Tips for keeping your A-Team Employees
21 Sep Tips for keeping your A-Team Employees
Keeping your A-level employees happy requires two simultaneous approaches. The first is to address the needs of the employee directly and two is to address the skill sets of the management. By doing both they can help ensure that top performs excel while ultimately helping the company grow.
When looking at the needs of an employee we must take quite a few items into consideration above and beyond simply paying them well. Sure a nice big paycheck will help keep some top employees happy but that is not a long term solution. Job satisfaction is as instrumental to long term company stability and growth.
Susan M Healthfield, Human Resources expert, states in her article for humanresources.about.com her list of the “Top 10 Ways to Retain Your Great Employees”. Her article focuses mostly on the needs of the employee.
1. Satisfied employees know clearly what is expected from him every day at work
2. Quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention
3. The ability of the employee to speak his or her mind freely within the organization
4. The talent and skill utilization is another environmental factor
5. Perception of fairness and equitable treatment
6. Make sure employees have the tools, time and training they need to learn their job
7. Your best employees seek frequent opportunities to learn and grow in their careers, knowledge and skill
8. Make the employee feel that upper management knows that they exist
9. Never ever threaten an employee’s job or income
10. Employees must feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated
The Second approach to keeping your top performers loyal is through properly training your upper level management. Persis Swift, Marketing Communications Specialist for CAI (CAI is a resource for NC employers for HR, compliance and people development) wrote the article “Keep Your High Performers Loyal and Engaged with 10 Tips” for www.hcwbenefits.com.
1. Conduct Stay Interviews (instead of exit interviews)
2. Be specific with Job Descriptions
3. Teach Managers People Management
4. Communicate Openly
5. Promote Flexibility
6. Give Clear Expectations
7. Help them Grow
8. Manage Poor Performers
9. Involve Senior Leadership
10. Show them they’re valued
Mitchell McDowell
Posted at 21:57h, 28 SeptemberAlicia,
I really like the notion of conducting stay interviews. Traditional exit interviews are usually conducted with individuals who are unhappy with some facet of their job or company. My wife is the HR manager for a municipality. She conducts exit interviews all the time. I cannot recall one instance where she obtained any usable from an employee leaving the city.
Thanks,
Mitch
asmcpa@yahoo.com
Posted at 16:01h, 02 OctoberMitch,
I bet your wife hears a lot of discourse (if they are candid) and very little ideas for improvement. Employees who are unhappy have no reason to spend a lot of energy telling the employer how to improve. I think finding ways to keep your happy employees happy is the way to go. More of a carrot than a stick approach.
Joe Alvarado
Posted at 19:11h, 29 SeptemberHey Alicia,
Thanks for laying out the Top 10 for keeping your top performers loyal. I like the concept of conducting staying interviews. I feel as a business owner you can provide real value to your performer by mentoring them. I always feel as a top employee should be wanting this in their career. I believe it’s what really separates themselves from the others. They are the ones that want to grow within your company.
BTW… great article.
V/r,
Joe
asmcpa@yahoo.com
Posted at 16:02h, 02 OctoberI agree…being a mentor to your valuable employee assets is a great way to keep growing your talent pool.
Ellie Shown
Posted at 17:00h, 05 OctoberAlicia,
You have touched on many of the topics I was exposed to in my Human Resources class in terms of retention and satisfaction of employees. Many of these are similar to the idea of “S.M.A.R.T.”- specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely- goals for employees. It creates the proper balance between goals that are challenging enough, but also achievable, so employees feel they”re contributing to the greater good and they are confident in their abilities. Also, many of these factors of retention are also embedded into the culture of the organization. As entrepreneurs, I think it’s our responsibility from the beginning to build and maintain a culture that fosters, for example, open communication, recognizing awards and accomplishments, and constant development and training. If you make these things part of the culture from the beginnings, they become the “norm,” which can help you attract good talent, and more easily retain this talent in the long-run.
Thanks for sharing your points with us.
Ellie Shown
asmcpa@yahoo.com
Posted at 13:29h, 06 OctoberThanks for sharing. I had not hear of SMART but it sure makes sense.
Ashlei Harris
Posted at 23:03h, 10 OctoberAlicia,
Once an employee is unhappy and is ready to leave the organization it is to late to find out what went wrong in the relationship. So the idea of conducting stay interviews to see how the employee is feeling at that given point is a great idea, this will give the organization enough time to rectify the problem and improve on the situation. I like this idea a lot.