Connecting you to Work in Central Queensland

Retaining staff


Retaining valuable employees is essential for businesses and organisations. Motivating employees to stay with an organisation for longer and contribute effectively, assists businesses long term. Retaining valuable employees is important because:

  • hiring is not an easy process – it can be expensive in time, processes and costs
  • time and money is invested in developing the employees capability and capacity to fulfil the role
  • exiting employees frequently take their wealth of experience to competitors
  • employees that stay longer are more loyal to management and the organisation
  • when employees that show potential are retained, the organisation benefits.

Strategies for retaining staff

Businesses and organisations perform better when high potential employees stay for longer periods and contribute effectively. Management can retain staff longer when they employ different strategies, such as:

  • team leaders assigning work that accords to the individual’s specialisation, interests and offers a degree of challenge that motivates without overburdening
  • team building that develops trust between employees to reduce opportunities for disputes and conflicts
  • hiring the right candidate for the job
  • employee recognition and acknowledging the hard work they have done
  • performance appraisals linked to salary increases that recognise hard working and talented staff
  • company rules and regulations that also benefit employees.

Managers that motivate staff play an important role in maintaining job satisfaction and consequently retaining workers. From simple praise following a job well done, to motivational emails and morale boosting activities, employees that feel motivated and valued by the organisation are more likely to stay. Human resources also work to manage employee retention from recruiting the right employee to conducting exit interviews and managing issues in between.

Challenges in Employee retention

When job markets are tight, employees may be less likely to leave secure positions but ensuring they continue to be motivated and engaged is important.

Conversely, employees may have multiple opportunities available to them. Challenges to retaining them include:

  • Monetary dissatisfaction
  • Multiple available opportunities
  • Employee boredom
  • Unrealistic expectations from the job.

Retaining employees who are disengaged, ineffective or disloyal, though, does not benefit the organisation. Retaining dedicated employees makes for better outputs and healthy workplaces.

To avoid a drain of talent, organisations should:

  • Offer employees opportunities to upgrade skills and enhance knowledge that assist them to complete their tasks
  • Enable privacy in the workplace to ensure employees can undertake tasks with appropriate confidentiality as necessary
  • Ensure senior personnel are reachable
  • Treat all employees equally
  • Formulate employee friendly policies
  • Recognise employees who perform well
  • Enable a positive environment where employees have the freedom to express ideas freely and discuss issues openly
  • Celebrate major events
  • Have policies to manage non-performing employees.

Recommended reading

Blog posts on Employee Retention:

Institute of Managers and Leaders: Why connection is the key to talent retention