Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Are you really serious about your top performers leaving you ?

Why people leave their jobs?

People leave a job for a number of reasons – It can be relocation or going back to studies or to take a job elsewhere

What is the cost of this attrition?

Irrespective of why people leave their jobs, minimum it cost your business around 100% of an employee's salary. I am not counting here the productivity loss because of the position remains open as well knowledge & skills which goes with the person until someone's hired and becomes equally skilled and knowledgeable. 

I have always advice companies to have an “Exit Interview Process” in place to ensure that you keep a check on what needs to be done to control the situation and put a preventive action plan as well.I find many companies despite of the Exit Interview Process ,the execution of the process is not done diligently

In my own experience, the two top reasons are that they don't feel challenged or engaged in what they do.

In this blog, I will recommend five habits to make sure your top performers don’t leave you.    

1.    Make sure people connect with Big Picture- I find surprising when I see managers not taking enough time to explain BIG PICTURE (Your functions/organization’s VISION) .It helps when you help people understand the connection between their daily task/responsibilities to the strategic level (link to big picture -Vision).Once they understand the “connect” they contribute towards building stronger engagement and take more ownership. Share your vision statement widely and frequently (every quarter in team meetings). If you don't already have a vision statement, work on one for yourself .Transformation-coach-workshop
2.    Make sure people contribute in a real sense - Next step is to make sure everyone contributes and no one left behind .Engaged Employees do more and don’t leave you easily. People who feel they are “valued” are likely to stay longer. Make sure everyone counts and is likely to play a critical role in your function’s /organization’s success.
3.  Be ready to give clarity to your people if needed – No one likes uncertainty. Employees generally have higher confidence in a manager who they feel is leading the organization in the right direction. If you are in doubt, go and ask your manager rather than showing uncertainty to your own team.
4.  Make sure you take actions against non-performance- How you deal with situations and challenges related to performance? How do you make people “accountable” for their performance? You may turn-off your top people by not addressing performance issues with certain non-performing people in the team or not taking actions against a situation resulting into non performance of your team. If your star performers see you as someone who does not compromise on performance and take actions as needed, they get motivated. They not only excel but also enjoy such environment.

5.  Make sure you recognize/reward high performance- I cannot end this without emphasizing on rewards & recognition. Every organization will have this in place but when I give it a close look, I always see gaps in the way it gets executed. There are many ways you can “recognize” your people .I have studied many companies with their own unique ways of recognizing their employees like a getting a choice parking spot, getting their names on “Wall of fame”, a dinner with the CEO or Head of the Function. Ask your people? “Surprise” them. What works in one environment does not work in other. What worked last year, may not work this year :-)