Employee retention matters to any business and it matters a lot! Any business that is able to retain key, talented staff is much better off in the long run. Your best workers help you sell products and services, they ensure your customers are satisfied and they go far in keeping co-workers in check. In a nutshell, employee retention is critically important to the success and overall health of your business. And, if your best workers are leaving, you can bet your bottom dollar that others working for you are thinking of doing the same.

So how do you go about enticing your best workers to stay on board? You make it hard for them to leave by giving them plenty of reasons for staying, that’s how. Here are three tips designed to help you retain your best employees to ensure the long-term success of your business.

Allow Your Employees to Speak Their Mind

Think about your business for a moment. Do you have the type of environment in place in which your workers are comfortable providing feedback? If you do, your employees are free to share their ideas with you. An open environment also makes your employees feel as though they can provide you with some constructive criticism wherein you won’t take offense. If your employees feel like they have to bite their tongues or think they’re going to get into trouble by speaking freely, they’re more likely to leave. This is why you should encourage your employees to come to you with new ideas they have for bettering your business. You also need to let them know that you are open to taking some criticism that’s designed to help you see what’s not working and what may work better.

Learn to Tap into Your Staff’s Talents

It’s important that get to know your staff so you understand what their talents and special skills are. Any employee who feels his or her talents and skills are not being recognized and used is an employee who’s probably looking for a new job. Consider having lunch with a different employee each week and encourage them to share a bit about themselves with you while you’re enjoying a sandwich and drink together. Who knows? You might have a Ah-Ah moment and realize that the person sitting across from you has a skill set you’ve been looking for in a new hire.

Don’t Be Stingy

It’s absolutely essential that your employees feel recognized, appreciated and justly rewarded. Just saying thank you frequently can go a long way. But monetary rewards for great work performance can go even further as staff who regularly receive bonuses, rewards and gifts are happy staff who tend to stick around. Just make sure everyone understands how your commissions and bonuses are rewarded as this amps up motivation. Remember that each person who is working for you is doing it to be rewarded monetarily so offer some monetary motivation for workplace performance that goes above and beyond what’s expected.