How To Keep Hold Of Your Top Performers

One of the biggest problems that small business owners face is keeping hold of their top performers. When you are a smaller company, you will struggle to match the salary that they could command at a much larger business and the top performers will always be the ones that are looking to grow and take their career forward. This is problematic for small businesses because losing your talent can result in significant dips and means that you have to go through the recruitment process often. Fortunately, there are a few effective strategies that will help you keep hold of your top performers so your business can continue to perform well.  

Create A Positive Work Environment

People spend the majority of their time at work, which means that this needs to be somewhere that they feel relaxed, comfortable and welcome. This means that you must take steps to create a positive work environment, which could involve:

*An open plan office
* Lots of natural light
* Plants
* Attractive but neutral decor
* Comfortable furniture
* Relaxed atmosphere

Team Building

Similarly, employees will need to get along with their co-workers if they are to enjoy coming into work each day. Allowing staff to communicate freely (but not at the expense of work) is helpful but you should also arrange regular social events, such as after work drinks. These informal team building events can bring people together while helping to create a team-based mentality which is so important for success.

Monitor Employee Engagement

In order to keep hold of your top performers, you will need to know their thoughts and feelings toward the business. This can be challenging when you have a large team but you can monitor and analyze the employee experience with helpful engagement surveys. This should help you to identify ways to improve the operation, look after your team and encourage staff loyalty.

Provide Opportunities To Progress

As mentioned, the top performers are often the ones that want to progress their career. Therefore, you need to provide high ceilings for them within your own company otherwise their heads will be turned before long. Promoting from within, training opportunities and regular feedback should help them to feel valued and supported within the business.

Keep Them Challenged

Similarly, you need to keep staff challenged so that they do not become bored performing the same tasks day in, day out. Switching up their responsibilities, increasing collaboration and giving them projects to work on is a smart way to keep staff engaged but make sure that you do not put too much on their plate otherwise they could start to feel stressed and suffer from burnout.

Perks

While you may not be able to match the salary that they could earn at a bigger company (although you need to pay competitively), you could incentivize them to stay with certain perks. There are many different options here, such as:

Shares
Bonuses
Discounts
Gym memberships
Flexible hours
Remote working opportunities
Team holidays

Combine a few of these strategies and it should help to keep your top performers happy which should encourage them to remain loyal and continue to push your business forward.