Retaining Your Top Performers

A local news station here in Denver ran a story this morning covering a report by Robert Half Technology which indicated that employee retention will the most important staffing priority in 2010.  I don’t doubt this as there will be a spate of employees looking for the proverbial “greener grass” once the economy turns around.  However, I think there was an important distinction missing in the news story.  It’s not just retention that companies should be worried about; it’s retention of the high-performers that really matters.

In order to be ready to really hit the ground running after the recession, it’s imperative to have high-performers in place.  The story listed some good ideas about how to keep employees, but if our companies aren’t already doing these things, it may very well be too late next year.  Here are some the suggestions from the news story:

1. Recognize good work
2. Provide opportunities for professional growth and career advancement
3. Sell your company by reminding employees of the unique benefits your company offers (see this previous post about Total Rewards Statements)
4. Communicate with your employees
5. Provide compensation if possible, use bonuses if base pay increases aren’t available
6. Prioritize projects to address workload issues

I particularly liked the suggestion about prioritization to help with workloads.  Many employees have been asked to take on more work due to layoffs and are seeing equal or less compensation for this additional effort.  If it’s at all possible to remove some of the workload that our employees are shouldering, that might really help people to feel more valued by their companies.  Steve Roesler has recently written a couple of good posts about work priorities, check them out here and here.

Here are a few more of my suggestions:

1. Eliminate low performers.  When there are both rewards and consequences for performance, it sends that message that results matter.
2. Provide supervisor training.  We’ve all heard the adage that employees leave their bosses, not their company.  So make sure that your employee’s supervisors are type of bosses that inspire loyalty.
3. Treat your employees well even when (especially when) there’s a surplus of labor in the market.  Your employment brand isn’t developed overnight; it’s made up of all of the decisions along the way.

What other thoughts do our readers have?  What are your companies doing to keep your top employees engaged and wanting to work for you?  Have you already started doing it or do you think next year is soon enough?  Hit us in the comments with your thoughts and ideas.

Darcy Dees works as the Compensation Manager for Rock Bottom Restaurants, Inc., headquartered in Louisville, CO.  She has been working in Compensation for over 5 years now and recently attained her Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) designation.  She spends what little free time she has hiking and reading.

Image:  Creative Commons Photo "Greener Grass" by Dano

Comments

[Derek Irvine, Globoforce]

Key questions to ask include: Are you simply trying to retain employees (relying on pay and benefits as your key factors)? Or are you working to foster employee loyalty among those who are “emotionally bonded” to your organization?

What's the difference? Why does it matter? Just look at these research findings quoted in a recent Economist article:

"A survey by the Centre for Work-Life Policy, an American consultancy, found that between June 2007 and December 2008 the proportion of employees who professed loyalty to their employers slumped from 95% to 39%; the number voicing trust in them fell from 79% to 22%. A more recent survey by DDI, another American consultancy, found that more than half of respondents described their job as 'stagnant', meaning that they had nothing interesting to do and little hope of promotion. Half of these 'stagnators' planned to look for another job as soon as the economy improved."

The responsibility lies on both sides of the table -- sure, employees should work hard, engage with the organization and their jobs, etc. -- but the majority will not do that unless management steps up and creates a work environment in which employees WANT to engage.

[Darcy Dees]

Derek – Thanks for the comment with the stats. It is really important to create an environment where people want to be so that they’ll stay when the job market improves.