How do you stop employees quitting in the New Year?

Heard rumours of team members quitting? The Great Resignation is technically over, but the early months of the new year are always a time when workers consider pastures new.

So, how do you stop employees quitting in the New Year?

Even if you’re leaving it as late as February to make some changes and retain your top talent, the good news is that – if you act now – it’s not too late.

After all, IT recruitment takes time and money even when you have the help of specialists. It’s usually much better to keep your high flyers on the payroll.

If you’re wondering where to start this process, here are some great ideas:

How to keep employees from quitting

Any team member might decide to leave any company for a wide range of reasons.

IT jobs, in particular, are in relatively high supply at the moment. This means employees can leave everything from web design to computer programming jobs and be fairly confident about finding another position without too much difficulty.

If you want to make your business a magnet for your most valued employees, here are some immediate steps you can take to prevent a talent exodus:

1) Get some face time

If you haven’t done so already, the early months and weeks of the New Year are a good time to gather all of your team and senior management in the same place (this could be a virtual one).

Your primary purpose is to make sure everyone knows what your values and strategy are for the year ahead. This way, everyone knows what direction they should be pulling in.

When you set up your meeting, remember your goals are to:

*Invite team members to contribute, but not put people on the spot

*Make sure it’s a true dialogue with team members’ thoughts actually taken on board

*Ensure your senior team doesn’t treat staff comments as criticism and create “blowback”

2) Conduct “review and goal sessions”

Many companies have an end-of-year review process. But what about a start-of-year review?

Meeting one-on-one with team members ensures you can highlight their individual accomplishments and make them feel valued.

Perhaps more importantly, it also lets you lay out a path for their future. Explain what their growth possibilities will be and the opportunities they will have this year.

This way, they know what they have to look forward to when they stay. You might even set any incentive or growth plans or underline those you already discussed at the end of last year.

If you’re not sure what kinds of opportunities they would value, this is the time to ask them.

3) Conduct a culture and workplace conditions survey

Even if you’re confident that you’ve created a positive, engaging, and happy place to work, it’s always good to check in with your team and confirm they feel that way too.

If you already have changes to your workplace in mind, draw attention to when and how you’re making them and – most importantly – why.

Ask for staff feedback on changes before you make them if you want to ensure you get maximum buy-in from your team.

Make sure this feedback is 100% anonymous. Again, there’s a danger of team members not feeling free to gently criticise or suggest improvements. Instead, they may feel it’s easier simply to leave.

Some workplace or team culture improvements that have regularly been found to address employee dissatisfaction and resignation rates include:

*Any steps to improve work-life balance

*Setting boundaries (not expecting your team to answer emails or calls after working hours)

* Minimising overtime (this prevents burnout and bad examples being set)

How to stop employees quitting in the New Year

There’s no one single reason why employees leave an IT job. Equally, there is no one-size-fits-all fix to keep your top talent.

Some employees might feel they need a better work-life balance. Others crave more responsibility.

In general though, noticing you might have a problem already puts you in a position to work out how to stop employees quitting in the New Year. At least now you know you need to do something about it.

Need to find the kind of perfectly matched talent that won’t want to leave?

Let’s talk. Ernest Gordon is a specialist engineering and IT recruitment company. Our market-leading AI recruitment tool finds you the most suitable talent from our extensive pool.

Reach out to us today for a cost and commitment-free chat about your recruitment needs.