How to keep your best people is a concern for all leaders and, as with most aspects of leading others, there are no magic answers. Employees come and go, but you always should be aware of how the rate of employee turnover in your team compares not only with other departments within the organization but with comparable organizations.
If your rate of employee turnover is worse than the norm, then you should pay particular attention to this area because, apart from the cost, it is an indicator that you may be doing something wrong in terms of how you lead people.
A second consideration relates to who you consider to be your best employees. On the one hand, you must accept that high-performers will always move on in search of new opportunities, so the best you can do is to prolong their stay.
But being a great employee does not always mean being the most talented; you probably have team-members who lack the high-performers‘ ambition but are vital contributors, whom you want to keep.
So, a fundamental requirement in relation to retaining employees is to know what makes them tick, so that you can tailor your response.
At a macro-level, organizational culture and pay and conditions play an important part in employee retention. If you have responsibility for them, you must ensure they serve to retain, not repulse, people. Factors that influence retention, which are within the direct control of all leader, include:
- How you lead your employees: People work for other people, not for organisations. One of the most common reasons cited in feedback surveys by employees who leave jobs is dissatisfaction with their immediate boss. Working as hard as you can to build your skills as a leader, of itself, makes a big contribution to the retention of employees.
- How you recruit your people: Unless you recruit the right people, you will have a higher turnover rate. And, unless you really try to understand a potential employee’s motivations during the recruitment process, you are likely to take people on board with false expectations, which will make it harder to retain them.
- How empowered they feel: Another major problem frequently highlighted as a key reason for changing a job is feeling over controlled or micro-managed. Employees do not feel empowered, particularly the talented ones, are unlikely to stay with you for any longer than they must to achieve their own objectives.
- How valued they feel: Unless you have a range of measures in place to reward and recognise your employees, you run the risk of making them feel undervalued. Obviously, this may drive some of them elsewhere in search of the recognition they feel they deserve,
- How they are growing as individuals: None of us want to feel that we are standing still in life and, in the absence of structured development opportunities, many employees will grow disgruntled with their present employer.
Of course, issues such as career paths, pay-scales and overall organization culture play a direct role on retention levels but these points above are directly within your control.