Retaining Best employees
During
these difficult and recessionary times, it becomes particularly
important for companies to retain their very best employees and
leaders. Often times, as companies are in the mode of retrenching and
surviving, they overlook the value of their best employees, leaders and
teams. Startups and big companies both thrive on the drive and tenacity
of these employees who have proven themselves time and again. As the
economic climate turns difficult, it is quite easy for entrepreneurs
and business leaders to overlook the value and contributions of these
critical employees and contributors. So, how does one effectively
retain these “star”employees during such difficult phase of the
business?
Know your “A” team
Itis
important for you to know your“A” team or “Star” team. Employees who
are super critical for you to achieve your business performance and
objectives. These employees are the heart and soul of your
organization, driving revenues, innovation, customer sat, and
operational excellence.It is also important that these employees
explicitlyhear from you, that they are indeed special. Being explicit
with your feedback will give them additional comfort that they are
being valued in the organization.
Make them more involved in your core business strategy
Now
is a good time to get your core team to get even more involved in
shaping the strategy of the business. If you had been reluctant in the
past to share with them all the financial risks and challenges, now is
a good time for you to become honest and bring them in the loop. This
additional vote of confidence and trust will further enhance their
loyalty towards you and the business. Business leaders use the downturn
and difficult times to further raise the commitment levels from their
top performers. This may be a good time to have strategy sessions
focused on establishing a game plan for the future. How can we reduce
cost, without risking revenues and innovation? Let your team start to
create strategies for you.
As
you take down cost, reduce management layers or retrench from lines of
businesses, it is important to lookout for opportunities for your best
employees. This would be a good time for certain key employees to take
on additional responsibilities and get promoted. Perhaps, as you look
todo much more with less, these best employees can increase their span
of influence and leadership to help you attain your business goals.
This requires creativity on your part to find opportunities for your
keyemployees and team that both fit the needs of the business and
provide growth path for the team. Many times, during businessre
organization key employees find themselves demoted or are left with
reduced responsibilities.These situations can certainly lead to
significant retention challenges.
Drive Trust and Transparency
When
organizations go through tough patch, it is quite important to
emphasize a culture of trust and transparency. Key employees expect to
be kept in the loop as situations arise or business evolves. As a
business leader it is your duty to keep your team in the loop to build
that sense of trust and transparency. When the going is good, or the
company is on a growth curve, many key employees might still continue
to be part of your team, because they are enjoying the growth. But,
when the growth slows or when growth gives way to actually decline in
business, then these same employees need to be motivated differently.
Trust becomes a key cornerstone ofany retention strategy.
Create a company-wide business challenge
Your
top employees thrive on challenges. As the business transitions from
high growth to one with muted growth or even decline in business, it
becomes critically important to find new challenge to inspire your
“A”team. These employees were once thriving on growth and market share,
but now, are looking for the next challenge. Given that the market
conditions and business conditions are currently not supporting growth
to the same extent, it may be wise to identify some new business
challenges to rally the star performers. Perhaps, your next goal could
be a strong push towards improving profitability (as opposed to
growth), or to lead the market in terms of product innovation or to
drive service quality excellence and customer sat. These new goals will
inspire your top performers to get focused on this new company wide
challenge.
I
increasingly meet with entrepreneurs and founders who are facing strong
retention risks with their top performers, while they are reducing
workforce or reorganizing their cost structures. The
5 Steps of retention outlined above become quite important during these
tumultuous times. More businesses collapse when these star
performersstart to emotionally “check out” and exit, than for other
reasons. No organization can thrive without its “heart and soul” which
these top performers represent. Let us ensure we do not loose them
during these times of retrenchment.
Gunjan Sinha
Its quite a relevant must-do you have documented. Recruitments and trainings cost a lot to firms. And during these recessionary periods, many companies show the door to useless or not-so-useful employees and hire more competitive ones, so it is all the more important that the core team and the right people are trusted upon and given more challenging and competitive roles as most of the companies get more aggressive and adopt more creative strategies to gain market-share during these difficult times.
CXO Insights
