We’ve all experienced that terrible sinking feeling when a member of staff asks to see you for a ‘chat’ and they come in clutching an envelope - oh no they’re leaving!
Believe it or not, this is an avoidable experience in the majority or circumstances - most people are ‘pushed’ from their employer rather than ‘pulled’ by another. When I say pushed, I don’t mean this literally, I mean that the company did little to retain this person - they gave them no reason to stay.
As everyone who works in marketing knows, retention is a lot cheaper than acquisition in terms of the ROI. Everybody talks about CRM being the marketing tool businesses should be focussing on - but a little ERM, Employee Relationship Management wouldn’t go amiss. The more you put into your staff the more they’ll give back to you - and it needn’t cost you a great deal in money, it just requires a bit of time and effort.
- Be clear about your company values
Establish what kind of business you are, not in terms of what you sell but in terms of your personality, your values, your beliefs. Firstly this allows you to be very clear about your recruitment policy - you only recruit individuals who have the same values, but secondly it acts as reinforcement to your staff that you are the right company for them. It’s human nature to gravitate and stick with like minded people and after all, if you’ve got great staff you want them to stay. Also, if you have clearly defined values in place it’s easier to adhere to a no-compromise policy when it comes to new staff - if they haven’t got them they’re not coming in!
- Share your vision for the future
People are generally excited to be with a company that’s going places, one that has a vision for the future - one that’s not satisfied with today but excited about tomorrow. People are energised if they think that management is planning for the future - so make sure you share this with them. Do this publicly at least once a year and with every new member of staff as part of their induction.
- Regular feedback/annual reviews
Everybody loves to know how they are doing - if they’re a star performer make sure they know this, but conversely if they’re under performing the sooner they know the sooner they can do something about it. Annual appraisals are great - but these should be used to review the past as well as plan for the future. They shouldn’t be full of surprises and they should produce a very rounded picture - 360 degree feedback ensures they are unbiased, objective and complete.
- Appropriate supervision
Don’t ask someone to supervise if they don’t have the skills to do so. Most people need some supervision in their job, but they’ll soon be packing their bags if the person who’s doing this doesn’t do it effectively. Understand what skills your staff have and make sure you always play to their strengths. Asking someone to do something they’re fundamentally uncomfortable with will be detrimental to everyone.
- Show them you care
As in every relationship, people don’t like being taken for granted. Consider the relationship you have with your staff on the sames lines as you would a relationship at home! You wouldn’t go home and not say hi to your wife/husband/partner/flat mate, you wouldn’t forget their birthday, you wouldn’t ignore them if they had a personal problem - so don’t do it at work. Walk the floor, ideally every day - if you are leading a business you need to know who you’re leading and they need to know who’s leading them. Go out and personally buy your staff a birthday present and if you’re aware that someone has a personal problem send them an e-mail to give them ‘permission’ not to be their usual self - show them you care.
- Understand them - know what makes them tick
You’re employing individuals - not clones, not robots, not commodities. These are real people who have their own needs and motivations - some of which will change over time - get to know them.
- Be honest and pragmatic
The way I see it, there is nothing to gain by not being both of these, especially when it comes to one of your most valuable assets - your staff. Encourage them to address any issues they might have with somebody who can do something about it - nine times out of ten it’ll be a case of problem shared, problem halved. If, for whatever reason, they are unhappy at work if nobody knows nothing can be done. If after discussing the issue, it turns out that nothing can be done, then they know that they have the option to like it, lump it or leave. This may sound harsh, but sharing the issue and so not being alone in reaching the conclusion they reach makes it much easier for them to accept.
- Reward teamwork
If it takes a team of people to deliver your product/service then don’t have a rewards programme that rewards individual performance - it’s going to be counter productive.
- Recognise outstanding contribution to the business
Different people are motivated by different forms of recognition - for many it isn’t about money or something material. It’s about an acknowledgement that they’ve done a great job, an appreciation of what they have done. People are prepared to go extraordinary lengths to help out someone they are committed to but their willingness to do this will diminish over time if thanks, in some form, are not forthcoming.
- Do as I do attitude
You can’t expect your staff to be loyal to their leader(s) if they don’t see them practicing what they preach. Great managers should do what they want their staff to do, but twice as much. In the hierachical structure of a business, people are looking to the top to see how things should be done - they are looking for inspiration, guidance and clarity on the ‘rules’ this business plays by.
- Give staff a say
Ask them what they think about the company by running an internal audit every 12-24 months. If they can have some involvement and ownership in the shape of the company they’ll be more committed - and also less likely to complain! Also, the sooner you know what issues there are, the better - head in sand management is a sure fast way of guaranteeing your company bucket is a leaky one.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate
What you don’t tell them they’ll guess - and more often than not will make two plus two equal five. If you rely totally on the internal grapevine you’ll experience the worst dose of Chinese Whispers ever. I recommend weekly meetings with all your revenue generating staff as well as representatives from the other departments to share moans as well as successes, have a ‘show and tell’ element (one team each week) and encourage the sharing of ‘lessons learned’ that week. Have a weekly newsletter which is run by the staff for the staff - it helps build the community spirit. Have a monthly meeting with everyone and tell them what’s been going on within the business - everything from your financials (tell them if you’re doing well and if you’re not), your client wins, your customer/client research, your marketing activity, joiners and leavers etc etc etc.
- Encourage friendships within the company
According to Mori, one of the measures of staff engagement is “Do they have a friend at work”. If they do, they are more likely to be engaged and committed to the business - nobody likes to leave their friends. So encourage a social environment - establish a social committee and give them a budget to spend as they see fit.
Staff retention isn’t rocket science and if you invest time and energy into an ERM programme the rewards will be huge. Your staff will be happier, they’ll stay with you longer, be more productive and deliver greater profits for the business. Seems to me it’s a win-win all round.