It’s always important to have a good retention strategy in order to keep your best employees.
There are specific times to be particularly aware: when your company or industry growth slows, and when recruiters are aggressive (if your employees’ skill sets are in high demand). When the company is doing well, people don’t tend to leave unless they are recruited. This happens at good companies when unemployment is very low.
If you don’t hold on to your A-players, you’ll be left with just the Bs (and maybe Cs), and that isn’t a recipe for success. A-players will always be in demand, and they will find good jobs in any economy. If you lose one or two, they are hard to find and expensive to replace. If you don’t replace them, you could end up with what Steve Jobs once called the “Bozo Explosion.”
So how do you retain them?
- Keep them engaged
- Give them opportunity
- Give them slightly better than typical compensation
There is a lot packed into those 3 bullets. For me, the goal was always to make them happy enough that they would not return a headhunter’s call if one reached out. While some people are just curious, others will not waste their time if they are happy enough where they are.
What employees want more than a raise is:
- To feel proud about what they do and be on a winning team
- To be treated fairly and respected by their boss
- To be heard and not micromanaged
- To have a personal life and feel less stress
- To see the incompetent (poor performers) get fired
- To have job security
There is a lot of talk about employee engagement. While an employee is more likely to return a recruiter’s call when not engaged, not being fully engaged is not the same as being unhappy. As you can see from the list above, there is more to keeping an employee happy than just money.
Retention begins the first day they start at the company. Poor on-boarding can start the employee off on the wrong foot, and this is common in small companies. While showing a new person where the restroom and coffee are is important, enacting a development plan for the first 90 days is more important. Most people want to feel productive and valued, and providing goals for the first 90 days do just that.
An important key to keeping them engaged is to make sure they have a good boss. That could be a project manager or people manager depending on the structure of the company. If the boss cares about the person and her career, you may be able to prevent the disengagement which affects about 70% of all employees. People don’t want monthly 1-on-1 meetings – they want more frequent, less formal chats on how they are doing. Ask questions and give tips as needed or schedule more time as required. Use this time to say they are doing a good job (if they are), because everyone likes a little pat on the back.
Poor performance and disengagement can happen even to workers who were highly valued at one time. Jobs change and personal lived change. It is important to first recognize the situation and then address it quickly. If it lingers, it will likely get worse, and other workers will see it and wonder why it isn’t being addressed. It will either cause others to act similarly, or it may push your A-players out the door.
To retain your best and keep the team performance high: know your employees, challenge them professionally, recognize when something is wrong, and take appropriate action quickly. Paying them slightly above market rate will help if you can do it, but the items above are the most important.