Research has shown that good employees most often don’t leave your organization because they are searching for a position with better benefits, more advancement or even more pay. More often than not and employee (especially a high performing employee) will leave your organization because they don’t feel valued. According to Gallup, an employee’s manager accounts for up to 70% variance in employee engagement. This puts a lot of power and pressure in the hands of the managers and leaders in your organization.
So what can you do to help those managers be the best they can be and retain the top talent you need to be successful? A recent article from Inc. gives 5 simple things every manager can do to help retain your best employees.
- Recognize their accomplishments and the effort that they put into their work
Employee recognition is important on both a team level and an individual level. Employees want to know that you have noticed and appreciate their efforts. Find opportunities to praise and thank employees for what they do for you regularly. Discuss how each individual’s effort contributes to team and company goals. If you need ideas for how to get started, check out our Employee Recognition Toolkit. - Understand what motivates employees and what they hope to accomplish
Get to know employees on an individual level. Understand what motivates them to succeed. It may be different for each member of your team. Learn about the things they hope to accomplish both at work and in their personal lives. - Invest in the success of your employees
Investing in professional development opportunities for your employees not only allows you to add more skills to your arsenal, but helps them feel fulfilled and engaged as well. Find out what skills your employees would like to improve and look for ways that those can help you accomplish your team and company goals. - Demonstrate confidence in all of your employees’ abilities
Show your employees that you trust their ability to get the job done by spreading work evenly. Only assigning special projects to a select few will show other employees that you don’t value or trust their contributions. If there are individual who need additional skills or training to be able to do this, invest the time in getting them up to speed. Famous automobile executive Lee Iacocca brilliantly said “I hire people brighter than me and I get out of their way.” - Give your employees incentives to continue performing well
This once again goes back to creating a culture of constant employee recognition. It is easy to forget to tell great employees, who constantly perform at a high level that they are appreciated. Beyond recognition, it also means providing fair compensation to your employees. If you haven’t audited your compensation structure recently and are curious about how your employee salaries compare to the competition in your area, A Plus Benefits can conduct a salary survey for you. For a small fee, we can look at the average salaries for each of your positions at other companies in your area and in your industry. Contact an HR Business Partner if you are interested.
Giving mangers the tools they need to succeed is not only vital to success, but also a great investment in time and money. If managers have the resources they need to be good leaders, they will help engage and retain your employees and will also feel more satisfaction themselves.
If you are looking for ways you can provide additional training to your managers, contact an HR Business Partner to brainstorm some ideas that will work for your specific organization.