Some of the factors affecting retention include:

• Compensation
• Good leadership
• Challenging and fulfilling job responsibilities
• Positive relationships with immediate supervisors and coworkers
• Recognition

The following actions can help increase employee retention:

• Acknowledge and reward your employees’ contributions and provide regular, constructive feedback
• Make sure your compensation package is fair and competitive
• Provide a forum to encourage new ideas and open communication
• Provide training programs and mentoring to enhance skills development, learning, and career growth
• Provide employee assistance, wellness, and health programs
• Support work-life balance
• Offer flexible work arrangements, such as varied hours and the possibility of telecommuting
• Provide leadership opportunities
  

Employee attitude surveys allow workers to give confidential feedback about their job satisfaction, and suggestions for how the work environment might be improved. To foster a relationship of integrity and trust among company employees, survey results should be communicated effectively and acted upon promptly.

Surveys can be conducted in a variety of ways--from distributing a paper questionnaire, to having employees take an online survey, to hiring a consulting firm to do all the survey work for you. Regardless of the method used, you should review and analyze survey data. Survey results can provide you with key information on how to improve workplace processes, policies, and morale to retain existing staff and attract new employees.

Some of the topics that surveys can cover include:

• Satisfaction
• Functional expertise
• Compensation
• Customer service
• Communication
• Mentoring
• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Professional development
  

Employee attitude surveys can bring many benefits to organizations that undertake them. For instance, such studies can:

• Facilitate a company’s development and change
• Focus a company on specific needs or gaps in service or training
• Provide management with employee feedback on company morale
• Provide feedback on the impact of company policies and procedures

A company health and wellness program refers to activities or initiatives undertaken in the workplace that are designed to support employees’ general health and well-being. Programs will often differ from business to business in terms of the range of initiatives offered.

Health and Wellness Initiatives

Some simple initiatives to consider include:



• Providing filtered water
• Regularly having your air-conditioning and heating systems checked and maintained
• Providing healthier foods in the workplace, including snacks
• Providing desk chairs that are ergonomically designed to support the back
• Empowering employees to include physical activity in their working day, such as by encouraging walking at lunch
• Providing incentives such as subsidized memberships to local health clubs
• Providing flexible work hours