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Employee Retention: The Only Three Reasons They Leave
By
Mel Kleiman
The question most frequently asked at my employee recruiting, selection and
retention seminars used to be: “Why can’t I find any good applicants?” Since
mid-1997, however, employers have been voicing a new, more pressing
concern. Due to the lowest unemployment rate in 24 years and the
escalating competition between employers to hire the best of a shrinking
labor pool, the question on everyone’s mind now is: “How can I keep my
best employees on board?”
The old prescription to enhance employee retention was management by The
Golden Rule. Today, however, “doing unto others as you would have them
do unto you” is not enough. We now understand that people do things for
their own reasons, not for ours. What you want from your career is probably
quite different from what your neighbor wants from hers. What motivates
and provides job satisfaction for your best employees are not necessarily the
same things that get you out of bed every morning.
When I ask the participants at my seminars to write down “growth,
recognition, reward and opportunity” and to rank them from one-to-four as
personal career motivators, recognition usually gets the most votes. A
typical response pattern is 40% ranking recognition first, 25% each ranking
growth or opportunity first, and 10% ranking reward first. The exercise
demonstrates two important points: (1) different strokes for different folks
and, it’s corollary, money isn’t everything to everyone; and (2) to find out
what makes your best employees happy, ask them. They’ll gladly tell you.
Then it’s up to you to use what you learn to keep them.
Every employer hands out paychecks and every employee gets one. To keep
your people on board, you need to make the workplace and the work
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rewarding, satisfying, and fun. Most career motivators cost little or nothing,
but make all the difference. Once you know what it is that gives each of your
key people a sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction, you can see that
they get it.
If it’s recognition, use praise, either written or spoken, in private or in front
of peers. Praise is powerful, but it must be sincere and reserved for
exceptional performance to be effective.
Your employees motivated by growth will continuously need new things to
do. Ask them regularly what they’d like to try next and, when possible, give
them the assignment.
Give those on the lookout for opportunity jobs that have promising career
paths. These folks need to be on the fast track with plenty of chances to
prove themselves and be promoted.
Those motivated by reward need more than the strictly hygienic paycheck.
Keep all your best people’s wages competitive or slightly above standards,
but those motivated by reward will also need an unannounced bonus, raise,
or perk with a definable monetary value from time-to-time.
Every job should have enough responsibility and challenge to keep the
jobholder interested. If someone is just going through the motions, change
their assignment or cross-train them.
If a job on your payroll is perceived as unimportant, why does the position
exist? If the CEO of a department store chain misses a day of work, do
customers complain? Yet, what happens when not enough sales clerks show
up? Every job, regardless of title or pay, deserves respect.
The best forms of respect are listening and acknowledging. Encourage
employees to let you know what’s on their minds. Make time for it. You don’t
have to approve, endorse, or even react. Just listen and acknowledge. What
you’ll learn may surprise you.
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Finally, is anyone having any fun at work? Have you ever noticed that people
play harder than they work? We throw ourselves wholeheartedly into
sailboarding, skiing, dancing – anything we “think of” as fun. What would
happen if we started thinking of work as fun?
Running a business is a serious matter, but there’s no reason it can’t be fun.
One of our clients keeps an “Are We Having Any Fun Yet?” poster in his
office. His employees use the saying all day through to keep things light and
in perspective. The best fun happens when the manager is having fun. Then
it’s contagious and everyone starts looking forward to going to work each
day. The employer who can make work fun, even part of the time, will not
have a retention problem. In fact, new applicants will be beating down the
door. This is how a company becomes “an employer of choice” like Disney
and Southwest Airlines.
There are only three reasons employees leave: (1) you hired the wrong
person – someone ill-suited to the position; (2) you didn’t pay adequately or
pay enough for them to put up with you or whatever they had to put up
with; (3) you didn’t manage them effectively by finding out what they want
from their jobs, besides a paycheck, and helping them get it.
You can eliminate the “bad hire” problem by implementing a standardized
employee recruiting and selection system. The remedy for money as a
reason for leaving is self-evident except to say that employers who meet key
motivator needs are more successful at keeping good people for less money.
As for effective managing, find out what motivates your people and start
delivering that extra measure of job satisfaction. It makes all the difference
in employee retention.
Mel Kleiman is a consultant, professional speaker, and nationally
recognized authority on employee recruiting, selection and retention. He is
also president of Houston, Texas-based Humetrics, Incorporated. For
additional information, please contact: The Frog Pond Group at 800-704FROG (3764) or email: susie@frogpondgroup.com