Finding employees who provide high-level service and display loyalty are critical to any company. When you find them, what can be done to retain them? Consider these 5 essential strategies.
- Breathe Life into your Values
Vision, Mission, and especially Values look nice on websites. Speeches regarding these values can be motivating. None of that matters if the company does not live and breathe them in every process and through every employee. Your employees know what’s real, and what’s hype.
Can you honestly convince yourself that your values mean anything more than a white paper? Revisit them, tweak them, and allow employees to contribute, because their words and actions speak your company culture loud and clear. Most of all, remember to hire around your vision, mission, and values.
“One team, on the same train moving in the same direction, is a powerful force” – Irma Parone
2. Care (or as one of my favorite millennials described this, “Give A Shit”)
Let’s consider a couple scenarios:
- Scenario A Our highly-valued, self-motivated employee seems to be happy and engaged. Everything is smooth. An opportunity comes by but he loves working for us – he feels that we truly care and value him as demonstrated throughout his career. Does he stay or does he go?
- Scenario B Same employee, same opportunity however there is nothing to keep him here except possibly some vacation benefits he earned over time. No relationship, little support, just a paycheck. What is the outcome of this scenario?
No guarantees, but we can load the chances in our favor if we demonstrate the right things, including that we care.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”― Maya Angelou
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Don’t Expect Perfection
No one is perfect. Employees need a sense of security, not fear of making a mistake. Encourage creative productivity. What should we do when an employee makes the wrong choice or an honest yet costly mistake?Fix root causes, thank them for their effort and don’t look back.
Stop and consider the effect a negative reaction to a mistake has on the employees’ engagement. And the truth is you have already paid a big cost for their education, why start over now?
4. Keep the Bar High
High-performing employees will be demotivated if their company permits lazy or non-performers to remain on their team. Keep the bar high, and the non-negotiables non-negotiable. Create programs that will help your employees learn and grow with you, or they just may look elsewhere for the opportunity. With your support, they can be the best in their role, and possibly a great choice for future opportunities. Plus, wouldn’t you rather put someone you know and trust in that new account than someone who just may have surfaced with “bright and shiny objects”?
- Provide the Proper Tools
When you know what your employees need, make sure they have those tools without begging. If you don’t know what they need there is a lack of communication – fix that. If the tools are too expensive, change the job because putting employees in an impossible situation does not help your bottom line or employee retention.
The reality is that we can do all the right things, and yet occassionally lose talent. Things happen; employees are scouted; life goes on! How do you treat departing employees? As the loyal person they were when they worked for you! Don’t take it personally. It is never good, for either the company or the employee to burn bridges. Pay special attention to exit interviews and stay in touch. A loyal x-employee can and will still help with the right relationships. Remember they probably know many others in the field and could be a great referral source. And when employees who terminate give a glowing recommendation – well, that says something!
Do your best to control the churn. The cost of losing a great employee is far more than the cost of recruiting. See our article on the cost of turnover at https://paronegroup.com/2017/04/23/employee-turnover-pain-consider-these-tangible-intangible-costs-then-slower-down/
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