Retaining Good Employees

It's worth having a stay interview quarterly or twice a year if you can. Why not see if you can substitute stay interviews today for an exit interview down the line?

Let employees know what's realistic, and think about the next steps together. Appropriate expectation setting is critical to retention. Develop a plan, which should be more than a discussion. You don't need to create the plan, but you should participate in shaping it.

If an employee is getting married, having a baby, or sending a kid to college, you should know about it. I'm not advocating becoming friends with the people you manage. But you should be interested in their lives and know what's going on. I loved managers who were interested in me. Also, what better way to appreciate your top performers than by knowing about their lives and finding opportunities (if you're lucky) to contribute to them?

Establish well defined metrics for evaluating an employee's contribution to achieving business goals. Expect and demand good work. Review performance versus those metrics on a regular basis. Acknowledge good work when it is delivered. Discuss work that missed the mark and jointly determine how to avoid a repeat performance in the next round.

As your company grows and matures and more infrastructure is formalized, performance reviews can be opportunities to discuss employee's career goals and obtain input for creating stretch opportunities for them both within their current roles and in new roles.

Employee complaints about managers and supervisors center on these areas. Employees leave managers who fail to:

★ provide clarity about expectations.

★ provide clarity about career development and earning potential.

★ give regular feedback about performance.

★ hold scheduled meetings.

★ provide a framework within which the employee perceives he can succeed.

Almost every manager can increase his/her ability to retain employees by developing his/her management skills. Teaching a manager about how to value people can be more challenging. Particularly if the manager does not already value people and their contributions in his/her mind and heart, it will be a leap for his/her to change his/her values.

You have to get compensation right, as best you can, all the time. These days, anyone good is going to get a raise to move and may be a signing bonus on top of that.

The thing is--you can't counter. It's too late by that point. Once they tell you they have another offer they're already out the door. A raise won't do it at this point, at least not for the good ones.

Try to balance giving your team members the authority, the tools and the space they need to do their jobs empowering them and staying checked-in as they execute their responsibilities. Be accessible for and open to, problem solving whether it is brainstorming next steps or fighting fires. And, be accessible personally taking a genuine interest in employees as individuals, as people.

You have to find a growth path for the great ones. The great ones will join your company to grow, to learn, to do new things. If they can't grow, they die a little every day. It's your job to understand the career path for all your key employees. And do whatever you can, within the boundaries of reality, to help them achieve it.

Determining the underlying causes for an employee's departure is vital to the success and evolution of every company, large or small. The exit interview is the most underrated yet efficient method in gathering this information, and it needs to be continued time and time again to build statistical information on an organization. Each organization is different than the one across the parking lot. Therefore, the more information gathered, the more informed senior management will be about strategic decisions down the road.

A big reason why employees leave ultimately boils down to poor people skills in management. An employer must ask, "Are my front-line leaders good with people?" Many managers were promoted to their position because they did their first job well, but that doesn't mean they know how to lead others in the position. When employees are asked for the top three favorable traits in their best boss, 90 percent are people-based skills.

Behavioral or personality conflicts with co-workers or supervisors are also common factors in leaving a job. Conflict with projects can be healthy, yet conflict between people styles can be deadly. Too often, people try to get their point across without understanding the other person's point of view. Thus, conflict arises on a regular basis. This can be addressed with training on how to adapt to different behavior styles.

Whether it's the first response or not, money is always a factor in leaving a job, and often with good reason. Are employers paying their employees fair market value in today's market? If so, money is a scapegoat answer because it's likely the person will not make significantly more in a new position. As an employer, resources can relay accurate and appropriate information. Managers must re-valuate their employee's salaries on a regular basis to stay competitive.

If a manager fails at employee retention, the chances are good that the manager has been unable or unwilling to develop their ability to manage and value people across the board. Managers who exhibit a pattern in which their key employees leave your organization cannot retain their management role.If you have fairly and ethically provided the manager the learning opportunities suggested here, you can, in good conscience, remove the individual from the managerial role. My experience has been that most managers consider this such a loss of prestige and face that they voluntarily leave the organization.

If they choose to stay, however, they must commit to being effective, contributing employees. If the manager cannot make this leap, you will need to let the manager go before their negativity impacts the rest of your workplace.

This could result in many answers - shorter commute, nicer office, etc. Regardless, the next question must be, "Why is this important to you?" Finally, the most important question gauges overall importance: "Which is more important, money or a shorter commute, nicer office, etc.