| Issue: |
As the job market strengthens, you are growing concerned that your company’s top performing employees will start seeking employment elsewhere. Even the loss of a few great managers would be a heavy hit because your company is leaner now, due to the recession. What can you do to retain your top talent?
|
 |
|
Answer: |
It's no longer enough to say “be happy you have a job.” Departing employees take with them not just their skills, but their knowledge, experience, and relationships with customers. Tim Schoonover, chairman of OI Partners, offers these retention tips:
- Develop career paths for top performers and provide them with coaching to help them achieve future positions. Concentrate on your “A-team” players and those you want to develop into top-tier employees.
- Sharpen employees’ knowledge and skills. Supply inside and outside coaches and on-the-job training to polish employees' management and interpersonal skills. This also will help people become better bosses, improving the retention of their subordinates.
- Improve compensation and benefits. Although higher pay is not the top reason why employees leave, companies that have recovered sufficiently to make up for past wage and benefit freezes, pay cuts, or small raises will be at an advantage.
- Teach employees new skills. Even if you don't have an opportunity to promote good performers, challenge them with projects that will enable them to learn new skills and take on new responsibilities.
- Make sure employees are in the right jobs. Some employees are not fully engaged in their work because they are not in the right jobs. They may be looking to leave because they don’t like the work they are doing, not because they don't like their employers. Discover which roles they can play that are mutually beneficial.
- Communicate company goals and each worker's part. Make employees feel involved in what's going on and inspired by what's ahead so they can remain engaged and motivated.
- Recognize employee contributions. Employees want to feel appreciated for the work they do and the value they bring. Design low-cost ways of keeping people motivated, including expressing appreciation through face-to-face meetings, personalized e-mails and notes, and tokens of thanks.
Source: Employers Resolve To Retain Top Workers in an Improving Job Market, January 2011, OI Partners, http://www.oipartners.net/.
|
