Retaining your talent
Star employees add exponentially to the success of your business, retaining them is essential to the on-going success of your business. Below are several ways to bullet-proof your business from losing its talent.
Have a clear mission and communicate it often
A company mission is the most tried and tested way of retaining top talent because it connects your employees to something bigger than their job. Booz Allen reports that employees connected to a mission are the least likely to leave. But, your mission cannot sit in a folder and only be spoken of at the company conference! To be effective, it needs to be real on a day to day basis, feeding into daily work life and defining your actions with your customers and each other.
Competitive salary and benefits
Without doubt a competitive salary and benefits makes your life easier to retain your star players. It stands to reason that when your competitors come knocking at their door, a competitive salary and benefits package may discourage them from being interested in your competition and make it more difficult (and expensive) for them pries your star asset away.
Recognition – good companies are lavish with their praise
Whether you're a fan of management books or not, the one overriding point on which they all agree, have always agreed and will always agree, is that you cannot catch your employees doing great things too often. Giving sincere recognition to your employees will undoubtedly create loyalty.
More responsibility and autonomy by keeping pushing decisions as far down the line as possible help retain star employees.
Feeling isolated from key decisions will lead to disillusionment amongst star employees. As they begin to add more value to the business, hardworking employees should be rewarded with increased responsibility and autonomy. This doesn't have to be dramatic but a gradual increase in these two areas will encourage your best employees to know they are contributing to the overall mission of the company. This increases the stick ability of employees – and neutralises the advances of your competitors.
Create a culture of learning and mentoring. If possible give your stars access to mentors. In addition ask them:
How do you really feel about your job?
Are you having fun or is it a drag?
Do you think you're moving at the pace you anticipated, or do you think you should be moving faster?
Make sure you are helping your people learn, get better, and creating a career path to keep them moving upwards.
Ensure your managers are visible, accessible and approachable
Your managers must lead by example. They must be standard bearers of the vision and values of the company and adhere to the highest possible values at all times. They must demonstrate both personal and professional qualities that your star employees aspire to emulate. Ensure they are visible, accessible and approachable to your current star employees who should become your managers of the future.
Portray your job accurately
To stand a chance of retaining star employees their job must have been accurately portrayed in the job description and throughout their interview process. Nothing will turn star employees off more than discovering their new job isn't the job they were sold.
Talent will always be the answer. Use the ideas above to retain your existing talent because retaining star employees is your business.
Do you want to attract more talented employees?
Established in 2003 Ascendant Recruitment is a leading independent recruitment consultancy based in and covering Milton Keynes. We will introduce you to the best employees in the area.
We recruit for office, sales and marketing, finance, and HR jobs. Whether you are looking for a temporary or permanent solution, we can help you.
If you’d like Ascendant Recruitment to help you find new talent for your business, please contact us on 01908 200270 or email [email protected]