What are 12 tips for ensuring employee retention?

Employee retention is always at or near the top of HR's list of priorities. How, in what will surely become a competitive job market as Baby Boomer's retire, are you to keep employees from looking elsewhere for different opportunities? Well, here are 12 ways to ensure your best and brightest never want to leave:

1. Provide them with much-deserved time off. While this doesn't mean putting yourself in a position of being under-staffed, it does mean that you should consider giving employees a little break. For example, you could give them Friday afternoons off during the summer months.

2. Give them bonuses at critical times. Get to know your employees and consider giving them bonuses at critical times in their lives (for example, the birth of a new child) when you know they would benefit most from it.

3. Be flexible. Be flexible when employees need to take unexpected time off or need to work a new schedule. If, for example, an employee is having personal problems, help him create a work schedule that allows him to solve his problems without feeling like he is going to be in trouble with the boss.

4. Be sensitive about employees' strengths and weaknesses. Where possible, carefully evaluate where your employees do their best work and ask them what jobs they feel the most comfortable doing. For example, you don't want non-people people working directly with customers.

5. Help them better themselves and in turn, improve your business. Consider offering employees the opportunity to take advanced education courses that will improve their job skills or even a class on a subject that simply interests them. Another option is to provide employees with health club memberships or enroll in a business-wide wellness program that everyone (including you) will take part in.

6. Feed them. A free meal every now and then is one of the easiest and often times, most appreciated, perks an employer can provide. It's a great way for an employer to say, Thank you. Another option is to provide a catered meal for employees who need to work late to accomplish a project.

7. Constantly recognize a job well done. Everyone likes to be told that they've done a good job on something and the rule is no different for employees. And, when a client compliments an employee's work, encourage managers not to steal the credit. Instead, pass the glowing review along to the rightful owner.

8. Make them feel important in the corporate structure. Whether it comes to from having a voice in major decisions, being able to work directly with clients or actually owning stock, a sense of employee ownership will go a long way toward instilling loyalty.

9. Make sure they have everything they need to do their jobs. Nothing frustrates a high performing employee more than having to struggle to do his job because he doesn't have the right computer program or because he must make do with faulty equipment. Encourage managers to constantly communicate with employees and ask them if there is something that can be done to make their job easier.

10. Pamper them. Show your employees that you know working for you and your business can be stressful by providing a free spa treatment every once in a while if it's in the budget, for example.

11. Help them leave if it isn't the right job for them. Working for your company isn't for everyone. If you notice that one of your employees is struggling in the environment or simply isn't happy, talk with him about whether or not your business is the right place for him to be. If you collectively decide that it isn't, help him find a more suitable job.

12. Provide employee attendance incentives. It's likely that your best employees are high performers who come in even when they're feeling a bit under the weather and don't hesitate to come in on the occasional day off to take care of an emergency or a pending project. These are the employees who deserve attendance benefits. For example, for every month without an absence, give employees an extra vacation day, a gift certificate or a bonus of some kind.