MANAGING FOR KEEPS
©Carol Kinsey Goman

At the beginning of my program on attracting and retaining top talent, I always get the same question from someone in the audience: "Our problem is that we can't offer stock options and big bonuses. Isn't retention really just a matter of money?"

It's a fair question. News stories are filled with examples of companies giving expensive gifts, great options, and five (or six) figure signing bonuses to sought-after talent. But my research shows that, of the top reasons that valuable employees leave their current employers, money comes in last. Here are the six highest retention-busters:

o Leadership/management issues
o Lack of excitement/challenge in job
o Lack of professional development
o Lack of flexibility -- conflict with personal life
o Culture clash
o Money

Retaining great employees is more a matter of management than compensation. And as one high-tech CEO said to me, "If people come for the bucks, they'll leave for the bucks." Organizations that are serious about attracting and retaining the best people are developing leadership competencies around retention. (And in some organizations, managers are being held accountable for turnover in their departments.)

Here are a few practices that can help anyone improve their ability to manage for keeps:

o Find out all the retention-building policies your organization offers - and then actively encourage employees to take advantage of them. It matters very little if your company offers the best flex time/place policies in the industry if you as a manager aren't promoting them to your staff.

o Constantly survey your most talented employees. Ask what they like/don't like about their jobs, the company, and your management style. Then respond to their concerns and suggestions by making changes.

o Fire poor performers. Top talent wants to work with top talent. Retaining poor performers is de-motivating to the best and brightest.

o Build your "high touch" skills. Get to know people personally as well as professionally. Take talented performers to lunch, or out for a drink after work.

o Tailor retention incentives to fit the individual. When it comes to attracting and retaining the best, one strategy fits one.

o Communicate, communicate, communicate. Your most talented people need relevant information about the company and their jobs -- and they want you to deliver it.

o Make sure that your coaching style is prompt and fast. The days of annual performance reviews are over. People want quick, honest, and frequent assessments of how they are doing.

o Delegate decisions and authority. Give talented people control over their schedules, clear areas of responsibility, and creative freedom.

o Bring staff into the planning process of anything that effects them. Address their concerns and co-create goals and strategies. (Command and control are irrelevant in 21st century leadership.)

o Catch people doing things right. Instantly recognize and reward outstanding efforts, build reputations within the company, show people that you appreciate their contribution. Introduce your top performers to other managers and executives in the organization.

o Work with talented individuals on their growth and development plans. Be ready to encourage your best people to move to other parts of the company. (If they can't continually develop new skills within your organization, they will go where such growth is possible.)

o Make sure that your best people have work/projects that are challenging and exciting. Give good people a chance to put their names on tangible results.

o Help your staff make a "values match" between their personal values and the organization's vision and strategy. Let individuals know specifically how their work contributes substantially to the goals of the company.

o Encourage personal relationships between employees. New hires are especially vulnerable to feeling like outsiders. Have new hires meet regularly as a group and share experiences. People want to stay in companies where they have friends.

o Understand the power of the "boomerang" employee: celebrate when people leave, keep in touch with them while they are gone, and let them know they are welcome back.

o Realize that informality is more than allowing people to "dress down." It means encouraging an informal work environment where people feel comfortable asking questions and challenging the status quo.

o Bring a sense of play and fun into the work environment on a daily basis.

o Treat everyone with respect.

Today's business environment is more complex, multi-disciplined, and team oriented than ever before. To maintain a cutting-edge competitiveness in the world-wide arena, it is important that we pay as much attention to getting and keeping the right people as it is to attend to the business strategy or the technology. You may be a project leader, a supervisor, a group leader or a manager. As such, you are responsible to ensure that once new employees come on board, they have challenging assignments, the right leadership interaction, and a culture that works for them. Each day, every interaction you have with a colleague is an opportunity to create the environment that attracts top talent and keeps great people in your organization.