How to retain Your Employees In this high performance Industry

All high performance environments share a serious devotion to results. They’re competitive, stressful workplaces where mediocrity is disdained and failure intolerable. Moreover, individuals who thrive in these environments tend to be A players with intense ambition. And they are always on the lookout for greener pastures.

How can high-performing employers better retain these critical employees?

The challenge is often how companies approach retention — reactively. Retention issues are ignored until the company suspects an employee might bail, at which point it’s addressed by offering the employee some kind of enticement to stay, and then it’s back to business as usual. This approach might work in the short-run, but does nothing to cultivate longer-term loyalty.

A better approach is to address retention proactively, as a strategic issue. I recently connected with two thought leaders in talent management strategy to discuss how to do this in high performance environments. Based on our conversation, here are five things any organization can do to proactively combat turnover.

1. Hire Retainable Employees

The pressure’s on from day one in a high performance environment. While some thrive under pressure, others will falter. Elissa Tucker, Human Capital Management Knowledge Specialist at APQC, says the first thing leading organizations are doing to curtail this type of turnover is a focus on “hiring retainable employees.”

While there are some obvious indicators of a candidates’ ability to deliver consistently (e.g. three to five years’ tenure in a similar role), there are other signals that can provide insight in your sourcing and screening.

Tucker suggests working with your managers and top performers to identify what backgrounds, skills or personality characteristics your retainable employees have in common.

2. Plan Careers, Don’t Fill Roles

It’s easy to focus on the near-term when managing people in a high performance environment. You bring in “A Players” with the expectation that they’ll succeed in the role for which you’ve hired them–and unrealistically assume they will stay in that role forever. Your top performers are thinking about their career, and you should be too.

“Best-practice organizations work to help individuals plan to stay with the organization–to plan their careers with the organization,” says Tucker.

The key is to guide your employees in mapping out how they can attain their career goals within your company. For example: If a top salesperson sees her current role as a rung in the ladder up to senior management, outline some long-term goals that will get her there. If another is just in it for the money, keep him in challenging roles that will reward him for working hard and allow him to play hard.

3. Make Retention Personal

Every employee is motivated by different things, and retention strategies thus need to be tailored down to the individual level.

Steve Miranda, Managing Director of CAHRS, Cornell University ILR School, says, “The key phrase is specialized efforts.” Successful organizations, he says, don’t view retention initiatives as “one size fits all.”

Instead, they’re making retention strategies personal. How? By simply asking, “What motivates you?”

You may be surprised to find that monetary incentives are low on the list of responses you get. These days, “A Players” are more concerned with challenging work, personal and professional growth opportunities, work/life balance, and workplace flexibility.

4. Get to the Heart of Underperformance

Let’s face it: Underperformance happens, but you don’t want to lose employees who were previously strong performers. If you notice a drop in performance, Miranda advises against writing them off without first getting to the heart of the issue.

In my conversation with Miranda, we broke underperformance down into a few root causes:

Skill and competency issues often come up when someone’s been promoted into a role they weren’t quite ready for. Fortunately these can be addressed with coaching and training–and usually for a fraction of the cost of replacing an employee

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Herzberg's theory

Employee retention refers to the ability of an organization to retain its employees. Employee retention can be represented by a simple statistic (for example, a retention rate of 80% usually indicates that an organization kept 80% of its employees in a given period). However, many consider employee retention as relating to the efforts by which employers attempt to retain employees in their workforce. In this sense, retention becomes the strategies rather than the outcome.

In a business setting, the goal of employers is usually to decrease employee turnover, thereby decreasing training costs, recruitment costs and loss of talent and organisational knowledge. By implementing lessons learned from key organizational behavior concepts employers can improve retention rates and decrease the associated costs of high turnover. However, this isn't always the case. Employers can seek "positive turnover" whereby they aim to maintain only those employees who they consider to be high performers.

Herzberg's theory

An alternative motivation theory to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is the Motivator-Hygiene (Herzberg’s) theory. The theories have overlap, but the fundamental nature of each model differs. While Maslow’s Hierarchy implies the addition or removal of the same need stimuli will enhance or detract from the employee’s satisfaction, Herzberg’s findings indicate that factors garnering job satisfaction are separate from factors leading to poor job satisfaction and employee turnover. Herzberg’s system of needs is segmented into motivators and hygiene factors. Like Maslow’s Hierarchy, motivators are often unexpected bonuses that foster the desire to excel. Hygiene factors include expected conditions that if missing will create dissatisfaction. Examples of hygiene factors include bathrooms, lighting, and the appropriate tools for a given job. Employers must utilize positive reinforcement methods while maintaining expected hygiene factors to maximize employee satisfaction and minimize retention.^[1]

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Employee Retention II - Fortune 500 Companies

Employee Retention This Can Give You Shock !

How Booming Economy Effect Employee Retention 

This is another major factor That effect your employee retention plan if you are not considering booming market as threat to your employee turnover. As economy achieves new sky and sansex gets higher and higher. which opens a new market and investment opportunities to many companies and projects.

which means your competitors are "now hiring" in such case taking this casually can cost you your key employee As market is "Hot" .As you got eye on your best performers ,So do your competitors. So never take your employees casually or on your bond because for key employee and vital information and skills your competitor can pay money to break bond and more good Salary and challenging position .Even as market is now open for both employee and employer . both are in their comfort zone only best one will win.

so take your employees seriously .

What can make my employee Stay with me ?

lets see what factors  can help you to retain your employee when market is in boom.

Key employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of your business. Managers readily agree that retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied coworkers and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply imbedded organizational knowledge and learning.

If managers can cite these facts so well, why do they behave in ways that so frequently encourage great employees to quit their jobs?

Employee retention matters. Organizational issues such as training time and investment; lost knowledge; mourning, insecure coworkers and a costly candidate search aside, failing to retain a key employee is costly.

Various estimates suggest that losing a middle manager costs an organization up to 100 percent of his salary. The loss of a senior executive is even more costly. I have seen estimates of double the annual salary and more.

Employee retention is critically important for a second societal reason, too. Over the next few years while Baby Boomers (age 40 to 58) retire, the upcoming Generation X population numbers 44 million people (ages 25-34), compared to 76 million Baby Boomers available for work. Simply stated: there are a lot fewer people available to work.

Employee retention is one of the primary measures of the health of your organization. If you are losing critical staff members, you can safely bet that other people in their departments are looking as well.

Exit interviews with departing employees provide valuable information you can use to retain remaining staff. Heed their results. You'll never have a more significant source of data about the health of your organization.

I've provided retention tips in earlier articles, but will add ten more retention tips to your arsenal with these top ten ways to retain a great employee.

• Management thinkers from Ferdinand Fournies ( Why Employees Don't Do What They're Supposed to Do and What to Do About It) to Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (First Break All the Rules agree that a satisfied employee knows clearly what is expected from him every day at work. Changing expectations keep people on edge and create unhealthy stress.
  
  They rob the employee of internal security and make the employee feel unsuccessful. I'm not advocating unchanging jobs just the need for a specific framework within which people clearly know what is expected from them.

• The quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention. People leave managers and supervisors more often than they leave companies or jobs. It is not enough that the supervisor is well-liked or a nice person, starting with clear expectations of the employee, the supervisor has a critical role to play in retention.
  
  Anything the supervisor does to make an employee feel unvalued will contribute to turnover. Frequent employee complaints center on these areas.
  
  --lack of clarity about expectations,
  --lack of clarity about earning potential,
  --lack of feedback about performance,
  --failure to hold scheduled meetings, and
  --failure to provide a framework within which the employee perceives he can succeed.

• The ability of the employee to speak his or her mind freely within the organization is another key factor in employee retention. Does your organization solicit ideas and provide an environment in which people are comfortable providing feedback? If so, employees offer ideas, feel free to criticize and commit to continuous improvement. If not, they bite their tongues or find themselves constantly in trouble - until they leave.

• Talent and skill utilization is another environmental factor your key employees seek in your workplace. A motivated employee wants to contribute to work areas outside of his specific job description. How many people could contribute far more than they currently do? You just need to know their skills, talent and experience, and take the time to tap into it.
  
  For example, in a small company, a manager pursued a new marketing plan and logo with the help of external consultants. An internal sales rep, with seven years of ad agency and logo development experience, repeatedly offered to help. His offer was ignored and he cited this as one reason why he quit his job. In fact, the recognition that the company didn't want to take advantage of his knowledge and capabilities helped precipitate his job search.

Want six more retention tips? They are critically important for your organization's current and future success. Every key employee you lose is inestimable.

Here are six additional employee retention tips. Here are the first four tips and a discussion about why retention is critically important.

• The perception of fairness and equitable treatment is important in employee retention. In one company, a new sales rep was given the most potentially successful, commission-producing accounts. Current staff viewed these decisions as taking food off their tables. You can bet a number of them are looking for their next opportunity.
  
  In another instance, a staff person, just a year or two out of college, was given $20,000 in raises over a six month time period. Information of this type never stays secret in companies so you know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the morale of several other employees will be affected.
  
  For example, you have a staff person who views her role as important and she brings ten years of experience, an M.B.A. and a great contribution record to the table. When she finds she is making less money than this employee, she is likely to look for a new job. Minimally, her morale and motivation will take a big hit. Did the staff person deserve the raises? Yes. But, recognize that these decisions had an impact on others.

• When an employee is failing at work, I ask the W. Edwards Deming question, “What about the work system is causing the person to fail?” Most frequently, if the employee knows what they are supposed to do, I find the answer is time, tools, training, temperament or talent. The easiest to solve, and the ones most affecting employee retention, are tools, time and training. The employee must have the tools, time and training necessary to do their job well – or they will move to an employer who provides them.

• Your best employees, those employees you want to retain, seek frequent opportunities to learn and grow in their careers, knowledge and skill. Without the opportunity to try new opportunities, sit on challenging and significant teams, attend seminars and read and discuss books, they feel they will stagnate. A career-oriented, valued employee must experience growth opportunities within your organization.

• A common place complaint or lament I hear during an exit interview is that the employee never felt senior managers knew he existed. By senior managers I refer to the president of a small company or a department or division head in a larger company. Take time to meet with new employees to learn about their talents, abilities and skills. Meet with each employee periodically. You'll have more useful information and keep your fingers on the pulse of your organization. It's a critical tool to help employees feel welcomed, acknowledged and loyal.

• No matter the circumstances, never, never, ever threaten an employee's job or income. Even if you know layoffs loom if you fail to meet production or sales goals, it is a mistake to foreshadow this information with employees. It makes them nervous; no matter how you phrase the information; no matter how you explain the information, even if you're absolutely correct, your best staff members will update their resumes. I'm not advocating keeping solid information away from people, however, think before you say anything that makes people feel they need to search for another job.

• I place this final tip on every retention list I develop because it is so key and critical to retention success. Your staff members must feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated. Frequently saying thank you goes a long way. Monetary rewards, bonuses and gifts make the thank you even more appreciated. Understandable raises, tied to accomplishments and achievement, help retain staff.
  
  Commissions and bonuses that are easily calculated on a daily basis, and easily understood, raise motivation and help retain staff. Annually, I receive emails from staff members that provide information about raises nationally. You can bet that work is about the money and almost every individual wants more.

Take a look at your organization.  Are you doing your best to retain your top talent? Employ these ten tips in your organization to retain your desired, key employees and attract the best talent, too.

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Employee Retention 1

Employee Retention need of time…

Concept & Why it is important?

Employee Retention refers to ability of an organization to retain your employees.

Retention can be represented by simple statistic if  80% of retention rate indicates that 80% of your employees are continuing with your company for given period for ie. financial year.

For an organization to do well and earn profits it is essential that the high potential employees stick to it for a longer duration and contribute effectively. The employees who spend a considerable amount of time tend to be loyal and committed towards the management and always decide in favor of the organization.As they gelup with the organisational culture & get ripped , mature with the time span they spend .As in personal life When you meet someone, there is hardly any attachment in the beginning, but as the friendship matures, a nd sense of loyalty and trust develops. In the same way, when an individual spends a good amount of time in an organization, he gets emotionally bonded to it and strives hard for furthering the brand image of the organization.

The management can’t completely put a full stop to the process of employees quitting their jobs but can control it to a large extent

Why it is important?

Intelligent employers always realise the importance of retaining the best talent. Retaining talent has never been so important in the Indian scenario As we know that employee is face of company and best brand ambassador ; however, things have changed in recent years. In prominent Indian metros at least, there is no dearth of opportunities for the best in the business, or even for the second or the third best. Retention of key employees and treating attrition troubles has never been so important to companies.

In an intensely competitive environment, where HR managers are poaching from each other, organisations can either hold on to their employees tight or lose them to competition. For gone are the days, when employees would stick to an employer for years for want of a better choice. Now, opportunities abound.

It is a fact that, retention of key employees is critical to the long-term health and success of any organisation. The performance of employees is often linked directly to quality work, customer satisfaction, increased product sales and even to the image of a company. Whereas the same is often indirectly linked to, satisfied colleagues and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply embedded organisational knowledge and learning.

Employee retention matters, as, organisational issues such as training time and investment, costly candidate search etc., are involved. Hence, failing to retain a key employee is a costly proposition for any organisation. Various estimates suggest that losing a middle manager in most organisations, translates to a loss of up to five times his salary. This might be worse for BPO companies where fresh talent is intensively trained and inducted and then further groomed to the successive stages. In this scenario, the loss of a middle manager can often prove dear. 

Why Employee quit the Job?

Let’s have view why employees quit their job.

First one needs to understand that Employee of any organization is its crucial delicate and sensitive Asset (not a liability) in fact it is only asset which is attached directly & emotionally to company & it’s decisions .( First victim of your right or wrong strategies)

Here we go with some of the reasons

Key employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of your business. Managers readily agree that retaining your best employees ensures customer satisfaction, product sales, satisfied coworkers and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply imbedded organizational knowledge and learning.

If managers can cite these facts so well, why do they behave in ways that so frequently encourage great employees to quit their jobs?

Employee retention matters. Organizational issues such as training time and investment; lost knowledge; mourning, insecure coworkers and a costly candidate search aside, failing to retain a key employee is costly.

Various estimates suggest that losing a middle manager costs an organization up to 100 percent of his salary. The loss of a senior executive is even more costly. I have seen estimates of double the annual salary and more.

Employee retention is critically important for a second societal reason, too. Over the next few years while Baby Boomers (age 40 to 58) retire, the upcoming Generation X population numbers 44 million people (ages 25-34), compared to 76 million Baby Boomers available for work. Simply stated: there are a lot fewer people available to work.

Employee retention is one of the primary measures of the health of your organization. If you are losing critical staff members, you can safely bet that other people in their departments are looking as well.

Exit interviews with departing employees provide valuable information you can use to retain remaining staff. Heed their results. You'll never have a more significant source of data about the health of your organization.

I've provided retention tips in earlier articles, but will add ten more retention tips to your arsenal with these top ten ways to retain a great employee.

• Management thinkers from Ferdinand Fournies (Why Employees Don't Do What They're Supposed to Do and What to Do About It) to Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman (First Break All the Rules agree that a satisfied employee knows clearly what is expected from him every day at work. Changing expectations keep people on edge and create unhealthy stress.
  
  They rob the employee of internal security and make the employee feel unsuccessful. I'm not advocating unchanging jobs just the need for a specific framework within which people clearly know what is expected from them.

• The quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention. People leave managers and supervisors more often than they leave companies or jobs. It is not enough that the supervisor is well-liked or a nice person, starting with clear expectations of the employee, the supervisor has a critical role to play in retention.
  
  Anything the supervisor does to make an employee feel unvalued will contribute to turnover. Frequent employee complaints center on these areas.
  
  --lack of clarity about expectations,
  --lack of clarity about earning potential,
  --lack of feedback about performance,
  --failure to hold scheduled meetings, and
  --failure to provide a framework within which the employee perceives he can succeed.

• The ability of the employee to speak his or her mind freely within the organization is another key factor in employee retention. Does your organization solicit ideas and provide an environment in which people are comfortable providing feedback? If so, employees offer ideas, feel free to criticize and commit to continuous improvement. If not, they bite their tongues or find themselves constantly in trouble - until they leave.

• Talent and skill utilization is another environmental factor your key employees seek in your workplace. A motivated employee wants to contribute to work areas outside of his specific job description. How many people could contribute far more than they currently do? You just need to know their skills, talent and experience, and take the time to tap into it.
  
  For example, in a small company, a manager pursued a new marketing plan and logo with the help of external consultants. An internal sales rep, with seven years of ad agency and logo development experience, repeatedly offered to help. His offer was ignored and he cited this as one reason why he quit his job. In fact, the recognition that the company didn't want to take advantage of his knowledge and capabilities helped precipitate his job search.

Cont....

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