How to Accommodate Valued Employees

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Written By Berry Mathew

Losing highly-valued team members can be devastating for businesses of all sizes. While some high-performers make their exits due to retirement, healthy issues or family situations, others simply receive better offers. It should come as no surprise that businesses that make little to no effort to accommodate employees tend to lose them at an alarming rate. Needless to say, this can negatively impact day-to-day operations and diminish overall quality of work. Employers looking for effective ways to accommodate important team members should consider the following tips. 

Consistently Promote 

The desire to feel appreciated is perfectly natural. And given how much time many of us spend at work, it’s hardly surprising that we’d expect our efforts to be acknowledged and rewarded. When people’s hard work is taken for granted and their contributions are glossed over, disillusionment is likely to become a common presence in a place of business. After all, if the outcome is going to be the same regardless of how much – or how little – effort an employee puts, why should they ever put their best foot forward?

To help ensure that your workforce remains happy and motivated, take care to consistently promote high performers. Promotions and pay raises are perfect for incentivizing employees to do their best and rewarding them for their hard work. So, if you’re looking for an effective way to illustrate just how much you appreciate your team members, you can’t go wrong with promotions.  

Provide Assistance with Relocation 

If your company regularly requires established employees and/or new hires to relocate, it’s in everyone’s best interest that relocation assistance be provided. Asking someone to move to a different part of the country – or to an entirely new country altogether – is quite the request, and in the absence of sufficient assistance, relocation can be an immensely expensive and intensely stressful experience. 

When it comes to relocation assistance, covering moving costs, travel expenses and lodging fees is practically a given. Providing food allowances and other perks is also sure to be appreciated. Additionally, if you regularly require employees to relocate, you stand to benefit from working with a company that provides professional relocation services.     

Be Mindful of Unreasonable Workloads 

As much as certain companies wish the opposite were true, most people work to live instead of living to work. That being the case, it’s in your company’s best interest to recognize that employees have lives, responsibilities and relationships outside of work. While expecting people to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently is perfectly reasonable, burdening employees with unreasonable workloads and unrealistic deadlines is the exact opposite. 

So, when assigning projects and setting timetables, be mindful of how much work these projects actually entail and consider whether your desired deadlines are realistic. If you’re unclear on either of these questions, soliciting employee input can help you obtain the answers you seek.  

Be Open to Remote Work 

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many employers were staunchly opposed to remote work. As far as they were concerned, working from home didn’t truly constitute working. They also believed that being at home was sure to hinder employee productivity. However, not only did embracing remote work serve to heighten productivity in many cases, it also facilitated increased worker happiness. 

For many people, the least enjoyable parts of the work experience are commuting to and from the office and dealing with office politics. Unsurprisingly, removing those two elements from the equation left many workers feeling energized and optimistic about their jobs. Some people favored remote work so much that they would sooner take pay cuts or quit their current jobs to continue working from home.

So, if your company has been less than supportive of remote work, give some thought to changing your tune. Getting on board with remote work stands to improve efficiency, employee satisfaction and worker loyalty.

Regardless of how large – or small – your business is, losing high-performing employees on a regular basis can have a significant impact on quality, efficiency and general dependability. As such, you’d be wise to make accommodating valued employees one of your top priorities. The more satisfied team members are with your policies and the work environment you foster, the more likely they are to stick around for the long haul. Employers who are ready to treat employee accommodation with due importance would do well to remember the pointers outlined above.   

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