With today’s increasingly mobile workforce, what’s a manager to do to retain employees?
You are so right. Gone are the days when companies had employees who signed up at 21 and marked time until retirement. Back then, people wanted to stay put. They bought homes with the proverbial white picket fence, had kids, and joined a few community clubs. An uninterrupted career with one company completed the picture.
That lifestyle has been eroding for decades now. Two or three job changes in one decade are not unusual. That may be good for a person’s career building, but it’s not particularly good for companies. Every time talented, productive employees walk out the door, they take with them training and experience. They’re investments with unrealized returns.
Given that, companies must have powerful retention mechanisms in place. Unfortunately, too many don’t, and we’re not talking about competitive compensation programs. Money is Basic Retention 101.
No, retention starts with senior management’s giving the matter real bite. It has to be an organizational sin to lose a top-20 performer. It just cannot happen without repercussions. That makes it imperative for companies to have rigorous appraisal systems in place, so they know exactly who their best are and can manage and reward them accordingly. It also demands that leaders at every level constantly create excitement in their groups. They need to be aspirational, explaining why the team’s mission is important, and inspirational, talking frequently and personally with top performers about their individual routes to success.
The ultimate retention tool, though, is success — profitability, growth, and opportunity. Those three “little” reasons are why great people didn’t leave ibm in the ’70s or Microsoft in the ’80s. And they’re why high performers aren’t leaving Google now. Your company may not be as successful as Google, but every time you give it some sizzle, your increasingly mobile workforce will stop running for the train.
This question and answer originally appeared in Business Week magazine on December 04, 2006.
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