Regardless of size, your business can ill afford a high employee turnover rate. That’s because restocking on talent is costly, with Forbes reporting how hiring a replacement costs employers 33% of the outgoing employee’s annual salary. So, if an employee who earns $45,000 annually resigns, replacing them could cost the company $15,000. Crucially, it takes new hires 8–12 weeks to get up to speed and be at their most productive best, which means your business isn’t just losing money with high employee turnover — you’re also sacrificing productivity.

It goes without saying that employee retention is vital, especially in light of work-from-home setups making things trickier and a lot more challenging. That said, you might be driving away members of your team unknowingly, and adversely impacting your company’s bottom line.

As such, it is now time to take a long, hard look at your management style, and check if there are practices or company policies that might be pushing even your best employees out the door. In particular, you might want to determine whether or not you are guilty of the following, which are sure to tick off your team and get them looking elsewhere.

Setting Unclear Goals

Chron contributor Jim Woodruff details how employees respond favorably when they know clearly and concretely what the company expects from them. In turn, they are more likely to be enthusiastic about work, and in working towards those goals. Setting goals is particularly important in this era of remote work given the difficulties of communicating company objectives to offsite teams.

Without clear goals to guide them, employees working from home can grow easily distracted, and will be tempted to look for either greener pastures or something more fulfilling. Business writer James Gonzales highlights how when working from home, the days tend to melt into each other and can become monotonous. This makes it crucial to have goals for employees to keep them motivated, and working towards the attainment of concrete goals. Whether professional (as in a promotion) or personal (like skills development), these goals will keep your team engaged, and much more likely to stay.

Micromanaging

Micromanaging is a surefire way to drive a wedge between you and your employees. This is none truer than in remote working setups, where micromanaging — as in requiring hourly work updates and tracking hours — is generally misconstrued as a lack of trust on the part of management. Whether that’s true or not is moot, as the mere thought of it is enough to demotivate your employees, to the point of making them consider leaving.

Moreover, micromanaging can put undue stress on your employees, who have to deal not just with work, but also with your constant check-ins, nonstop instructions, and grating leadership style. This results in increasing stress levels that can cause burnout and a host of physical maladies that will severely compromise your employees health, until such a time that taking time off or resigning become their only options.

Here are some tips for employees and managers alike –

Ideas for Self-Care when working from home

Tips to keep your Sanity and Productivity Intact when working from home

Not communicating enough

While employees don’t want to be micromanaged, they don’t want to be left in the dark either. They want you to check up on them from time to time, and will appreciate it if you do. This is most true for remote teams, as bumping up communication, according to a previous post on telecommuting by Nishi Grover Garg, is one way you can show engagement and build connections with your employees.

Your failure to communicate, however, can cause friction, confusion, and frustration, as well as a lack of clear direction. It can even stress out your employees, with 4 in 5 Americans admitting to being stressed out due to poor office communication. Tellingly, a 2017 Gallup report underscores the need for better engagement, as it found that excellent workplace communication increases employee retention and productivity by 24% and 17%, respectively.

Here are some tips on Ways to Stay Engaged with your team when Working from Home

exclusively written for testwithnishi.com

by Rowena Jill

Rowena Jill is an entrepreneur and writer who is passionate about inspiring leaders to be better. In her spare time, she loves to bake and tend to her indoor garden.

Image Credits – https://images.pexels.com/photos/3874627/pexels-photo-3874627.jpeg