How to Retain Top Talent

Good employees can have a significant impact on your business results, so having a strategic HR management plan can help your company retain top talent. Of course, not all employees are top performers, but having high employee engagement will help to ensure your best performers are happy.

 Did you know that a Harvard Business Review found the following about top talent:

• 1 in 4 plan to find other employment
• 1 in 3 do not put 100% into their job
• 1 in 5 believes their personal goals are different from the organization   
•  More than 1 in 5 have little confidence in their senior management team

These stats are scary for companies because they often feel like they need to increase their employee incentives in order to keep their talent pool. In reality, there are strategic HR solutions that are available to companies to ensure their best performers want to work for them.

Reasons why top performers leave: employee perspective

It seems that the old adage that people leave managers, not companies, is true. Forbes reports that 50% of employees leave their company because of a manager. While employee incentives are important during the recruitment process, it is ultimately those day-today relationships that have an impact on how employees feel when they are at work.

In exit interviews, employees moving on to other opportunities may tell you that it is compensation, growth opportunities, or some other incentive that is pulling them away from the organization, but the reality is there was something within your organization that pushed them to look elsewhere in the first place.

Luckily there is something you can do as a company to mitigate this problem. HR solutions are often reactive to turnover reduction, but the reality is that strategic HR management is critical to proactively addressing issues of employee engagement and turnover.

Common errors made by companies that lead to loss of talent

Why are your best employees looking to leave your company? These reasons are very personal, but here are 5 common errors companies make:

1. Lack of recognition: employees want to feel like their manager knows they are doing a good job. In the case of top performers, they may feel like they make improvements to the business, but their manager fails to recognize their achievements or takes advantage of the fact that their best employee always has a great solution.
2. Managerial skills: managers are often selected because of their technical skills, but many have not developed the interpersonal skills needed to manage. Employee engagement is often predicated on having a manager that recognizes accomplishments and creates a perception of fairness within the team, especially when it comes to growth opportunities. Having an organization that supports new managers is key to their success.
3. Fairness: employees want to feel like there is a fair decision-making process within the organization. When there is a perception that some employees are favored over others, it can destroy the morale of the team, leading to turnover.
4. Internal politics: there will always be some level of politicking in the workplace. This is the nature of having competing interests among different departments. However, companies that have strong employee engagement ensure there is a mechanism for employees to feel like they are heard and are being fairly treated.
5. Career paths: employees today strongly believe that career progression is important to their growth, especially at a time when employees often move from company to company. If you do not have a strategic HR management solution in place, you may lose your best talent to a company that has the right job for the right person at the right time. Luckily, HR solutions can provide career paths for your top talent.

At the end of the day, employees often feel like they are not being recognized for their work or they believe that the decision-making process leaves them at a disadvantage in the workplace. Luckily, these are things that can be addressed by careful consideration of strategic HR management with the help of a partner that specializes in HR solutions.

Strategies to retain top talent

There are various strategies that can help your organization retain top talent, but below are two solutions that can be implemented at no cost to your company.

Recognize and reward good work

Employees have a strong desire to know when they are doing well. Sometimes it is easy to fall into the trap that employees should only be told when there is a problem, but employees increasingly are looking for feedback on their performance overall. In the past, recognition was often done for milestone anniversaries (think of the gold watch upon retirement). Today, employees tend to move around more so this type of recognition is meaningless to the employee who thinks about their career in 2-year increments.

Recognition can be as simple as letting someone know they did a good job on a project or that the extra time they spent with a customer was appreciated. There are also more formal programs that allow you to send a gift or monetary reward for a job well done. There are many tailored HR solutions that can help your company with a meaningful recognition program for all employees, which helps drive employee engagement and satisfaction.

Create an open and honest work environment

Many companies say they have an open work environment and that they treat people fairly, but there is a difference between the perception that management has and what employees experience. Having an open and honest work environment means that the company sets expectations for employees, but they also listen to feedback and act on it when it is appropriate.

Having an open line of communication between managers and employees is essential to an open and honest work environment, but some employees may feel more comfortable speaking with someone outside the company. An HR solution such as VantagePoint can help with creating an open and honest work environment because it helps eliminate the perceived biases that are inevitable in the workplace.

Your best employees are always looking to better their careers. By taking proactive steps in strategic HR management, your company can increase employee engagement and retain the best talent within your organization.

 

For more information please contact Mike Moncada:  516.599.2120 ext. 114 or mike@vantagepointbenefit.com.