3 ways to build loyalty and retain staff
This year has seen significant changes for our business and not least the retirement of Jon from his office management role.
Jon has worked for our family business for 25 years. During this time he has had only one day’s sickness and has exemplified what it is to be a loyal employee.
We wish him well for his semi-retirement and would like to thank him for all his efforts and vision that have helped us get to where we are today as a business.
We welcomed a new mobile cleaning operative Paul this year and more recently with Jon’s departure from the office, our new officer administrator Karen.
We are already pleased that they have settled into our team and working so well in their specific roles.
Employee retention: a challenge for every business
With these changes to our business, we reflected on the fact that job satisfaction and employee loyalty are key challenges when running a small to medium enterprise.
Recently Sean received feedback from a number of staff expressing how thankful they are to work for a good company; they said they feel part of the team and respected. We were delighted to hear that they felt they belonged and enjoyed working for us.
Employee loyalty is seen as the strong desire to remain a member of the organization and it stems from employee satisfaction. A recent study found that employee satisfaction is rarely about earnings, as one might expect, but more about the emotional elements of their work. So, if we put strategies in place to ensure that employees are emotionally fulfilled in their roles, then they will be loyal to the company and you will retain staff.
But how can an MD or CEO ensure that employees feel satisfied in their role?
Here, we highlight three areas where managers can motivate their team to have job satisfaction and build loyalty within the team.
1. A respectful manager
One of our main values as a business is honesty, this runs through our whole operation and service. We expect that from our team, and they expect that from us and in turn we deliver our service with honesty to our clients.
If a team has a respectful, honest, and supportive manager they will feel valued. Clear transparent communication from the management is the foundation for building a team where everyone is respected.
Our team is hugely respected by us, but also the client’s team they become part of. This instils the feeling of being valued and belonging to a team.
Showing care and checking on team members’ emotional and physical well-being is also important and need not be formalized, but rather a spontaneous enquiry as to how they are doing. Often this is undertaken by the whole management team along with Sean.
2. Recognition of achievements
Many of our cleaning operatives work throughout the year, on public bank holidays and over Christmas.
We believe that recognition of their efforts and commitment to providing a service enables team members to feel appreciated. At Cleaning Technique, we have always given a Christmas food gift to each of our operatives and many that join us shared that hadn’t expected this, as they were unused to receiving gifts in their previous roles.
In addition to Christmas gifting, we formally recognize an individual operative for Cleaning Operative of the Quarter. They are presented with a certificate and a voucher for a restaurant or coffee shop.
Recognition of hard work or being a good team player can be as simple as praising your staff and passing on positive feedback at any given opportunity or as complex as providing gifts and rewards.
3. Room to grow
The expansion of our business enables room for growth, both on the ground for Cleaning Operatives, and also for our mobile supervising operatives and administrative staff.
Where a client has a multi-operative team, the position of supervisor or key holding operative becomes available and this gives additional responsibility, but also expresses your trust in that operative’s capabilities.
We welcome operatives’ and our admin team’s feedback about things that can be implemented to improve the service we provide for our clients. Many of our operatives are entrusted with multiple sites, this enables them to have job security with us and gives the clients continuity with a locally based operative.
As we reflect on this last year, thankful that it’s seemed more business as usual than the past two years, we take pride in providing roles within our company for local people. They in turn feel valued and appreciated within our team and wish to remain in our employment.
Progression, respect and appreciation: the 3 ways to build employee retention
In many ways, building loyalty within a team isn’t rocket science. If someone feels emotionally fulfilled by their role, feels respected, sees that their work is appreciated by their boss, and sees room to progress within the company, then they’ll stick around.
But ensuring this happens takes hard work on the part of the management. You have to be intentional and emotionally engaged with your employees. This commitment takes effort and thought.
We look forward to this coming year of 2023. The year will boast a number of our operatives receiving long service awards for being with Cleaning Technique for over 10 years. Some are edging closer to 20 years! We look forward to many more years with our team and wish you all the best during this Festive season.
[HM(1]Izzy, you’ll have to link to the study you used here.
