How Company Ethics Affects Employee Retention

Julie Starr • Aug 03, 2022



In recent years, ethics has become a much more important factor when it comes to building a successful company. Having good moral principles can not only help you to win over business by making customers feel better about their purchase, but it can also affect the pride that employees have in their work and the faith they have in your company. 

All in all, this can impact how many of your employees stay and how many leave. By practicing good ethics, you may find that you’re able to encourage more employees to stay loyal. Below are just a few examples of company ethics and how they can impact employee retention. 

Honesty and transparency

Employees want to work for an honest company – both to its employees and customers. If employees are constantly expected to lie or not mention certain things, it will affect their morale. Try to encourage honesty and transparency where possible. If certain practices are being covered up due to being immoral or illegal, it’s probably a sign that you should abandon these practices – they may eventually come to light if you’re not careful (and it could be an ex-employee that reveals them). 

Environmental awareness

All businesses should be doing their part to reduce environmental damage. This is important not just for saving the planet but for saving your workforce. A recent study found that 1 in 5 employees were considering leaving their job due to lack of green practices . Just what are some of the big ways in which businesses can become more eco-friendly? Using less paper, recycling, reducing energy consumption, and reducing plastic are all ways in which businesses can become more eco-friendly. Raising money for environmental causes can be another great way to become greener by actively fighting climate change. 

Data protection

It’s important that you’re protecting the data of both employees and customers. A data breach or leak could result in sensitive information becoming compromised. As a company, it is your duty to keep all data secure. Employees and customers should also have the right to withhold data or information providing that it’s not necessary to pay for your product or work for your company. If you’re not sure whether you’re protecting your data adequately enough, it could be worth talking to an expert for advice. 

Diversity and inclusion

It’s also important that your workplace supports diversity and inclusion. This involves hiring employees from a range of different backgrounds and actively supporting those with special requirements (such as providing disabled-friendly access to customers and employees with disabilities). A recent study found that 81% of workers would quit due to poor diversity practices at work . Make sure that you are not discriminating against any groups by not hiring them, offering poor pay or not making accessibility changes to your workplace. 

Treatment of workers

The biggest ethical concern that can affect employee retention is the treatment of workers. If employees feel that they are not being paid enough, not given any benefits or not being kept safe (i.e. poor health and safety practices), they will leave. Make sure that you are looking after your workers. It is also important to make sure that your suppliers are being fairly treated too – many employees will not feel good about working for a company that outsources unfair labor.

By Julie Starr 04 May, 2024
If you're thinking about creating a new product for your business there's a lot you need to keep at the forefront of your thoughts. When you have a new idea it can be exciting and you want to jump right in and test whether or not it will bring in some much-needed capital into your business. However, before you forge your head you need to put some brakes on your ideas. This is because you're going to need to go through a few steps to make sure that you are not wasting your time. Here's a look at the things you should do when you want to create a new product. Do Market Research Market research is the first thing you're going to need to do. No matter how great the idea you may have, if there is no demand for it then you're wasting your time and your business capital. You want to do market research to see whether people will be willing to buy your product. Once you have validated that there are customers for it you can move on to the next step. Unique Selling Proposition In the next stage of the entire process, you're going to look at the unique selling propositions of your product. How is it different from what is already out there? Why should someone buy it as opposed to another product? You have to make sure that you have some kind of innovative features that are superior in quality that will catch your customers' eyes and get them to reach into their wallets. Product Design and Development The next thing you're going to do is to make sure that you put a design and developmental system in place. This is the only way that you're going to end up with a high-quality product to put on the market. You may have to get other people to assist you or select the employees that are skilled to help create the product. If you have to do the creation of a product that requires a lab, you can use lab facilities that are located in your area. In some cases, you might have to get manufacturing help from outside of the country but with all the communication technology available this should be a breeze. Do a Cost Analysis You're going to need to do a cost analysis of the product that you are creating. You don't want to have to empty your company's piggy bank to create a product. You need to make sure that you are going to make enough of a profit based on what you will be spending to actually create the product in the first place. You don't want to shoot yourself in the foot. It's up to you to make sure that you're going to get back every penny that you are spending and then some. The type of products that you are creating should create a sense of excitement in your existing customer base. You do a survey and find out if excitement is bubbling up in them to see a new product. This can gauge how successful it will be.
By Julie Starr 02 May, 2024
Understanding that acquiring new customers can cost up to five times more than retaining them empowers you to make strategic decisions. If you're not offering value to your customers, you won't be able to retain existing ones or attract new ones. In a world where there are seemingly a million customers all offering the same thing, standing out above the noise and offering value to your customers can boost retention. Look At What You Do Well To offer value and identify the reasons why people do business with you or what makes them choose you, take pride in what you do well. Where do you excel? What entices people? What are you most proud of? It is in these areas that you find value and get a better idea of what customers want and expect. Improve Your Brand Image and Perception How people see and perceive your brand will show them what you have to offer and can be a great way to help people connect with your brand. Be clear about who you are and what you represent. It might be that your whole company is built on sustainability, and if people know this and can align with your beliefs, then you can develop a relationship with them based on mutual goals and ideals. Take some time to see what your brand perception is and what message you are putting out there about who you are, and if it doesn't wholly represent you, then you can work on changing this so the message is clear and representative of what the company is about. This can be a great way to offer people value and something another brand provides. Improved Quality The quality of what you should always be top-notch, but you can still go a little extra. It doesn't matter if you're selling whole podcasts, parts, repairs, or services; the level of quality received by the customers for the price point will often play a massive factor in whether or not they will make another purchase or become a regular customer. Even if you don't offer anything else that seems exemplary, if people are more than satisfied with the output level, you can guarantee they will definitely be back. So whether you upgrade the quality of your ingredients for food and drink-based products, offer additional content or support for your services, or outsource to machine shops for fabrication requirements, improve the quality of what you do to give you that edge over competitors. Provide A Positive Experience Value isn't always about something you offer for a price point; it's about the experience as a whole and, oftentimes, the things you don't do. By providing all customers with a positive experience , you can leave a lasting impression in their minds that they really enjoyed their contact with your company. This will help to ensure they come back to you time and again, feeling they have received a good service and this is of value to them. Many customers want to know their business is appreciated, and you can do this by ensuring that each and every interaction with your company is a smooth, positive one that requires little to no effort with a good payoff at the end of the transaction. Quality Over Price Sure, you can go out there and undercut your competitors, but this tactic isn't always the best, nor does it work for everyone. However, what you can do is emphasize the quality of the product and justify its price point. Even if it's slightly more expensive than your competitors, you can win people over by showing exactly what they're getting for their money and why it's worth its price tag. Don't be tempted to hike the price point up to give it an air of superior quality. You still need to be pricing realistically; however, by focusing on the benefits of the value of what you're offering over the price, you can show people lie in purchasing from you. Educate customers By offering tutorials, demonstrations, trial products or services, FAQs, and practical assistance, you not only offer a good value product or service but also give customers a chance to learn more about you, what you do, what you stand for, and what your company is all about.  This, in turn, along with good customer service and knowledgeable representatives, will offer your customers value as they will be able to understand your product or service better and know you're investing in our product and that you care about their experience. There are many ways to offer value to customers besides discounts or freebies. Any of these options can directly benefit your business and require little outlay.
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