This is a guest post from Payro, a short-term loan for businesses specifically to cover payroll on time, even when cash flow is thin. Payro secures funds instantly, so they are available for weekly, biweekly or monthly payroll.

Every business is trying to find that competitive edge that will help them crush the competition, scale, and become more profitable. In this article, we’re going to explore 6 unique strategies to retain top talent in eCommerce, helping your business to hire better and keep the good ones for longer.

Some of it might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised to discover many companies fail in that regard.

Are you optimizing your employee retention?

Why Retain Hires Rather Than Just Replace Them?

For starters, people are not commodities. Just because you need someone for your position, doesn’t mean you’re going to find a good fit right away, or at all. It’s always easier and more profitable to be good to the staff you have and train them to grow to your expectations, if possible.

Here are the major driving factors for keeping good employees.

Cost

It takes money to search, recruit, hire, and train a good employee. Meanwhile, you’re losing the function of having that good employee in place to make your company money, which is an added cost over time.

Time

Related to cost, your ideal fit may take months (or years) to find. Meanwhile, your other employees may burn out if they’re covering extra hours or workloads because you’re understaffed. The longer your good employees stay with you, the more you reduce this extended talent gap.

Limited Talent Pool

With the advent of remote work becoming the new normal, many talented employees have gone on to hop into higher echelons and take on new positions. This mass exodus of talent from job-seekers often leaves companies scrambling to find a good fit in training and skills for their open positions.

Ripple Down Effect

Your other employees are always watching, learning, and reflecting on your company culture. If you don’t show that you value your employees, they will in turn not value your customers. Additionally, in-house conflict leads to hindered productivity across the board.

How to retain good hires?

If you’re on board with why you should make extra efforts to keep your good employees, here are six strategies you can implement today, on how to achieve that goal.

Start With the Right Hire For Your Team

Competence is something that you want to look for in an employee, but it’s not the only trait that makes someone successful for your company. On paper, you can look at someone’s skills and training, plus their proven success, and imagine that they will be a great fit for what you do.

However, if you step back and look at the bigger picture, this person will also be working collaboratively with your team. That means that no matter how good they are at any given task, if they don’t play well with others, they are not a good fit.

This can be an especially difficult deal breaker when you do find someone that has a rare talent. Your first inclination may be to jump out of your seat and hire them on the spot. Hold that excitement for a moment as you consider this: do you really want to be responsible for training that person to be kind to others, to listen, and to say thank you?

Unless you’re an empty-nester parent or a former kindergarten teacher, it’s likely that you expect people to come to your team as a professional.

Conversely, when you do find someone who has an exceptional interview and epic soft skills who would easily mesh well with your team – do they have the skills to pull off complex tasks? A little on-the-job training is expected for any position, but that’s more about company culture and not the skills demanded every day at work.

Finding the uncommon blend of talent with people skills in an applicant is a rare find, but it’s the ultimate goal in hiring.

A Company Culture of Psychological Safety

In our cutting-edge world of business, the paradigm of how we accomplish anything frequently shifts. Employees who feel like they’re allowed to make mistakes will speak up and voice their opinions, offering unique insight and different perspectives to anyone willing to listen.

Beyond that, they will feel seen and heard. Employees who feel like they’re making an impact at work have a sense of value and importance, making the work more important to them. Tap into this powerful psychological effect by letting your team members know that you’re listening and open to their ideas and feedback.

Value Your Employees

In an ever-growing less personal and digital world in which the metaverse is taking over real life, it’s essential to see your employees as real people. This means honoring their commitments outside of work, which could include a partner, kids, sick relatives they’re taking care of, or anything that’s important to them. As long as they’re a contributing member of the team and able to hit their deadlines with quality work performed, try to remain flexible for them.

Making an employee choose between their family and their job is a sure-fire way to get them to either quit the position or resent being there when they show up to work. You can proactively come up with a model that works for both you and them so that your needs are being met as well.

Be Transparent

Honesty is still the best policy. As companies proudly puff out their chests and brag about numbers while their infrastructure is collapsing, it’s important for your employees to know they’re on the inside along with you. If there’s risk ahead, let them know. If finances are falling, show them the stats and have them brainstorm ways to improve KPIs.

Being clear is always the best option. Set reasonable and clear expectations, while being clear on your feedback about what you like about their performance and what you think can be improved on for next time – with the gentle nudge and encouragement for them to improve.

Aim For Exceptional

Another way to say this is “Lead by Example” as long as the example your setting is for excellence. Whatever your vision is, share that vision until your team can see it too. Let them add to the vision. Always ask yourself and the team, “what more can we do to improve this?”.

Start small and work your way through every offer and touchpoint you have with your customers. Or start big and rethink your mission vision, then trickle that down to affect everyone in the company. Regardless of how you go about it, don’t settle for just “good.” A comfortable job that pays the bills is the death of creativity, and your talented employees will jump ship at the next port.

Ensure They Always Get Paid

Perhaps the most obvious of all of these strategies is to pay your employees. Don’t laugh this one off, because many companies fall on hard times, or quite the opposite. They are expanding so rapidly that they hire a number of new employees. Cash flow can easily become a problem for most businesses at some point.

Not having the cash on hand to make payroll means you will not pay your employees on time. This will shake their foundation and belief in the company being able to provide for them, eroding trust and any vision for a long-term future.

There are options to always make sure your employees get paid. Companies like Payro offer low-cost business loans to cover that narrow gap in timing, which will ensure you’re able to pay all of your employees – on time.

Managing Your Company Cash Flow

The money is coming, it’s just not where you need it to be right at this moment.

It’s a common problem that affects all businesses to varying degrees. Especially small to medium companies and Amazon businesses that can see their sales charts, but are not able to collect on the money they’ve earned until they’re paid by Amazon.

Add to that, there are constant expenses to stock physical products and goods.

The beauty of accessing money for a short time period when you need it is that you can pay invoices without getting fined, and always ensure your employees are paid on time. A company like Payro offers attractive options, like:

• 48-hour approval and same-day funding once approved
• Financing up to $500k
• Rates as low as 1.5%
• 28 days to pay back the loan

Knowing you have money on demand if and when you need it will also help decrease your own stress levels, so you can retain your joy for your business.

Summary

Nurturing your employees is an essential skill to learn, and goes a long way in recruiting and retaining the top talent in your industry. It’s much less expensive (and more humane) to treat your team right and keep them around for the long haul.

The six strategies to retain them include:

• Start With the Right Hire For Your Team
• A Company Culture of Psychological Safety
• Value Your Employees
• Be Transparent
• Aim For Exceptional
• Ensure They Always Get Paid

If your company is experiencing a temporary cash flow issue, it’s easy to find a company like Payro that can get you a low-cost, same-day business loan, specifically designed to cover payroll, for up to $500k. Making sure your employees are taken care of is the most important way you can put your money where your mouth is and show them you value them.