Retaining Employees

In this day and age of high unemployment, some businesses think they have their employees in a headlock. That could not be further from the truth.

They may retain the average, or low achieving employees, but their stellar employees are not deterred by a slow job market. They know they can find work whenever they want.

What do you need to do for retaining your prized employees? How can you can create a business environment that keeps them satisfied?

3 Key Ways for Retaining Employees

1. Nurture Strong Employee/Boss Relationships.

Power corrupts. Sometimes the more power bosses have, the less well they use it. Watch managers and evaluate their management style.

In their book, First Break All the Rules: What The Worlds’ Greatest Managers Do Differently, authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman said people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.

To insure employee retention in your company, check for open lines of communication. Offer frequent feedback so employees know what they are doing well and what’s expected of them.

Give honest praise and frequent appreciation. Mary Kay Ash, of Mary Kay cosmetics, said, “Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don’t keep it to yourself.”

It takes so little time and pays such big rewards. Learn to be generous with good words.

2. Work to your Employee’s Strengths.

In today’s age, great employees won’t tolerate being bored. Make sure your top talent is using their strengths to stretch and grow.

Take the time to recognize what is most meaningful to them and what they dislike doing. As much as possible, shift work to them that they enjoy and find rewarding.

Likely there is another employee that enjoys the task your top talent might not like.

The advantage is you will get better work from them. As they align their strengths with company core values, the company progresses faster.

Support your employees in their growth and efforts. Discuss with them how the company can help them perform better, such as providing them with executive coaching focused on influence, productivity, and difficult conversations.

Be aware. Do not inundate them with work. Sometimes you see a talented employee as a go-to person. But if everyone goes to him or her with their projects, needs, and tasks, even the best employee can be overrun.

While stress is a natural part of work, and can motivate to great results. Over stress and over work diminishes the quality of life and can be a reason employees leave a company.

3. Pay Scale.

If you are doing a good job with supportive management and giving your employees meaningful work, you are less likely to have employees leave over salary.

Still, company loyalty is much less a factor for Generation X workers than for older workers. They see work as a contractual obligation. They work hard and accomplish assigned tasks and expect the company to pay them the agreed salary.

When they look around and see others being better compensated for the same tasks, they are more likely to look at moving on.

Keep Your Valuable Employees 

The process of retaining valuable employees begins by looking at the overall company culture. Do you have checks and balances that keep management supportive, communicative, and appreciative of employees?

Are employees given tasks that work to their strengths and help them feel engaged and valuable? And is your pay scale competitive?

Answer yes to these questions and you can feel confident you have safeguards in place to retaining your employees.

Need help becoming the boss employees want to work for? Connect with Joel and learn about his executive coaching.