Hiring, Managing & Keeping the Best

Bridgepoint Publications

By Monica Beauregard, President, Bridgepoint

Tactics for employee retention

Your organization is probably like many organizations today that are struggling to keep and motivate key employees. The costs of turnover alone are significant, but when key positions remain vacant because high caliber employees are difficult to immediately replace, your organization is vulnerable. Employers are becoming more aware of the need to understand why employees are leaving and determine ways to keep them interested in staying with the company. Here are some tips help you keep your key employees:

Identify your key employees and what they value

Identify those employees who have the necessary skill sets and knowledge base critical to the organizations success longer term. Confirm this list with key decision makers in your organization. Focus on those employees who have the commitment, potential and versatility to move into different and progressively more senior positions within the organization.

Talk to these employees to let them know how the organization regards them. Too often do key people leave because they are not aware they are considered a valuable resource. Spend time to discuss what they value as individuals and what they are motivated by. Different things motivate different employees and one type of incentive will likely not work for all employees. For example, some employees will be value a flexible work schedule, others will value pay for performance, and still others might want extra time off.

Try to understand what each of your key employees values to best accommodate their desires within what is acceptable to the organization and fair to employees.

Link Performance to Rewards

Provided job requirements are clear to employees and performance can be objectively measured, varying levels of rewards and recognition can be directly linked to performance. This means you must clarify and communicate job expectations to employees and set up pay for performance programs to differentiate between mediocre performers and superior performers. This can be done by offering higher rewards to higher achievers. Superior performers will be motivated to continue to exceed expectations and mediocre performers will hopefully be encouraged to improve performance.

You can also motivate key employees by offering challenging assignments for their skill level, providing notice of what they can expect for performing at superior levels (expected rewards), and ensuring salaries and benefits are competitive both within the industry and for the particular position.

Remember, recognition and rewards can be both monetary (bonus, gift certificate) and non-monetary (flexible work arrangements, job enrichment opportunity). You will want to be sure that the current recognition/reward programs are they doing what they were set up to do, and if not, consider modifying them.

Create a Positive Environment

Employees in this generation expect to enjoy and not simply tolerate work. The environment, in which they work, therefore, the physical and psychological workplace is very important.
Employees are motivated by elements they can feel and see. To create a positive work environment:

- Establish a well defined culture with strong leadership and direction
- Encourage employee ownership in decision-making and flexibility to think
outside the norm
- Provide a motivating, supportive and trusting environment
- Promote a healthy, safe and comfortable work area
- Support work and personal life balance
- Ensure regular and open communication at all levels

The extent to which you introduce the above components will directly impact your environment. Successful organizations will implement most of the above.

Provide an environment of Continuous Learning

Businesses sometimes think of training as a significant cost to the business, especially in terms of employee time away from work. However, the more modern thinking focuses instead on the learning organization. The benefits of providing an environment of continuous learning are numerous:

- It can be more cost effective to train someone internally than bringing someone in from outside the organization that is unfamiliar with the organization and its operations.
- Employees that are effectively trained are confident in their ability to perform the job, are more likely to progress within the organization, and are more likely to be committed longer term.
- Employees view an investment in training as a sign that the organization values its employees and are more likely to stay with an organization that values them.
- High potential candidates from outside the organization are attracted to these organizations since they are a place where they can continually develop their skills.
- Employers benefit in that the more time and money invested in effective training programs, the more employees are equipped to work with new technologies and concepts to meet the changing needs of the organization and its clients.

Remember, continuous learning can take many forms and employers need to be creative when determining the best training and development programs for employees e.g. courses, coaching/mentoring, job enrichment, job rotation, special projects, on-line learning, reading, etc. A strategy to keep key employees requires that any training and development programs to be tied to formal career and succession plans to keep training on track.

Understand why employees are leaving and prevent future departures

Finally, if you are concerned about employee retention, take time to better understand why employees are leaving the organization. This can be done through a brief meeting or a more formal exit interview. Review the results with others in the organization and use them as input and rationale for required changes. For example, if many employees are leaving for better job opportunities, the organization may want to review what they are doing with regards to career planning, succession planning, internal transfer process, job enrichment opportunities, special projects, and so on.

If your organization does not currently face a large turnover rate, but feel it is just a matter of time before employees start to leave, it is helpful to be proactive and gain a better understanding of why some employees are at risk and think through retention strategies. This can be done in a variety of ways such as, meeting informally with employees you feel are at risk, asking related questions in employee focus group sessions, conducting an employee survey or by learning about other company's best practices.