Are you finding that you’re having trouble keeping hold of your employees? Perhaps you have found that lately, in particular, more people are leaving or not coming back to their jobs. This is being framed as a “labor shortage” in the news, but the truth is that most employees are seeing it as a good job shortage. If employers drag their feet on improving work conditions, they are going to find it hard to stay open. So, what can you do to retain your employees better, or to coax them back?

Pay your employees more

It might be the simplest solution but it’s often the one that cuts straight to the core of the problem. Many homes have raised by more than 400% since the late nineties, while wages have raised by less than 8.8%. All other living standard improvements aside, this has created untenable anxiety in the workers of society that is only just now starting to bubble up to the surface. The truth is that if you’re having trouble maintaining a staff of workers, it’s likely that management costs are gobbling up the money that should be going to them. Even if you have to carry out some pay cuts or cancel some bonuses, you need to address the wage problem.

Look at the benefits you can offer

In the past, more companies were able to manage relatively stable wages without losing all of their staff. They did this by making sure they took care of their employees’ needs in other ways, primarily through benefits. Working with employee benefits solutions advisors, you might be able to take a closer look at employee needs and to find the benefits packages that are most cost-effective yet also able to provide them with enough to keep them coming in to work. Benefits also work to provide employees with a sense of security that you, their employer, are actually concerned for their needs and will put in extra effort to fulfill them.

Offer them a potential future

Dead-end jobs are becoming increasingly common thanks to the fact that employees now rarely consider a position at a company to be a life-long commitment, not to mention the rise of the gig economy. However, you shouldn’t take that as an opportunity to forget about investing in the future of your employees. The more willing and able you are to help them develop their career path, the more likely they are to stick around for longer. This can include complete career development plans for them and helping them find the training and accreditation they need to become a better employee, and it may also mean offering programs to help them work their way up through the company rather than having a policy of hiring externally most of the time.

If you need to follow the tips above to better retain or get back your employees, then you should make sure it’s not a short-term change. The entire employer-employee paradigm needs a shift. The recent trend of businesses finding it tough to hire should be evidence enough of that.