Tackling Retention Today
By
Tim Rutledge
With
a talent shortage looming on the horizon, it makes sense
for managers to implement employee retention plans now
so they can keep their top performers in the future.
Managers
may be tempted to dismiss employee retention as "tomorrow's
problem" and "stick with "replacement
strategies" so long as replacing departed employees
is relatively easy. While this may be true today, soon
there will be more jobs than talented people to fill
them, and this will endure as the new status quo for
years to come.
Here
are four reasons why organizations have to start adapting
now to this new reality:
1.
The early bird catches the worm.
The
worker shortfall will hit everybody at the same time.
If you haven't done anything to prepare for it, you'll
soon be washed away by your competitors once the wave
of retiring baby-boomers guts the workplace. There's
only so much top talent to go around and the best performers
will have choices like never before as to where they
go to work.
Granted,
we're generally not motivated to deal with "tomorrow's
problems" until we've successfully overcome the
ones we're facing. But employee retention and engagement
issues are fast approaching, and it's only a matter
of time before good organizations are scrambling to
scoop up whatever scarce talent they can find for their
firms.
2.
Your best offence is a good defense.
A
global study of senior executives by Accenture revealed
that "attracting and retaining skilled staff"
was their highest priority in 2005. With early warnings
of an impending talent war, you can be sure that things
won't be too different in 2006, and these same senior
executives and managers will be coveting the top performers
at your firm to shore up their own ranks.
Accordingly,
you have to implement an employee retention strategy
now that keeps your key employees fully engaged with
their work. Protective walls must be figuratively built
around these top performers, to reduce the likelihood
that they'll be lured away by another firm.
3.
Showing more money is not the answer.
While
employee retention starts at home with the top performers
you already have, another element to your retention
strategy involves bringing new talent on board. Some
companies assume there's an obvious link between retention
and compensation, but this isn't the case. Money isn't
a good way to keep top employees engaged with their
work, and it's not good way to attract people to your
workplace either. When recruiting top talent to your
firm, you want to make sure you're chasing after the
employee who's chasing after an engaging work experience,
and not just after the money.
Remember,
top performers assume that they can make the same salary
anywhere they go, so they're looking beyond their paycheques
for the "value-added propositions" of their
new or current positions. Career management assistance
and flexible work arrangements are two good ways to
keep employees engaged with their work because they
demonstrate a manager's interest in what employees think,
feel and require.
4.
An engaged mindset takes time to develop.
Even
with a good retention strategy the reality is employees
will leave your firm. Nevertheless, it's important
to be proactive to their potential resignation, and
not simply reactive. An engaged employee mindset includes
the belief that there isn't a better employment opportunity
that exists elsewhere.
But
it's less that an engaged mindset takes time to develop
and more that a disengaged mindset is difficult
to change. Employees tend to come into a company ready
and eager to engage with their workplace. Therefore,
employees must be kept attracted to, committed to and
fascinated with their work. This mindset takes time
to develop, insofar as there has to be consistency to
the way in which employees are treated by their managers.
If you start pulling out all the stops once you're caught
in the throes of a talent war, employees will see right
through your stopgap measures and won't balk at leaving
your firm for a more engaging work experience.
The
writing is on the wall about employee retention and
engagement. Organizations that heed the immediate need
for employee retention strategies are less likely to
lose their top performers, while those who wait will
soon be scrambling for a non-existent foothold in the
hiring market. While employee retention may very well
be "tomorrow's problem," this shouldn't dissuade
firms from dealing with it today.
-
Dr. Tim Rutledge, Partner, Retention Services, is a
veteran Human Resources Development practitioner with
a background in financial services, manufacturing and
health care. [full
bio...]
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