Employee Retention How to Retain Employees

Offer a competitive benefits package that fits your

employees needs
Provide some small perks
Use contests and incentives to help keep workers
motivated and feeling rewarded
Conduct stay interviews: In addition to
performing exit interviews to learn why
employees are leaving, consider asking longer-
tenured employees why they stay. Ask
questions such as: Why did you come to work
here? Why have you stayed? What would make
you leave? And what are your nonnegotiable
issues? What about your managers? What would
you change or improve? Then use that
information to strengthen your employee-
retention strategies.
Promote from within whenever possible
Foster employee development
Create open communication between employees
and management
Get managers involved
Communicate your businesss mission
Offer financial rewards
Make sure employees know what you expect of
them
Communicate, communicate, communicate: try to
meet with them in person on a regular basis
maybe not monthly but at least 2 to 3 times per
year.
Establish clear performance metrics and make
employees accountable for delivering
Underscore positive feedback with something
tangible: Beyond salary/bonus/equity, think about
rewarding employees for truly superior
performance How about dinner on the company
as a spot award? Or, recognizing employees start-
date anniversaries? Or, closing the office early
before a holiday to allow the team to get a jump on
the holiday? Or, awarding a personal day after
completion of a hairy-scary assignment?
Flexible work schedules that recognize their need
for work/life balance
Find out what your employees need. Ask your
employees on a regular basis how theyre doing,
and be ready to follow up on their input
If youre not investing in your employees, youre
investing in an employment agency.
"Pat on the back" awards:
1. Send the employee a recognition memo from the
Manager's Resource Center.
2. Pop in spontaneously with the CEO or other high-
level executive to thank the employee in person.
3. Hold up an applause sign at the next staff meeting
after you mention your employee's successes.
4. Send out a weekly "Great Achievement E-mail
Award" to the entire company acknowledging one
outstanding employee.
5. Award the employee with a "plum assignment"-
their choice of what they want to work on for their
next project.
6. Send flowers to one of the less recognized "behind
the scenes" individuals.
7. Create a "Hall of Fame" in the lobby. Put up a
picture of each employee of the month, and
engrave their name on a master plaque with words
of recognition.
8. Hand out the "Bright Ideas" award for innovative
thinking. The winner gets a free dinner, tickets to
the movies, etc.
9. Give the "High Five" award. Pick five people in the
department and have them go up to an employee
and say "I heard that you did a great job at . . .
Good work!"
10. Give the "Mint Condition" award of silver dollars
to all who had perfect attendance at the end of the
year.
11. Offer employees something that complements
their favorite hobby (a fishing pole, a golf club,
sunglasses).
12. Pay for your employee to go through a local car
wash and get a tank of full serve gas.
Outstanding, above and beyond awards:
1. Give out the "Golden (symbol of your company or
department)" award that outstanding employees of
the month can pass off to one another each month.
2. After an employee has finished a project involving
long hours at the office, send their significant other
a letter of appreciation and a gift certificate for two
at a quiet restaurant.
3. Hold a monthly "Queen/ King of the Hill" day where
the outstanding employee is given the closest
parking spot, treated to lunch, and let off early with
a gift certificate to the movies.
4. Pay for the employee and a friend to go to a local
all-you-can-eat restaurant, offering them the "Above
and Beyond" award for extra long hours on the job.
5. Offer a "Squeaky Clean Quality Service Award"
where one outstanding employee in quality service
gets free dry cleaning.
6. Award the "Lean and Mean" award for cost effective
work, within or under the expected budget. Give the
recipient a 3 month membership to the nearest
gym.
7. Give an employee the "Gracefully Handled" award
when they help the company pull through a sticky
situation. Offer tickets for two to the symphony or
ballet.
8. Give an employee the "Golden Research Award" for
detailed research they conducted to make a project
successful. Offer them a subscription to their
magazine of choice.
"With so many personal demands on workers
today, a flexible work schedule is a big plus in a
benefits package,"

All in all it's about planning your recruitment drive,
communicating properly with employees and
rewarding their hard work.
Issue handbooks
Make an attractive website to attract job seekers
Power,Information,knowledge.reward employee
engagement
Heres a guide retaining top sales talent.
Money typically ranks very high in importance among
sales people and it is usually their key motivator. It is
essential, therefore, to maintain the right mix of base
salary/benefits and earnings related pay. Ensure that
the mix is suitable for each type of role, i.e. new
business versus account management. Make the
effort to benchmark your base and OTE levels against
the rest of the market to stay competitive.
The products or services that you expect your sales
teams to be selling need to seem compelling. Whilst
great sales people can sell almost anything, most
quickly grow tired of selling things that they do not
believe in - so make them believe in what theyre
selling! Ensure they have access to the right sales
support, tools and training. The better the platform
provided, the more they enjoy selling.
Whilst sales professionals are often attracted to the
flexibility and autonomy that many sales roles provide,
it is imperative that they do not feel removed from the
company they work for. Effective and
frequent communication is vital, especially around
celebrating success and recognising standout
performance.
Be open and clear with regards to setting
expectations related to performance. Ensure that the
sales environment is fair, transparent and consistent.
Unexpected changes to incentive schemes and
moving financial goalposts during the year doesnt
encourage staff retention!
Career progression for sales people is frequently
overlooked, as financial performance and earnings
tend to dominate performance reviews and
management meetings. A large proportion of sales
professionals who contact us seeking a new job cite
the lack of visible career progression as one of their
reasons for leaving. Ensure that your sales force is
motivated by the potential for progression, as well as
financial rewards.
Training and development is also often overlooked,
especially after an initial training course or induction
process. However, sales people tend to be ambitious,
driven and keen to develop and training on subjects
such as negotiation, conflict resolution and people
management is usually appreciated. Also, given the
frequency with which they interact with current and
prospective customers, additional soft-skills training
will help protect brand perceptions, as well as helping
with retention.
Above all else, the key to retaining sales staff is to
ensure you hire the right people in the first place. If
you succeed in attracting people of the right calibre
who have a natural fit with the culture of your
organisation, retention becomes far more
straightforward to manage
Conduct a personality test at the time of
hiring/interviews
Does the entire have official email id?
Satisfy their need to grow by expanding their
role: Promotion to higher levels. OR Expansion
within the job
Give Them Support
If they are already getting great results in what they
currently do, you will get more productivity out of them
by giving them support. In Sales, for instance, an
inexpensive support person can make a huge
difference.
This action also expands the role of the top performer
and keeps them growing.
Get Strategic Planning Ideas
A person who is really doing well in their job can be
relied upon to have a good grasp of their area. They
know what is going on in real-world terms.
It is therefore very valuable to get their input when you
are looking at the strategic direction of your operation.
Senior managers rarely have time to get involved at all
levels. They can therefore lose touch, jeopardising the
veracity of long term decisions.
Seeking input from effective employees can overcome
this, whilst also validating those employees (the top
performers) and giving them the sense of expanded
responsibility they need. Its also a great way of
retaining employees.
Involve Them in Staff Training
When an employee has become so good at their job
that they just keep on producing top class results,
month after month, theyreally do have something to
offer other staff, both new and old.
Getting such people involved in training is not only a
good way to transfer some of their skills to others, it is
also a great way to acknowledge the top performer.
And it usually helps to satisfy their need to expand
their sphere of responsibility. Retaining employees this
way is very effective.
Ask about their families
Treat them with respect
Celebrate brithdays/anniversaries etc
Schedule meetings with your sales staff
regularly. Instead of focusing on what they are
doing wrong, make sure that some 1-on-1
meetings address their worries, pain points and
work environment issues. You are likely to catch
motivation problems before they affect their
season and quota, if you try to fix negative work
pressures.
Ask your sales staff what motivates them during
these meetings. You may find some salespeople
respond to monetary rewards, while others
respond to promotions or a supportive team
environment. Take notes on what motivates each
person.
Implement daily, weekly and monthly
incentives. Offering a trip, day off, large gift card,
coffee, free lunches or gym/club membership for
the most sales in a week will encourage staff to go
the extra mile. These interim bonuses can also
help salespeople to meet their larger quotas by
helping them hit milestones during the season.
Incentives also increase friendly competition.
Competing on a daily basis for new leads or lead
qualification can cause people to push each other
to do better. Keep incentives at a value where
they increase friendly competition but do not
encourage sabotage.
What defines job satisfaction?

In a nutshell, important factors conducive to job
satisfaction include mentally challenging work,
equitable rewards, supportive working conditions,
and supportive colleagues. Commitment to and
involvement with the organization and the actual
job are also factors.
Mentally challenging work: Are there opportunities
to use skills and abilities with variety of task, some
freedom and constant feedback? Jobs with too
little challenge are deemed boring, frustrating and
can produce feelings of failure.
Equitable rewards: Employees want to work in a
system that is perceived as just and fair. Are your
promotion and pay systems policies meeting their
requirements? While not everyone seeks a
paycheque as the sole reward, the key is linking
pay to satisfaction, which does not mean the
salary paid but the perception of fairness. If these
policies are perceived as just and fair there is
likely to be greater job satisfaction.
Supportive working conditions: The working
environment is very important in terms of safety,
health and wellness. Physical comfort, location
heating, noise and professionalism are all-
important contributors. Ensuring that your
environment is complying with all legislation and
listening to employee complaints is important
here.
Supportive colleagues: For many employees the
opportunity for social interaction, with friendly
coworkers and supervisors adds greatly to the
dimension of job satisfaction. The supervisor's role
is a major determinant of satisfaction because of
the direct impact this role plays with the employee.
Whether there is praise, good listening skills,
positive role modelling or a fair attitude, the
supervisor will affect the satisfaction level.
Job Involvement: Employees with a high level of
involvement strongly identify with and care about
the kind of work they do. The person here
identifies closely with their job title and the
perceived value of their individual performance
and contribution to the organization.
Organizational Commitment: Some employees
identify strongly with the employing organization.
Perhaps it is the mission or vision or value system
of the organization. However an interesting
development can occur: while the employee may
be dissatisfied with his or her particular job, the
employee may view this as a "temporary"
condition due to high satisfaction with the
organization as a whole and remain loyal. But
when dissatisfaction spreads to the organization
itself, the employee is more likely to resign.

Be Supportive

A good manager gives his/her employees the
tools they need to be successful. A bad manager
assigns tasks with little or no direction, and then
becomes upset when the employee doesn't meet
the expectation. Remember the Seinfeld episode
where George doesn't hear his boss' instructions,
but he is too afraid of what his boss might do if he
asks for clarification? He spends the whole week
pretending to know what to do. Two words come
to mind here, lost productivity. Be approachable
so your employees feel they can ask questions.

Understand and Harness the Power of Praise

Positive reinforcement is one of the most effective
tools for a person in a leadership role. One of the
biggest complaints from people that hate their jobs
is they never receive any credit for a job well
done. If you want your employees to like working
for you and to perform their best, try giving them
an atta a boy every once in a while when they do
well. Nobody likes to work in a thankless
environment.

Lead By Example

If you want your employees to take you seriously
you must lead by example. If they question your
work ethic, integrity, or skill to get the job done,
then they are far less likely to do their best work
themselves. As a leader you need to be blazing
the path for success. If you are one of those
managers that comes in late and leaves early,
then you might want to rethink the example you
are setting for your employees.

Show Appreciation by Hosting Some Team
Building Events

Too many companies have cut out the Christmas
party. Even if you don't do a Christmas party, you
should put on some events throughout the year to
show appreciation and increase morale. If there
are budgetary concerns just do something simple.
My company has an employee pot luck once
every couple of months. Employees bring in
dishes from home and then management buys the
rest at a local grocery store. It is far from
extravagant but the employees really enjoy it. It is
a great way for the employees to get to know one
another and feel a sense of community at the work
place.

Listen to Your Employees

Make sure your employees voices are heard. In
order to foster an environment of innovation,
management must be open to their employees
ideas. Nothing stifles progress more than shooting
down your employees every idea. Pretty soon they
will not even offer them. This will lead to
stagnation within your company. Also, consider
distributing an anonymous employee satisfaction
survey. This will measure the temperature of your
employees. If there are action items that need to
be addressed they can be identified and action
can be taken to improve the work environment.
Companies that don't survey their employees are
running the risk of never knowing what the
problems are within the company. Thus, they have
no way of fixing them.

Be Generous by Offering Incentives for Longevity

Studies show that companies that offer incentives
for longevity have a greater retention rate.
Whether it is a raise, bonus, additional time off, a
better title, or a combination of the
aforementioned, incentives for long tenure should
be a part of your employee retention strategy.

Be Authoritative

Just like in my previous article when I discussed
how nobody likes a micromanaging jerk, they don't
like a wimpy pushover for a boss either. You can
be authoritative; and, still go about it with integrity
and respect. Your employees need to know that
there is someone very competent at the helm. I
guarantee you that Lombardi's players knew who
the boss was, and they respected him for the hard
work he put in.

Well there you have it. Last time, many of you said
that you learned the most from a negative
experience on what not to do. Can we learn just
as much from a top performing manager as we
can from the worst one? I also heard from a lot of
you that were like me, and; had an experience
with a bad boss. Have you had an experience with
a good boss that has helped you develop your
own management style? If so, what attributes did
they exemplify?

"Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase it, we
can catch excellence." Vince Lombardi