To begin with and have a better understanding of what is employee retention and attrition, we need to understand the definition of them. Therefore, a simple yet powerful definition of what is employee retention refers to the organizational objectives of retaining its talented workforce and lowering the attrition rate by adopting and implementing employee practices.

Being able to retain employees within the organization is very important as it saves time, investment and resources. Employee attrition refers to the loss of employees such as elimination of a position, resignation or other similar reasons.

Many hiring managers wonder why good employees suddenly quit, when their performance has always been on par. What happened? What made them take that decision?

Often, companies witness their best employees are gone and snatched up by another company without any mention of complaints in the exit interview or resignation letter.

When good employees leave, productivity sinks, morale suffers and colleagues struggle with increased workloads. On the other hand, recruitment and training costs and onboarding new hires can make for a difficult and expensive transition. At the end of the day, the cost of a goof employee quitting is more expensive than employee retention.

Instead of letting good employees quit, managers must practice a type of preventive action within their work culture. Content and thriving employees keep a business growing, and good employees leave when their needs aren’t being met or respected.

Biz in Heels has listed below some of the main reasons why good employees leave their companies even when their performance has always been on par:

1. Feeling Stuck

There comes a time for every employee when they feel stuck in their current role, unable to develop their career further or progress in the corporate ladder. Unfortunately sometimes the best employees get held back for being too good at what they do. Good employees want to grow and give back and without a career ladder in the company structure, they can’t do that. Dreams and goals begin to feel impossible. What’s left within the company for the individual to aspire to their dreams?

2. Inability to Develop Skills

There comes the time when employees can no longer able to develop their skills, there is no constructive feedback or training during his work, resulting in a negative result to the employee and to the company. A good manager will always nurture and push their employee with equal and appropriate measure. The employer will always find ways for the employee to develop and apply their skills, whether during his role within the company or that’s a new project. When the employee feels safe, his/hers skills are appreciated and respected, there is a great chance the employee with remain longer with the company.

3. Unseen, Unrecognized and Underestimated

Employees want to hear that their work is appreciated, just a simple ‘Great Job’ after a week of hard work. A lot of companies, don’t pay attention to these small details that can uplift their employees, make them feel important, give them a reason to continue to contribute and be part of the company. Without this, good employees go without reward or respect, and they feel unseen, unrecognized and underestimated.

Regular and open communication with the employees to address their needs and positive reinforce them should be amongst the priorities. Is it a raise, a bonus, more social time to get to know each other or take the lead on the next project? Either you go big, or your employees will go home.

Every year most companies have their evaluations in place. Evaluations of the employees and their performance during the year. Performance reviews are a great way to open up a flow of open communication where the exchange is mutual. That’s the time you need to listen to your employees, his needs and wants. Allow employees to open up and speak without fear. Managers should give balanced and empathetic performance reviews, actively listening to their employees. These evaluations should be reviewed again half way through the year and check whether your actions and goals of the company and employee have met their objectives and the purpose of the evaluations. Employees often don’t see themselves going anywhere after an evaluation, they feel demotivated and even more frustrated because he / she was never heard. This reaction will only real the employee to leave the company. Don’t just do an evaluation for the sake of making one. Make an employee evaluation that will make a significant difference to your day to day working activities and company goals.

4. Hierarchy is too high

We often found our selves trying to reach the high level to reach someone to be seen and be heard. We often find many obstacles in front of us during this process, either other managers try to stop you, of your work is passed on by someone else, or even doors are closed. Managers and specially managers at the higher level in a company shouldn’t forget the importance of having an open-door policy. How can you expect your employees to grow and get the experience within a company when there is no one to listen, check or communicate with them? Employees prefer to exit a company rather than staying a company which he / she is not valued enough or his /her opinion doesn’t matter.

5. Lack of Respect and Trust

Employees often face lack of respect and trust. Why this is happening? Managers seem to focus on turning a profit while they fail to motivate their employees in a human way, respecting their contributions, time and value as a person. Managers must remember the golden rule and offer up the same respect, decency and trust they expect from their employees. Don’t be surprised if your employees start leaving the company if this doesn’t happen.

We are living in a world where employees should be treated with respect, equal opportunities that will boost their productivity. Failure of addressing this, will lead to an increase of employees turnover.

6. No clear progress path

Good employees, don’t just want a job, especially the driven ones they want a career. If they don’t find that in your company, they will start asking around for the next opportunity. You should offer your employees a path forward from early on, informing them about possible career opportunities during their initial onboarding process and helping those that are worth it to move along that path. Having and keeping people for years in the same position with no clear career advancement path, makes them feel trapped and unappreciated. Having no clear goals for your employees career will only lead the good ones to leave and find this opportunities elsewhere.

7. Celebrate Team Success

For an organization to be successful it requires a team effort, its not just from the upper level of the company, but the whole company. Your company wouldn’t be successful if it wasn’t for that minor employees, for the middle employees, for the managers or directors. Therefore, the saying ‘a team that works together, grows together’ and team work is all about celebrating each member’s hard work and effort. Having to celebrate every milestone achieved through collaboration is taken into account. Seize the moment, share the happiness by celebrating together and don’t just take the credit that other people work hard for it.

Talent is the biggest asset within an organization, therefore invest on the employees who’s talent can drive your organization to the next level. Treat your talented and driven employees with respect, listen and understand their career path. Don’t treat your employees as they are a number. Invest in them so that they can invest in you.

Striking the right balance between attrition and retention, the balance between organization and employees. Having and building a highly productive and engaged team starts with devising innovative employee retention strategies.

As a female entrepreneur, you’ve probably learned a lot in 2020 that you plan on growing in the New Year. This year has been a crazy one for everybody. Small and big corporations, entrepreneurs came to phase the biggest challenge, how to survive and keep their businesses alive in a pandemic chaos. Unfortunately, the pandemic situation has not come to an end yet, but let’s be positive and see the New Year from a different perspective.

It’s always good to be aware of the lessons we have phased and turn them into our resolutions. These might include a set of purposes that will inspire other women going into the business or personal goals to reach a higher level of self-peace in 2021. In any case they are bound to hold you accountable and to serve as a blueprint as you work towards finding your success and helping others find theirs.

With the New Year coming up soon we encourage you to challenge the status quo. Go outside your comfort zone. Speak up and don’t be afraid. Be the change you want to see in the world. The change you have been waiting to see. Following what you believe will lead to unexpected opportunities with significant impact on yourself and for your business

We have listed a few New Year’s Resolutions that will help you kick off 2021 with success and determination:

1. Be Authentic. If you have ever experienced a situation where you felt like a ‘try-hand’, then you know this is a prominent resolution. Next year, try and be true to yourself. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not in order to fit in with a certain crowd and don’t hide your talents in fear of intimidating others. Remember to embrace all that encompasses being a female entrepreneur. If you feel that a feminine touch needs to be added then do it without any hesitation! This is what makes you unique and ultimately, stand our in a saturated business.
2. Value Your Potential.  Whatever negative thoughts you have in 2020 you need to leave them behind. The new year will be your year to outshine the shadows you’ve been lucking in. Understand that throughout all the internal and external doubts you pushed through and triumphed some of your biggest fears. Practice self love and appreciation in the new year. You are a certified lady boss and no one can take that from you.
3. Learn Something New. Don’t become comfortable with the things you already know or getting too used to the flow of things as they are. This is one of the factors that it’s holding you back or stops you from growing personally and within your business. Everyday you need to find ways of improvement, ways of learning new things. Push yourself to constantly learn new things. Whether you’re finally going to learn a new language or taking a cake decorating class, find something that pushes you to grow and expand and take it on.
4. Set Long Term and Short Term Goals. The first half of this is wat we all do but how often do you set goals and be consistent with achieving them? Make a plan of your goals every day, a timeline to show you the progress of achieving your goals. Set realistic objectives and goals but ones that make you push yourself. Remember to celebrate your victories because you deserve to be proud of yourself.
5. Support Other Women. Everyday you have the option of choosing who you work and collaborate within every business decision that you make. Among those options are the choice of female -owned businesses. Think of how this collaboration might help your services across audiences, but you learn and grow from each other.
6. Remember Why You Started. If there are any resolutions you take away from this, it’s this one. Anytime you feel overwhelmed or as if it might not be worth it, remember why you did it. Reignite that passion, the enthusiasm you had from the start and keep going. Being an entrepreneur is a tough, but rewarding career path. It can be time consuming and overwhelming, but at the end of the day it’s living your dream. Never forget that! Embrace it!

As the new year is approaching soon, it is time to make a fresh start to you and your business great. Remember our resolutions and create some of your own. You are on the right tract of success, just stay focused, humble and determined.

Biz in Heels is here to support and guide you through the whole process of becoming a successful entrepreneur and a successful business woman.

When we face challenging and busy times at work, eating well, exercising in a way that we love and looking after our emotional wellbeing are even more important. But we also need to attend to the health of the soul, the body and mind.

We live in a world that is speeding up at exponential proportions. Whirling and swirling, racing on the hamster wheel, and continual multi-tasking are not the state human beings were meant to be in. On many levels our hormones respond to this lifestyle by continually being in an over-stimulated state, creating many levels of imbalances and toxicity in our lives. Connecting with what truly matters to us is very difficult, if not impossible, when living your life this way.

Wellbeing for body and mind are always the focus, and rightly so, but don’t neglect the soul, especially in a busy working environment – Chryso Iasonos

 

The word soul can refer to the spiritual part of us, but also to the emotional or intellectual energy and intensity behind our daily creations or our life’s work.  Whatever our lifestyle and beliefs, our soul can be looked at as our energetic driver; the essence deep inside us that we can use to weigh what’s right for us at any moment.

To feed our soul during a busy schedule, we can try to take heart and find a place beyond fear and panic; to practice gratitude instead of succumbing to worry, look for joy in the small things, use any newfound time to rest and renew and look after one another.

Biz in Heels lists below 10 tips for keeping your body, mind and soul nourished when life is busy

1. Meditate for 20mins at 5:30am every morning. What does that mean to me? You sit up, you close your eyes and you become aware of every breath. Meditation is proven to enhance your wellbeing. It increases mental focus and clarity, enhances positivity and joy, promotes mindfulness, and reduces inflammation.
2. No phone use between 9pm – 8am. This has taken time to become a habit but it impacts on my focus, productivity and concentration during the day.
3. Adhere to the “ 1 minute rule”: Any task that takes less than 1 minute to do, do it straight away. No waiting! For example: Put the washing in the machine, put the recycling in the bin, wash up a plate, file some papers…All those little tasks left unattended until the end of the day accumulate and take much longer to complete. So if it takes less than 1 minute I do it as soon as it needs to be done, rather than spend ½ hour at the end of my day doing mundane tasks.
4. Read 10 pages of a book everyday. A short daily commitment to reading enhances your retention, interest, and increases the number of books you can read in a year. Why bother? Reading is mentally stimulating, increases knowledge, reduces stress, improves memory and concentration, and it’s better than trashy TV!
5. Schedule and prioritise time. Every Sunday look at what you need to do for the week ahead and schedule it in. Every night write a list of your top 6 things to be done the following day. You don’t go to the next task until the one above it is crossed off. If something doesn’t get done, it goes to the top of the list for the next day. Simple!
6. Write a list of the things that you love that nourish your body and schedule them in. For example: Day spa, lunch date with friends, attending the Rest & Reset Retreat, go for a bush walk.
7. Keep active – yoga, riding, walking, HIIT, lifting weights, tai chi…whatever your body loves, do it 3-4 times a week. Your body and brain will love you for it.
8. Book a holiday months in advance – It gives you something to look forward to it and enhances your ability to save.
9. Create a vision board and set your intentions for all the goodness you want in your life. Then set achievable, measurable SMART goals and work towards the things that bring you joy. Scheduling time to work on these is important.
10. Sleep, hydrate and nourish your body well. 8 hours sleep per night, drink 2-3L water per day, and eat wholesome foods that limit refined sugars and processed foods.

What does it mean to be a female leader? How can one become fearless leader who isn’t afraid to speak their mind and to act in a man’s business world?

Leadership by definition is the ability to motivate oneself and others to take positive action toward a goal and to create a change for the better. To do so, it takes boldness, courage, persistence, faith and fearlessness.

Being fearless is the result of practice rather than a heroic trait. We can all learn and develop ‘courageous competency’.

Courageous leaders must established strong credibility first. Being a leader requires having a positive influence to the others  – it’s not a title!

Anyone has the ability and responsibility to drive change. It takes courage to become a leader, an entrepreneur, a strong woman, a mother, a good wife. We are not born with some of the skills that make us good at that, but we sure can become good at anything we set our minds to.

Being a courageous leader is not about speaking up not about making a point, but driving positive organisational change. It all starts with possessing some of the qualities that a fearless, strong and graceful woman has to become a true leader. What are those qualities?

Respect: A Gracious Woman respects herself and other women.

She respects herself enough to stand tall, appreciate her values, beliefs and her own unique identity. She respects the integrity of other women’s person hoods, and she treats other women as she would like to be treated herself.

Resilience: A Gracious Woman will get back on her horse.

She realizes that a disappointment only identifies opportunities to learn, grow and be better prepared for the next opportunity. She learns to disconnect her identity from her work and not give up when she faces a setback. For women aspiring to roles of leadership, being overlooked for a promotion or a key opportunity can be all it takes to confirm our insecurities and suspicious of her inability to succeed.

She has the resilience to get back on her horse, she learns to deal with failure, comments, insults or whatever else is thrown at her with the confidence to fight for what she believes in.

Courage: A Gracious Woman is strong at heart.

Her courage is not for display. Her courage is not natural. It is decision to combat a negative environment with positive energy. She takes the initiative to do something new despite the natural hesitancy that fear may produce.

Persistence: A Gracious Woman is committed to her goals.

She stays patient yet persistent in the pursuit of her dreams and goals. A female leader drives to balance her professional obligations with her life outside of work.

The most effective women in business maintain a clear vision of what they wish to achieve, both in short term and over the long term.

Passion: A Gracious Woman has a fire in her soul.

A gracious woman, shy or engaging, quiet or outgoing, she has a personal stake in the life that she leads and she strives to make the most of it.

She sets her own goals and weighs her successes and failures by her own measures. She gets back up because she must.Because she feels the drive to achieve. Her passion is her fuel and her dreams have no bounds.

Women have been historically stereotyped not as human beings but as emotional beings. Now it widely recognized that authentic leaders have a passion for what they do, they connect at a feeling level to their employees and customers, they admit and express their vulnerabilities and thus gain credibility and respect.

Value: A Gracious Woman is worthy.

Worthy of trust, faith, praise, admiration, respect and love. She knows that both her life and her company have value, and she expects others to understand it. She knows exactly how much she is worth, and she demands that others respect her accordingly.

She is honest about her shortcomings and faces them with an open mind and a brave heart. She says what she means and she means what she says.

Women may not always realize how poised for success they are in leadership roles, but their potential and abilities are undeniable.

Women executives are equally qualified to lead organisations in top executive roles. If you are looking to take inspiration from successful women leaders to develop your own career, remember it is these competences, qualities and skills that will enable you to connect, engage and succeed.

Does this sound like the woman that you are or want to become?

Biz in Heels is here to support you all the way and ensure you become a fearless, gracious woman, who can achieve anything you set your mind to.

The only constraints we have are the ones we put on ourselves! You need to remember this everyday you wake up. We must confront our fears and confront what stops them forging ahead with our ideas, plans or activities and just think about the reasons why are we allowing it to be hindered.

In the business world the key is to recognise the triggers, the feelings and what we actually fear.

We MUST try to overcome our fears, we have to consider what hinders us through reflective thought of why we feel that way, then plan to ensure our idea delivers positive results or it shows that we have tried something for the right reasons.

To be come champions you have to think like one. Being fearless means, you are a gatekeeper of your mind. You are responsible to guard it from negative thoughts, beliefs and habits that are disruptive in your life.

When fear comes to you, face it, fear is just a mind game, it comes to test your will. So when you face fear just laugh it because you are meant to be fearless.

In business we need to follow a pattern every time:

Take decisions for the right reasons
Deal in fact
Plan for success
Try it and do it
Reflect on the outcomes
Learn from whatever outcomes transpire, positive or negative. If there is negative then try to learn not to make that mistake again.
DO NOT fear what the outcome may be or rather learn not to fear how you will perceived if what you try does happen to fail.

If we can consciously follow some simple steps and think about them, every time we feel we are struggling with fear and plan logically to tackle each item, we shouldn’t go wrong. If we follow them regularly it will become normal and in nature and it will eventually unconscious delivery even.

The point that we become limitless, we learn to stop limiting ourselves. We allow ourselves to learn, to grow, to develop, to progress through doing & learning and ultimately ensure we will not have regrets later on.

Confidence is not only being brave. Confidence is self-worth. It is believing in oneself – Kasia Gospos

Confidence comes from within, from the deep belief in your self-worth, value and abilities.

Researchers actually believe that gender stereotypes hold women back in the workplace. They can even cause women to question their own abilities.

Do you ever say to yourself, “If only I had more confidence?

Have you ever been in a room full of men and trying to defend your ideas on a project? How did you felt? What was your reaction?

Throughout the years women in business especially in leadership roles need to develop and build that confidence. Becoming aware of what is holding you back is the critical first step in reaching your professional goals.

A few ways to close the confidence gap in the world of business are listed below:

Own your strengths. Did you know that self awareness correlates with success? The better you know your self, the more likely you are to achieve your goals.

Pay attention to the projects and responsibilities that inspire passion, creativity and motivation.

Get comfortable with disappointment. When you fail or you don’t receive the recognition you believe you deserve, sit with that experience. Learn from it and reflect on how you can do better. Be prepared to work even harder the second time around.

Envision your future. One of the best motivators for self promotion is envisioning where you want your career to be 5-10 years from now. Take concrete steps to build your skills to move up the ranks.

Women need to step out from behind the cloak of anonymity to make real change in the corporate world. Let your results and success speak for themselves. Show up prepared, find allies and embrace every chance for growth that comes in your way. Allow yourself to claim the opportunities that are yours and you will find that being publicly confident will naturally follow.

Step out from your comfort zone and embrace some of your natural instincts and see them as strengths. Ask yourself, what is important for you? How do you want to live? What values do you hold dear to you?

You must believe in yourself. But how can you believe in yourself when you are starting a new chapter. The journey of it will built your confidence, not the other way round.

Remember you are more than capable of everything you ever wanted. You can create the life you want and you don’t have to play by the rules you thought you should.

Embrace your success in you own terms. Start moving into your power gently and step out from your comfort zone.