Today’s workforce demands more of their employer and the good news is that going the extra mile for those on your pay roll will impact extremely positively on your business. Get your HR strategy right, and not only will you have a stable and content workforce, but it will also be motivated, fully engaged with what you’re trying to achieve and be keen to progress themselves for the good of the company – you’ll be growing your own future leaders and your bottom line. 

“If you get the offer right for your staff, providing opportunities to progress and keeping them motivated, it really will pay dividends for the company,” explains Kirsty Mitchell, director of Halcyon HR, which provides consultancy services across many industries including print. “This is now standard practice across industries, so if you are not up to speed you need to remedy that as soon as possible.”

“Having some room in a company budget aimed purely at these areas would certainly help,” adds HR consultant Rebecca Allen of Rebecca Bevins HR consultancy. “That said, some techniques simply revolve around providing employees with some say on their role and the company goals.”

Splitting your HR strategy into three prongs – motivation, engagement and retention – is one way to get started. Below we set out how to move things forward from there.

Engaging staff

While a staff member can be motivated, that does not necessarily mean they are engaged. Motivation can mean they turn up on time and are productive, whereas engagement means they are constantly trying to understand what they do and where it fits in the business, as well as thinking up ways of improving what they or their colleagues do.  

“There are number of things that could help here,” says Mitchell. “The first is job swaps. Getting experience around the company can put their own role in context while broadening their skillset and helping them assess how they are working. 

“If you do this it is important to listen to their feedback so they feel that their opinions are being heard and that the engagement they are showing is worthwhile.”

She adds that having a good working environment where engagement is celebrated and rewarded, is useful too. Another good technique is to link innovative thinking to rewards like a bonus, extra responsibility and perks for the staff areas. 

Allen adds that getting employees used to setting company-wide goals and having an impact at a company level can be invaluable. 

“One of the best ways to ensure engagement is to involve staff in the planning of goals and objectives for the company,” she explains. “Lots of research has shown that employees become more engaged with their work if they feel they have a real impact on the way that a business is run, regardless of the level they actually work at within that company. 

“This approach makes a lot of sense in practice; if an employee understands the goals of the company, then they can realise the importance that they play in the achievement of those goals. This is something that is particularly achievable in smaller businesses as there can be a closer connection between those that head up the business and their employees.”

Flexibility is also a key factor: if staff feel the company is wise to their needs, they are more likely to engage with the company and the job they are tasked with doing. 

“Sometimes all an employee needs is an early finish one day to regain their engagement in a repetitive task,” says Allen. This is particularly key for roles where job swaps are not an option.

“Not all employees will be willing or able to change their roles on a semi-regular basis, and in the cases where employees do swap roles there may be productivity issues as employees settle into a new way of working. Sometimes role swapping can lead to a lack of consistency across an organisation – what happens if someone leaves a message and an employee is not able to pass it on before returning to their normal role? Done well, this method can freshen up otherwise dull tasks, but it’s not something that will be possible for every company.”

Motivating staff

“A big part of motivation is ensuring that staff know what is expected of them, so giving feedback and acknowledging achievements, whether that is just a thank you or a good appraisal,” says Mitchell. “Making time to listen to staff, recognising any ideas for improvements or complaints and dealing with them properly and taking their feedback seriously helps too.”

Allen says pay is inevitably part of the equation, too. “Pay can obviously be a big factor for any employee, regardless of the industry they work in, so it is advised that salaries are reviewed as regularly as possible. That’s not to say that salaries should increase year on year regardless of performance, but the knowledge that the company is open to making changes is often enough to ensure some employees go the extra mile. 

“When thinking about pay reviews it is also good to consider the wider marketplace, and benchmarking current and proposed salaries against your potential competition to ensure you both attract and retain the best talent. The golden rule of pay awards: never make a promise you can’t keep!”

Mitchell warns, however, that the impact of pay rises on job satisfaction is often short lived. “A feeling of control over work, a sense of doing something worthwhile and a healthy level of challenge and learning are also good motivators,” she advises. 

Other things that can make a big difference are tackling those that aren’t up to the job. Challenging poor performers, those taking ad hoc sickness days, those with poor timekeeping can increase the motivation of good staff: if staff see others getting away with bad behaviour it can create poor morale and impact motivation negatively.     

Both Mitchell and Allen advise target setting, too. “These targets do not necessarily have to be turnover or profit-based, but should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART),” says Allen. 

She adds that an office party is also always good for morale. 

“Office parties can be a HR nightmare, but done well they can bring a sense of camaraderie and motivation unlike any other method listed so far.”

Finally, staff development and career development is really important.

“Keeping staff up to date and learning so that they and the company remain competitive is key. This could be learning from others inside the company through a mentor system, it doesn’t have to be costly courses,” says Mitchell

Keeping staff

“Retention of employees is an important issue for any organisation, and there are a few things that can be done to give companies the best chance of holding on to their best talent,” says Allen. “Possibly the most obvious solution would be to offer promotion and progression opportunities to high-flying workers, however this is not always possible if you are a certain organisational size and structure.”

Hence, she advises being proactive rather than reactive about retention. 

Mitchell agrees. “Trying to enrich their current role, trying to understand what motivates them, trying to meet their needs as well as those of the business are all best practice,” she explains. “Working together on development planning if they want to progress, finding career opportunities if they want to further their career, giving them exposure to areas of the business they are interested in are all useful things to do, too. 

“The key is to tell them they are valued, find out what they are looking for in the role and in the company and work with them where possible.”

And if an employee does decide to leave, Allen says it is key to find out why and learn from it. 

“Where possible it is always advisable to complete an exit interview with leavers. It gives you the opportunity to discuss the reasons why they are leaving and what could have been done,” she says. 

“This opening also gives you the opportunity to recruit an equally excellent employee, providing you know what you are looking for. In the weeks leading up to an employee’s departure it might be wise to request they review their own job description, look at their own personal competencies and perhaps even help recruit their replacement. Once a suitable candidate has been chosen it is important to complete a full handover process (where appropriate) – you may find that the leaver is able to pass on some tips that help your new recruit change the company for the better.”

Mitchell says that in conjunction with this you should have succession plans in place whereby existing staff can take on roles if they are up to it. “This goes back to keeping staff motivated with training – career progression is a great tool for retention,”
she says.