The main driving force behind any business is its employees. Everyone from sales to the customer support are employees and only when they work as a single unit that the company is deliver on its promise to its customers. Given how important the employees are, the employee retention is a very important factor for all companies, especially the small businesses.

The companies can be in any size and employees are important in all of them. For the start ups and small businesses, though, the employees are more than just important. There are many reasons why a small company would need to retain the employees.

Typically, large organizations have dedicated departments and personnel for various divisions and work profiles. The smaller companies typically have to make do with one or two people in some divisions. There are economic restrictions as well as scale of operation limitations why small businesses cannot employ more people. If these employees start leaving the company the gap this creates can be just too wide.

Given the economic clout that many large companies have, they are able to poach employees from small business. As the smaller company cannot match the larger ones monetarily, it needs to look at other alternatives to retain employees and maintain business success. Fortunately, due to their smaller size these businesses have a lot more flexibility in implementing employee retention schemes.

Most large companies are listed and hence have a strong commitment to increasing shareholder value. This does come at the cost of employees too at some time. With many start ups there is no such pressure on the executive officer. The final goal for small business is the business success. If retaining employees is mandatory for that, then the company resources can be diverted towards that.

Secondly, being a small company, a much more elaborate employee appreciation scheme can be implemented by them as compared to their larger peers. Many times it is not the monthly salary but the appreciation for quality work that really matters to the employees. Such employees can be retained through some very attractive appreciation programs.

The other retention scheme is timely hikes and bonuses for the employees. Again, being a small company it is economically feasible to award the present employees a higher than normal bonus and retain them. For the large companies, the sheer workforce numbers make that impossible and besides a small degree of employee churn can be absorbed by them easily. As a result, the larger companies neither have the finances nor the need to look at these big bonuses. The smaller firms can take advantage of this drawback and use it to their benefit.

In conclusion, it can be said that for small businesses employees are very important. The lower the churn the better is the business success for them. Hence the best option for these small start ups is to invest in retaining the employees rather than trying to flow with the churn. There are many techniques that can be used to achieve this goal.

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Category: Business
Keywords: business, finance, small business, business planning, advice, society, culture, management