Employee Retention

HR scared top talent will leave

According to a recent survey by Taleo, the talent management solutions provider, retaining key staff is one of the top priorities for HR managers  in 2008.

200 HR managers discussed their main challenges for Taleo's survey. Topping the poll was retention with 30 per cent citing it as their number one concern, closely followed by hiring talent (23 per cent), attracting candidates (11 per cent) and complying with new legislation (11 per cent).

Additional challenges include succession planning (10 per cent), career development management (5 per cent), cutting recruitment costs (4 per cent), gaining boardroom support for HR (4 per cent), and increasing the internal mobility of staff (2 per cent).

Talent Retention 2008

I've written a lot about talent retention over the last few years. Many of you will be familiar with the general themes, such as the importance of dialogue, negotiation, flexibility and so on. Of course it is important to stress that not all departures can be prevented, and this is especially true of your top performers.

If you are interested in learning what you need to do in order to keep hold of your best people, then do take advantage of my free 5 part e-course on talent retention. Just click on the link, sign up and then make sure to click on the link in the confirmation email - it's a double opt-in system for CAN-SPAM compliance.

Retention 2008

What should you be focusing on in 2008?

1) Distinguish between those employees that you really want to retain because of the impact they have on your business, and those that you would like to retain but could replace if necessary.

2) For those individuals or groups of employees identified as belonging to the first category, take a proactive approach to retention. The single most sensible step you can take is to conduct a retention interview.

3) Think carefully about your employee value propositions. What is it that each person truly values? Is there a way of increasing the total value on offer by making some minor changes?

More On Retaining Young People

Another article on retaining young people, this time from Workforce Management. In Retaining Young Talent Won't Be Easy Gina Ruiz looks at a recent Right Management study of college students and recent graduates.

According to survey respondents, there are 3 incentives employers can offer to make staying at a company worthwhile—the ability to grow from within, a workplace that offers flexibility and an environment where there is camaraderie.

Retention - Meeting People's Career Expectations

One of the key retention challenges is meeting people's career expectations. Inevitably, many people want to move upwards quickly; sometimes this just isn't possible.

What you need to do is discuss expectations from the very beginning. Some seemingly ideal candidates don't seem quite so attractive once you realise that they expect to be promoted almost straight away, otherwise they'll be off, causing more disruption, more trouble than it's worth. Other candidates, perhaps slightly less driven, less ambitious, may be a better fit for your situation, their aspirations in line with your company's typical career progression timeframes.

Current employees may also have unrealistic expectations. In this case, their manager or supervisor needs to use a bit of imagination, creativity, flexibility, to see if a compromise can be reached. Perhaps providing some developmental coaching so the employee can gain the skills they need to gain a promotion.

It is no use simply telling employees that their expectations are unrealistic, that almost inevitably sends them towards the exit door. There needs to be a sense of progress, a clear pathway towards their medium term and longer term career goals. There needs to be a reason to stay around.

Development - A Key Driver Of Employee Retention

Les McKeown highlighted the importance of development as retention strategy during a recent teleseminar. The key point to note is that development is a process that takes place over the medium term, two to three years being a typical length of time. It is a pathway for the employee, taking them towards further career advancement.

Make sure to ask employees about their development needs. If you make the mistake of knowing what is best for them, you may well find they heading for the exit door in order to find someone more willing to meet their development needs.

Retention Incentives

If you are not already doing so, you may wish to consider using some form of retention incentives to encourage recruiters, internal and external, to focus on finding people that are more likely to stay around for a decent length of time.

While it is not uncommon for agreements to state that executive search firms must find a replacement free of charge, should the original recruit leave within 6 months, you should be looking to do a lot better than that. Competition within the recruitment space is fierce and if one firm is unwilling to meet your needs, then it usually won't be difficult to find another that is prepared to back their ability to find you a candidate that will stay.

Retaining Young People

In this month's Director magazine Peter Cheese offers his 10 top tips for attracting and retaining young people. I'd like to take a quick look at a few of these recommendations:

1) Live your values - as Peter correctly points out, if you make promises during the recruitment process and then don't live up to them, expect problems down the line. Integrity, consistency and aligned values are very important to younger people.

2) Lifestyle choices - younger workers expect, perhaps even demand, far more freedom than companies have been accustomed to providing. If you are to accomodate them for lengthy spells of time you'll need to be flexible.

3) Project and atmosphere of involvement and innovation - collaboration is the name of the game. They want to contribute, to feel that they are making a difference.

The full article is definitely worth a read. If you are a member of the Institute of Directors then you should receive the magazine each month. Otherwise you can sometimes find it in business libraries, I know Central Library in Manchester keeps a copy. Peter Cheese is the author of Talent Powered Organisation.

Employee Communication And Retention

How significant is employee communication in relation to retention and turnover?

In an article title Should I Stay Or Should I Go ? Keith Burton discusses the value of effective employee communications and the impact these can have employee retention.

Now to be completely honest, I think he rather overstates the case and it is worthwhile noting that Keith's background is in employee communications rather than retention but he does make some useful points. An employee's relationship with his immediate supervisor/manager is absolutely crucial in terms of employee communication; employees trust face-to-face communications with their supervisor far more than they do other forms of communication.

What do employees want to know about?

According to Keith, near the top of the list comes training and education opportunities that can help to advance the employee's career, promotions and career advancement opportunities, flexible working opportunities, and financial incentives and bonuses.

Reading through the article you'll notice how many of the ideas link into the strategy I recommend of using retention interviews as the focal point of your retention strategy. 

Talent Retention Best Practice

I've recently updated my free 5 part e-course on talent retention. Just click on the link, sign up and then make sure to click on the link in the confirmation email - it's a double opt-in system for CAN-SPAM compliance.