Malta has experienced a lot of growth over the past few years. It’s amazing to see so many companies set up shop and create so many opportunities for the local workforce. While the thought of so many possibilities is exciting, this has also become quite the headache for most businesses.

The reality is that as a result people are moving jobs much more often than they did before. Of course, short-term measures like companies giving their staff one-off bonuses or having staff parties and events can help, but these are short-term fixes to long-term problems.

So what can companies do to help retain their top staff and not lose them to the competition?

1. Hiring and selection process: Before even starting to discuss how companies should keep their employees, one must first discuss the recruitment process. Employing the wrong people for the job can prove to be very costly. While experience and qualifications are important issues to assess during an interview, one must give equal importance to a person’s character and how this person would fit in the company culture. It is always important to remember that skills and experience can be improved, while a person’s character cannot be changed.

Employing people externally is not always the best course of action

2. Salary and benefits package: Companies that want to keep their top talent from leaving will need to make sure they are paying well. Salary reviews should happen often and should reflect market rates. Castille makes companies’ lives easier by publishing market salary data for free. Salaries should always be based on seniority, skills, experience and supply and demand. This will ensure that current employees and new hires are paid fairly. However, high salaries are not always the deciding factor when employees seek employment elsewhere. Employees are now factoring in whether companies have flexible time, free parking, life and health insurance, beautiful offices or a close office location.

3. Promote internally: When companies have new positions open, it is understandable why they sometimes look externally to fill these roles. In many cases, they are eager to see what other talent is available on the market and if they can get people with better experience and skills. Employing people externally is not always the best course of action, however. Studies have shown that internal hires who have been promoted into a role outperform external hires, as they are already familiar with how the business operates and can hit the ground running more quickly than an external hire can. For these reasons, it is recommended that companies always look to hiring internally first.

4. Regular feedback: Companies must not wait for an exit interview to find out the reasons their employees are looking to move on. On the contrary, periodic reviews should happen with all employees as this is an excellent opportunity to receive feedback on what they love about the company and their role as well as negative issues which need improvement. Employees must feel that their managers have an open door policy that welcomes feedback and not penalises people for giving it. Why not have ‘Stay Interviews’ with your senior staff to find out the reasons they are committed to staying with your company? This can give excellent insight into all the good things your company has to offer.

5. Recognising your employees’ accomplishments: A simple ‘thank you’ or ‘well done’ can go a long way in making your employees feel good about the hard work they are putting in. Failure to do this could see your employees feel unappreciated. So don’t wait until the end of the year to say thank you, but rather whenever the opportunity justifies it. At the end of the day, it doesn’t cost a thing to say ‘well done’.

6. Get rid of dead weight: This may be one of the most difficult points to discuss. There are, most likely in any company, employees who hold others back. Through their lack of positive work ethic, negative attitude, underperformance and office politics these employees may end up being a problem for the business. Great people need to work with other great people to excel in their career. Companies will immediately know who these people are and must help them move on before their top employees do.

Implementing many of these issues will increase employee retention rates and will see big improvements and engagement rates from your staff.

Clive Camilleri is managing tech consultant at Castille.