Count Your Inventory to Retain
Your Best Employees
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Regardless of the economy, you no doubt
have a core group of individuals who play vital roles in your
organization whom you want to keep. Where should you start?
1. Look at
your organization in general. What
does it offer that encourages employees to stay? List the top
five to seven reasons.
2. Verify your
list by asking employees,
one-on-one, and by holding “What’s right?”
meetings. They may be staying for reasons you’re unaware
of. Focus only on the most positive aspects of working for your
organization (e.g., autonomy, commitment to growth,
philanthropic endeavors, recognition, benefits, respect for new
ideas, and so on).
3. Examine the
elements of each item on your list. How
did it get this way? Can it be improved or enhanced? If it was
an “accident,” how can you institutionalize it?
This list should be the foundation for
your retention and recruiting strategies. Commit to it,
“market” it, and live by it.
Adapted from “Seven ways to help
your company retain its best and brightest,” by Jeff
Levy, in the Journal of Employee
Communication Management.
Use These Strategies to Retain
Your Best and Brightest
Don’t assume layoffs will give you a
chance to clean out the bad apples while keeping the bunch
intact. When things get tense, you’re liable to lose
both. To hold on to the keepers...
• Stay
close. Don’t let
administrative distractions keep you from maintaining a
personal connection with employees. If they feel you care, they
may give you a chance to talk them out of leaving rather than
just wave on their way out.
• Listen
up. When employees come to you
with ideas and concerns, take the time to listen and follow up.
If they don’t feel their ideas are given a fair hearing,
they’re liable to start looking for an employer
who’ll value their creative contribution.
• Be
straight. Don’t
sugarcoat bad news or mollycoddle workers you’re trying
to keep. If you hold their hands, you’ll dull their
edge-and soon they won’t be worth keeping.
• Have
fun. If you’ve just
frozen wages, cut workers, or lost a big client, you probably
don’t feel much like whooping it up. But try a little
whooping anyway. A weekly ice cream party or a dartboard in the
conference room can help keep sinking spirits afloat-and your
star players on board-until times get better.
Adapted from “Loyal employees or the
revolving door?” by Joyce Weiss, in Executive Excellence.
Employee Retention Takes More
Than Just A Free Lunch
“What typically drives people out of
the work force faster than anything is lack of respect. Second
is unfair treatment,” says Fred Martels, president of
People Solutions Strategies, a performance improvement company
located in Chesterfield, Missouri. “Let them know what
their service means to customers. When people understand how
their job affects someone else, they take on a higher level of
pride. They’re someone who really makes a
contribution.”
A fun work environment that offers
flexible scheduling and the opportunity to learn are high on
job candidates’ lists of needs in 2003, Martel says.
“People like to learn, they want to feel like
they’re accomplishing something and have opportunities to
advance, knowing they can get from A to Z after a period of
time.”
Employees at Southwest Airlines know how
to have fun. Leslie Yerkes, founder of Catalyst Consulting
Group, a performance consulting firm based in Cleveland and
author of Fun Works: Creating Places Where People Love to Work
(Berrett-Koehler), says Southwest became the retention story of
the year by successfully combining fun and hard work.
“For some people, work takes a toll on them,” she
says. “When you find work being an extension of play, it
gives you more energy.”
“If you trust employees with the
most valuable assets of your organization and share the guiding
principles, values and goals, why wouldn’t you trust them
to get the work-fun balance right?”
Adapted from Employee
Retention Takes More Than Just A Free Lunch,
by Tina Benitez, January 2003 INCENTIVE
