May be a quote of his wife “I was having a good time and getting close with your office mates and we had planned to have a painting classes for the employees kids of your company in summer’ might influence his decision to not resign from his job.
May be an opinion of his mother “Why leave the company now? You are currently having nice people around you and because of this job our life has improved and they rendered a helping hand in your father’s heart surgery” might twist the direction in favor of not resigning from his job.
Majority of the workforce generation are baby boomers and Generation Xers and both are juggling between job and family. Conducting family driven programs or get-togethers involving employee’s family will make them feel emotionally attached to the organization and will make them realize that the organization promotes employee’s wellbeing too. There by you are making a deposit in the emotional bank account of employee’s family…How about that…It’s true and it worked as well!!
Whenever a company is dealing with employee’s family or conducts any family driven programs they are creating a bond with employee’s family, which can ultimately be a strong influence for your employees to stick with you. Make your employees and their families feel that you help them succeed in every areas of their life!!!
Programs that employees & their family look forward to…
Social Club with employees spouse as members: Organizations having social club as their part of employee engagement program can encourage their employee’s spouse also to be a member of their club. Thereby making them also a part of the organization… This helps homemaker spouses as well as employed spouses to socialize and get along with each other. Moreover it can be a platform to showcase their talent too. You can have Cultural competitions, Art competitions, cooking shows or even better have them come up with their own suggestions!!! Give them the exposure by assigning an important role like secretary, program coordinator or have them lead some activity group like Dance group, orchestra group etc..They will feel attached and engaged. You can have more participation in your father’s day and mother’s day celebrations and you will have happy employees. Trust me!! This will make a great difference!!!
Family Medical Benefit: It is not just helping in terms of medical insurance but being with them in their hard times. If any employee or their family member is having a tough time in hospital and it is over and above your medical benefit limit as per policy, try all the options to come up with a plan for helping the employee. Don’t just leave him with empty hand rather consider all situations; take special approval from the management to provide him the support for financial exigencies. Visit him/his family at the hospital. Let them know that you care about him!!!
Annual Family get together: Every employee looks forward to the Annual family get together day and it is an ideal occasion where all the employees will have a wonderful experience of meeting their colleague’s family members and sharing nice moments with them. Having an annual ‘take your child to office’ day can also be a fun activity.
Children’s Award: Recognize the academic achievements, during the year, of your employee’s children. We had in my previous company the ‘Young Achievers Award’. Children who scored high GPA/grades were awarded and given certificates as a token for appreciation for their academic achievement.
Day Care at/nearby office for employee’s kids: For some employees their work schedule needs to accommodate their kid’s day care times. They may need to rush early from the office to pick up their kids. Unfortunately for some the increased cost of day care may force them to leave the kid alone at home or leave them with unqualified nannies. In order to retain those employees faced with such difficulties and to make sure their cared ones are nearby, some companies have their own day care facilities at the work place. Companies have taken a step ahead by recognizing and fulfilling a working parent’s need for balancing work and life.
Help in School/college admission for Employee’s Children: If an out of location employee is joining a company the first thing he would be searching for is a better school for their children. Since they are totally new to the location employers can have an exclusive help desk for getting the best school admission for their employees children.
Employee Wellness program: Spending a majority of a person’s day in work can make him less concerned about his health and companies have understood the benefit associated with investing in employee wellness programs- Less absenteeism ,increased productivity and lowered Medical claims. Schedule a wellness program to employees and their family members every six months like free health checkups. E.g. heart check up, eye check up, flu vaccination or have yoga classes once in a week to reduce their stress. Hire a wellness specialist to give wellness coaching and advice on how to live healthy and make healthy decisions. Enhance the awareness on health related issues by using intranet or email system.
