Retention strategies

WHY EMPLOYEES LEAVE ORGANIZATIONS

ManagersPeople don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. If employees don’t get along with their managers, don’t like them or don’t respect them, they will leave a company despite a high salary or great benefits. A bad manager is a big factor in employee performance. A good manager, no matter the salary, will inspire loyalty

Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding: 

If you're losing good people, look to their manager .... manager is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he 's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge,experienc e and contacts with them, straight to the competition. 

"People leave managers not companies”

Mostly manager drives people away? 

HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave, but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job. 

When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don 't have your heart and soul in the job." 

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious, too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue. 

Talented men leave. Dead wood doesn't.

Constant ReorganizationCompanies that seemed to reorganize every six to nine months don’t have a good retention rate. Their upper management gets shifted into different positions, managers are changed and even business units are renamed. Almost every time a reorganization happens, people get laid off. This creates an environment of uncertainty and people don’t feel like they can lay down roots.Negative CompetitionCompetition is good, gladiator wars aren’t. Pitting people and departments against each other does not encourage people to stay. Some people thrive in all stressful environments, most don’t. Why do you think there are so many articles about how to manage stress? People will leave a job if stress makes them ill.Lack of SupportDo you communicate with your employees? Have you sat down and created a plan for their growth within the company? Has that plan been implemented after sign-off? If a manager doesn’t take the time to know his employee and foster growth, people will feel unappreciated. Do you know what unappreciated people do? They walk

every organization has key people they simply can’t afford to lose. And, they are not always your top executives – I know, hard to believe right! If you don’t know who these top performers are, and take careful steps to retain them, they may put your organization in great peril. To add to Renee’s thinking, here are 10 practical retention steps that can help keep you competitive in the marketplace.For starters, have you even identified your most key employees? I know everyone will say yes but unless you’ve written their names down on a list entitled “Key Employees you must retain” you really can’t develop a comprehensive retention strategy.Have you talked to them; even better, have you listened to how they view their current challenges and immediate career prospects? Lack of challenge and the lack of career opportunities are two of the top reasons why key employees depart for greener pastures.How often do your key people get an audience with senior executives to understand and as importantly, discuss the company’s performance, immediate challenges and long term strategy? Key employees like to be in on the action and to see ways they can influence the future direction and success of the enterprise.How often do your key employees attend mind expanding seminars or work on special projects outside of their day to day job? Key employees need to experience growth opportunities.How well and how often do key employees get rewarded for their extraordinary contribution? It’s been said that this 20% of your workforce does 80% of the work – you better be sure they feel rewarded and recognized. It’s not always the money but don’t kid yourself, the money matters and some other firm would be more than happy to give them a nice increase and signing bonus to steal them away.

Do you know how your key employees feel about their immediate Manager? A weak manager is one of the top reasons a key employee will leave an organization.How often do you sit down with key employees to review expectations, performance and get to know them? Key employees are wired to exceed expectations. The more they can see how their contribution makes a significant contribution, the longer you can keep them engaged. And don’t minimize the importance of building a relationship. It’s the relationship you develop that will keep the lines of communication open and avoid surprises.

How do you show trust, commitment and respect for your key employees? These are the behaviors that build loyalty.How do you ensure accountability for retaining key employees? This can’t be an HR Program. Each executive needs to be accountable for retaining these most valuable assets.

Do you have a key employee retention plan that gets reviewed at least quarterly? Without a plan with clear outcomes, the retention of key employees is left to chance.I’m sure there are other ideas for retaining key employees and it would be great to hear them! If you claim retention to be a top priority, you can demonstrate that commitment by what you do, not by what you say.

Retention Strategies

In order to retain employees and reduce turnover managers must meet the goals of employees without losing sight of the organization's goals, thereby creating a "win-win" situation.

What’s Happiness?