Like many people, I have been a new employee several times. My very first job as a teenager was a hostess at a pancake restaurant. After I got my new uniform I was ushered into a “break room” that very closely resembled a storage closet. The manager on duty propped open the door, popped in a training video, and told me that I’d spend the rest of my shift watching the video.

During college, I worked retail and even went on to be a manager there. When I was originally onboarded at that company, I was given a gift bag with branded merchandise, candy, and a name tag. My soon-to-be direct manager walked me through the new hire paperwork, one-on-one.

I had training and onboarding at both of those jobs, but it’s not hard to see which experience as a new hire stuck with me the most. And, let’s be honest, it’s not hard to see the impact those experiences had on my longevity at each company.

A great on-boarding experience is one of our best tips for improving employee engagement and retention. Read on for additional suggestions and learn about the programs we personally offer associates here at Employment Solutions.

Give employees a great onboarding experience

According to Gallup, only 12% of employees strongly agree that their organization does a great job onboarding new hires.

Gallup found that a lackluster onboarding experience can make it hard for a new employee to feel connected to their new job. When an employee doesn’t feel a bond with their company, retention rates decline. A report from the Society for Human Research Management shows employee turnover can be as much as 50% in the first 18 months of employment.

One real life example from my own experience? When I was given a name tag with my name already printed on it during onboarding, I instantly felt like I was part of the team. I knew that the company had not only planned for me to start, but most importantly I felt that they were excited for me to start, too.

And the job where I was essentially stuck in a closet watching a generic training video? I only stayed there for one summer. I didn’t feel like they hired me for my unique skills, so I didn’t choose to work for them again the next time I had the summer off from school.

Give employees unique benefits

Keeping candidates engaged goes well beyond the onboarding process. It’s important to offer good benefits for them while they work for you as well.  According to the Harvard Business Review, health insurance, flexible hours, more vacation time, and work from home options are just some of the top benefits that employees care about when deciding where to work.

But you can also offer benefits that are unique to your company to keep associates engaged. In fact, we recently rolled out two unique benefit programs of our own:

• Employment Solutions’ Referral Bonus Program encourages individuals to send us reliable and hardworking friends and family members. When someone sends us a job seeker they know, both parties earn $50 after the person who was referred works 80 hours. Even better, individuals do not have to be a current Employment Solutions associate to submit a referral! To sweeten the deal, referrers are also entered into a monthly drawing for up to $1,000 toward free rent.
• Our Attendance Bonus Program rewards current associates with one entry into our monthly drawing for every week of perfect attendance at their job. Of course, they can also refer friends and family on top of that for potentially unlimited entries. Because who doesn’t love easy money? It’s a win-win – for us, for them, and for our clients.

Give employees opportunity to develop

According to an article from Inc.com, a study by Ceridian found that 91% of top performers at work believe that working for a company that provides development opportunities is very important.

What does development in the workplace look like? Hint: it’s not always found in a promotion or a raise. If you can’t offer a raise or promotion to your employees, try offering regular workshops, training courses, and materials so that people can take initiative to become better employees.

Another great idea to help develop employees is to create a partnership between a leader in your company and someone else who aspires to move into a similar role during their career path. You might be surprised by how much both parties will learn from the experience. They will each get to practice being both a coach and team member; being able to be succeed in both roles is a quality all great leaders should have.

Give employees the opportunity to give feedback

Without an outlet for employees to give feedback, great ideas from your team can go unnoticed and you could be missing out on an improved workflow as a manager, too. According to this article from LinkedIn, managers that receive regular feedback on their strengths actually show 8.9% greater profitability.

Giving employees an outlet to provide feedback can also help you see where changes need to be made so that your employees feel supported. Employees will also feel more comfortable making decisions on their own that are in the best interests of the company, because they know that leadership will support them. And, most importantly, when your employees feel that their concerns and ideas are heard, you will earn their trust.

Not sure where to start? Check out this article from Recruiter.com with some of the top feedback tools you can start using in your company today. If you use some of these tips to help keep your employees engaged, there’s no doubt that you will start to see your employees enjoy work more … and stick around for the long haul. After all, a happy employee is a productive employee!

For more information on the benefits we offer our employees, visit our benefits page here.

Sarah Ash is the Marketing Assistant at Employment Solutions. She graduated from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins with a Journalism degree in 2016, and has been with Employment Solutions since November of 2018. In her free time, she enjoys time with her fiance and their dog named Chloe. You can connect with her here on Linked In.