, you’ll also show employees that you care about them. 

Employee retention is sometimes challenging, and we understand that! Fortunately, there are ways to identify the challenges and improve on them. 

How Can Employee Satisfaction And Retention Be Improved?

There are many ways to improve job satisfaction and retention, including offering great perks, effective communication, good work-life balance, etc.

Since we have established that employee satisfaction and retention are directly proportional, it is a safe deduction to say that improving one affects the other positively.

Let’s take a closer look at how to improve employee satisfaction and retention at work:

  • Celebrate milestones and achievements

Every achievement made by an individual or team should be acknowledged and celebrated. Things such as; wrapping up a project timely, flawless execution of a project, work anniversaries, etc., should be celebrated memorably. 

  • Good work-life balance

Showing employees that you care about their life outside work by respecting their time is an excellent way to ensure job satisfaction. This is especially important when managing remote or hybrid employees

If your employers don’t have a life outside work because they have to work odd hours, it won’t be long before they become dissatisfied at work.

The workplace can sometimes get so fast-paced that employees' contributions are dismissed or unappreciated. 

It won’t take long before an employee starts to feel dissatisfied, and mangers need to find ways to engage the disengaged. Setting up a recognition and reward system will let employees know you value them. This outcome will be seen in their output and productivity at work.

  • An effective communication system

Are your employees always confused because they get different information from different people? Are they in constant uncertainty because a clear communication system has not been established? Is there a system in place to help them communicate their ideas and complaints and feel heard?

No one wants to feel like they don’t know what they are doing at work because a functional system hasn’t been put in place. 

  • Useful feedback

Let your employees know how they are doing by offering constructive feedback. You don’t necessarily have to wait for a performance review. Discuss their professional goals and find ways the company can help them develop careerwise. 

Your employees need to know that their professional well-being is important to you and that they can rely on the company’s support.

  • Health support

Asides from paying salaries, it’s essential for employees to know that you care about your employees’ physical and mental health. 

Assist employees in managing their mental and physical health by offering gym memberships, stress management programs, fitness classes, mental health awareness, etc. 

  • Great perks

A good salary is not a replacement for perks. Excellent workplace perks vary, so you might consider taking a workplace survey to ensure that you’re giving your workers what they really want. 

For example, employees might find remote work and paid time off volunteering to be better than annual company retreats. 

  • Ask for suggestions

Imagine being constantly fed a salad when you only want a double cheeseburger! Making assumptions leaves room for mistakes - thinking you know what your employees need instead of asking them. 

A lot of the points mentioned above will only produce desired results when you don’t generalize the process. What works for other companies in your industry might not work in your own company. Instead, ask your employees for their opinions and listen.

What Things Give Employees The Greatest Satisfaction At Work?

What’s the general atmosphere like in your company? Do you feel that your employees are not happy at work and that they’ll rather be elsewhere?

If you think so, then it’s time to switch things up. The first step, of course, is to identify the things that give employees satisfaction at work and make them ready to go the next day.

  1. Workplace autonomy:

If employees don’t have the autonomy to think independently because of some heavy micromanaging, they won’t enjoy what they do. Your employees should be free to get creative in executing their daily tasks.

  1. Workplace discrimination:

No employee should feel discriminated against by management or their co-workers. Ensure that the workplace is a discrimination-free area, and invest in keeping the team spirit alive and healthy.

  1. Monotonous work:

Very few people like doing the same thing repeatedly with little to no variety. When the tasks at your workplace become overly monotonous, employees don’t feel challenged anymore. Boredom brings about dissatisfaction, and that’s not what you want. 

  1. Opportunities for growth:

When employees feel like working in a place stifles their growth, they’ll become dissatisfied. A healthy work environment offers opportunities for both personal and professional development. 

  1. Good salary structure:

Employees need to feel like they are being paid fairly for the work they are putting in. You can’t tell them you appreciate them but severely underpay. It’s important to pay based on capabilities and industry standards.

To tie it all up;

It’s human nature to seek greener pastures, and it differs for everyone. You can take surveys to understand what makes your employees happier and apply them to create employee engagement KPIs to keep you on track.

Discarding their opinions and ideas in favor of what you think is right or trending will leave room for your employees to seek better opportunities. 

Thinking about the next steps? (You should!) Assembly has creative solutions to help with employee engagement and recognition

Take the first step towards making your employees happier; book a demo today. 

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