Five Ways to Retain Your Best Employees

As Marshall Goldsmith of Smith Communication Partners  states in his report “Retain Top Talent”,  “if you don’t modify your HR practices to match tomorrow’s reality you will lose your competitive edge.”  Goldsmith’s premise is that employers have to manage their human assets with the same rigor used to manage financial assets, and goes on to list ways to retain the best employees in today’s environment.  Here are several tips inspired by Marshall Goldsmith’s “Retain Top Talent”.
5 Retention Tips:

1. Clearly identify the people you want to keep.
   In the article, “How to Identify Top Performers”, Bill Gilbert of WM Gilbert Associates says top performers must not only have the right skills and abilities to work in your organization, they must want to work there.  “Fit” is as important as having the skills needed to do the job well.

2. Let them know you want to keep them.
   Because talented employees can often find other employment, Goldsmith reminds us that we need to remember to recognize, reward and let employees know they are valued.  MANAGEREVOLUTION  recommends “re-recruiting” your top performers so they stay with you after the economy recovers.

3. Provide recognition.
   Goldsmith says, “High impact performers are leaving organizations for three reasons: lack of recognition, lack of involvement and poor management. Show your best employees you appreciate them. Looking for an affordable and way to recognize and thank Employees, how about gThankYou! Turkey Certificates in celebration of the Thanksgiving season.

4. Provide opportunities for development and involvement.
   The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Program says, “By providing opportunities for employee growth and development, organizations can improve the quality of their employees’ work experience and realize the benefits of developing workers to their full potential.”  For more on this topic, you might enjoy our recent post, “Top 5 Reasons to Send Your employees Back to School“.

5. Challenge the compensation plan.
   If you pay for performance rather than seniority, Goldsmith explains, top talent is more likely to stay.  Pay tied to performance is a particularly effective motivator for high-performing employees. BLR.com has tools for compensation planning and an interesting article, “2012 Compensation Budgets Focus on Top Performers,” for more information on coming trends in this area.

Your Bottom Line
Gilbert also offers these statistics:

• Top performing unskilled employees are 19% more
  productive than average unskilled employees.

• Top performing skilled workers are 32% more
  productive than average skilled workers.

• Top performing managers and leaders are 48% more
  productive than average managers and leaders.

He asks, “What would it mean to your bottom line if you had more top performers?”  We’d like to know too.  How do you retain your best employees and what advantages do they bring to your organization?
About gThankYou, LLC
gThankYou! Turkey Gift Certificates are one of America’s favorite employee gifts and can be redeemed for any Brand whole Turkey, at virtually any Grocery Store in the U.S.
gThankYou, LLC provides company leaders with a variety of easy, meaningful and affordable ways to recognize and reward employees, holiday time or anytime.  gThankYou! Certificates of Gratitude and free Enclosure Cards are personalizable including incorporating your company logo, and ship same day.
gThankYou, LLC (www.gthankyou.com) is based in Madison, Wisconsin.  Contact:  Rick Kiley, Chief ThankYou! Officer, gThankYou, LLC at info@gthankyou.com or 888-484-1658.  Follow the company blog “Celebrating Work” at www.gthankyou.com/blog.
“G” logo and “Certificates of Gratitude” are trademarks and “gThankYou” is a registered trademark of gThankYou, LLC.