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Image by Sony Pictures via The New Yorker

Are you facing high turnover rates? Feel like you're wasting money, time, and energy training new employees...just to have them leave a couple months later? Ever consider strengthening your employee incentive programs using employee recognition software to improve your onboarding process?

Estimate the cost of employee turnover for your company, then try some of our 'Men In Black' employee incentive ideas to keep your top employees like Agent K and Agent J around for the long haul.

The 'Men in Black' is a secret organization tasked with policing extraterrestrial affairs on earth, so they can't afford to have high rates of employee turnover (unless of course they are trigger-happy with their Neuralyzer...which you most likely don't have access to).

As we know "high employee turnover hurts a company's bottom line," according the the Wall Street Journal, "experts estimate it costs upwards of twice an employee's salary to find and train a replacement. And churn can damage morale among remaining employees." Gary Pica said one of seven areas to concentrate your time and money is by "finding and keeping the best talent possible: recruit, train  and retain the best and brightest people possible." Training employees well will pay off in the long run and help you retain the best talent. Tying recognition awards with productivity yields maximum utilization of your workforce and optimal services delivery.

We've studied up on the 'Men In Black' onboarding practices and we'd like to share some of their employee engagement activities with you. Employing these tactics should ensure your employees are prepared to succeed at their job from day 1 and stay with your business long-term.

Alien Introduction SMART Goals

Image by Sony Pictures

It starts the moment your new employee first steps foot into the office. It's important to make sure they are comfortable in your office environment to help them be as productive as possible. The 'Men In Black' office has its unique personality just like any office (like the aliens in the mail room)

Looking for new SMART Goals examples? Try using this SMART Goals template and challenge your new employee to meet X amount of 'aliens' who they'll be working closely with on a daily basis. You can make it as unique as you'd like; if you want to task them with naming five employees and their home towns, go for it! The idea is to set a goal for your employee to help them feel comfortable in a new environment with new people.

Mastering Processes Recognition Awards

Image by Sony Pictures via The Frogman

Don't let your employee be 'that guy', teach him the right way from the start!

There's a lot to get used to when you're working for a secret agency. The suit you wear, the identity you don't have anymore, and using the neuralyzer to name a few. Help your employees understand your processes clearly from their first day on the job by encouraging professional growth with recognition awards as they conquer difficult processes. Creating an onboarding program that helps them master the processes early on will allow you to get maximum productivity that translates straight to your bottomline.

Mastering Tools Recognition Awards

Image by Sony Pictures

You can't expect an average civilian to know how to use a secret organizations weapons (i.e the Noisy Cricket, that tiny gun that has an enormous 'punch'). Your business uses tools that may be elementary to you at this point, but that doesn't mean others will catch on immediately.

There are all different types of hardware/software out there today so it's important to ensure your employees know what they're doing with the tools your business uses. Train your employees properly how to use your business tools during their onboarding in order to optimize their time on the job; so they spend time using the tools rather than learning how to use them. 

Use recognition awards to encourage employees to continue learning. Want to track their progress? Set up SMART Goals for your employees to understand, and be able to use, your business tools within a certain time period, and at their next performance review (performance review examples), discuss their progress, and ways in which they can do to improve their efficiency.

Conclusion

Employee retention is a problem which many businesses face. By taking time to onboard employees with structured processes, your business is much more likely to retain employees for a longer period of time. Use employee recognition software to improve your onboarding process, retain employees long term, save money, and keep morale up in your office!