Retention

There is an unprecedented retention crisis in the American workplace.  Historic levels of American employees across employers within the private, public, and non-profit sectors annually report record dissatisfaction and disengagement with work. 50% feel unappreciated. 80% say they’re not thriving at work.  Turnover is at an all-time and persistent high.

Monetized annually in lost production, efficiency, innovation, performance, and customers and it’s in the trillions.  It’s a real anchor on the American economy.  It’s a competitive disadvantage for employers and our nation in the global economy.

Pay and benefits should be competitive, but they cannot solve the problem.  Talented individuals of integrity won’t stay working at an organization with the wrong leadership, a bad culture, and the absence of true teamwork regardless of the pay and benefits.

Leaders who shrug their shoulders and say, “that’s just the way it is today” are not accepting responsibility.  When you hire a good employee, it’s also your job to retain them.  Retention not turnover should be your company culture.

It is not a guaranteed automatic new normal to have high turnover even in specific industries and positions.  Recruiting and training talented professionals of integrity for your competitors is a losing model.  Retention of good employees improves performance, productivity, teamwork, morale, culture, customer satisfaction, and profits.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned to Optimize Retention: 

• You hired them – you are responsible for giving them every opportunity to succeed.

• Get to know your team – appeal to their specific interests. You want members of the team seeing organizational and personal interests align.

• It’s your role to learn their goals and help them chart a course for career success.

• You need to make everyone on your team feel valued and appreciated.

• You have to provide opportunities for them to grow with professional and leadership development.  Invest in their success.

• They need to have the opportunity to voice their ideas, make decisions, admit mistakes, and feel safe and confident in your workplace.  Have a culture where employees feel free and safe to speak and free to fail.

• Treat them like owners. Let everyone see the big picture. Ensure they are informed and invested.

• They need to be allowed to have a real impact and take on new challenges

• The quality of the relationship between supervisors and employees is key!

• They want you as a coach and a mentor.

• Hire the motivated and keep them inspired.

• Keep employees fully informed so they feel trusted and act like owners.  Always be honest with your team as they can handle the truth. Celebrate their successes.

• Lead with empathy/emotional intelligence.

• People who are well led are loyal. They will stay on a team with the right leadership and culture.

• On pay and benefits, stay competitive with the regional talent market for your industry.

• Identify and maintain motivators. Do your best to lessen demotivators.  Lead everyone the same but differently.  Learn why did they join?  What do they hope to do during their careers?  Learn their motivators and demotivators.  How do you best communicate with and coach each of them?  Know their skills, knowledge, hopes, fears.  Know if something major is going on in their lives.  Utilize all this understanding to bring out the best in them.

• Respect and trust your team. Never micromanage.  Let them make decisions.  Give them freedom within the guardrails.

• Study where good longtime employees come from, why they stay, and why they leave (compare recruiting/interview/onboarding/exit interview data).

• Study your competitors and study the industry.

• Look for best practices and lessons learned to employ.

• Be consistent and do not play favorites. If you say it ,then do it.  People want clarity, stability, & predictability.

• Praise in public and coach in private.

• Celebrate successes even smaller ones.

• Good employees highly value a genuine and positive relationship with their supervisor, working together as a true team, and a healthy work culture. It creates and sustains employee commitment, engagement, satisfaction, retention, and success. People with no strong commitment to the leadership, team, or culture have no problem leaving.

As leaders, it’s your duty to make them want to stay.

Sources:  Abrashoff (2002); Collins (2001); Drucker (1999); Ibarra (2009); Kotter, (1995, 1996, 1999); Maxwell (2011. 2013); Spreitzer & Porath (2012); Starling (2008); Welch (2005).