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You have spent ages recruiting the best people for your agency.  You are feeling pleased that you have managed to get the perfect person and they are settling in well.  Now, you just need to make sure you keep them. Here, our resident HR expert, Sarah May explains why listening to your team is crucial.

Listening to your team

Employees need to feel listened to. Knowing what your employees are thinking will help you ensure that they feel valued and looked after. Get this wrong, and they will be out of the door before you know it.

But how can we ensure that they know that we are listening? Sarah Hoyle, our resident expert has some top tips on listening to your team and letting them know you are listening.

By regularly asking your team what they think, and most importantly acting on the results, you will see an improved response rate over time and improved engagement

Ask them!

Carry out regular engagement surveys – there are plenty of employee survey tools out there (Here at the AC we use Friday Pulse), so shop around and see which would suit your agency, but the most important thing is that you are doing it.  By regularly asking your team what they think, and most importantly acting on the results, you will see an improved response rate over time and improved engagement.

121s

Make sure you are having 121s with your team. This is often overlooked, but it’s such a valuable thing to do.

Making time, (real time), for your employees will help you give feedback, ask questions, explore challenges and talk about their future.  121s contribute to employees feeling safe and valued. And the more you do it, the more they will feel able to share what’s on their minds.

One for the suggestion box

Suggestion box – might seem old-fashioned, but it works! It doesn’t have to be a physical box, but having some kind of mechanism where people are able to make suggestions for improvements will be really valuable.  You may choose to add this into their 121s or appraisals, or even an open forum in a team meeting. But remember some people may feel safer telling you something anonymously, so it’s worth doing.

A voice for the people

Voice committees/Employee forums can be hugely helpful. If your team is big enough, how about setting up a group of people who can speak on behalf of the rest of the team?  This forum is ideal to bring a lot of feedback together in one place and empower your employees to take action and make decisions themselves.

It may seem obvious, but when was the last time you made conversation with your team?

Having the conversation

Speak to them – it may seem obvious, but when was the last time you made conversation with your team?  Do you have lunch together from time to time, make time for a coffee and a chat?  And when you do, ask open questions to find out what they are thinking.  Most people will open up if you ask them, whereas the stock answer to “how are you?” is usually “fine” unless you follow up with something else.