Blog: How not to lose your good employees?
If you are an entrepreneur or a leader it is your employees who make your professional goals and dreams come true. It is important to retain the good resources and gain their support to find success in your path to glory.
It is said that ‘people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their bosses.’ There is a lot of truth in it even if we were to turn to look at our respective career trajectories. We tend to stay back and try to survive a not so good job or at times a not so good pay if we appreciate how our immediate boss treats us. The boss is someone who we look up to, to take up our cause and interest. If we feel she would do that although she has limitations at the present moment, we are willing to give it some time and give the job a chance. However, a job in a dream profile or organization can be a veritable hell with an insensitive and bad boss.
In this context, let’s see what are the things that a leader could do to retain her most valuable resource; the employees!
Give relevant and timely feedback – People appreciate being told where they went wrong with the ‘Whats’ and ‘Whys’ of the error as soon as it happens. The memory is fresh and they get an opportunity to do course correction when feedback is timely. Late feedback is useless and doesn’t serve any purpose. Giving a bad rating to an employee for all the shortcomings at the end of the year, while ignoring to point out when he still had a chance to do something about it is unfair as well. Also, as a leader it is your responsibility to understand an issue at its most granular level and be able to fix responsibility where it is due. Giving them opportunities to speak up or defend them is crucial as well. To be heard is to be appreciated.
Encourage good performance – Appreciation too should be done in a timely manner. The biggest motivation for humans is being appreciated for what they did right. Rewarding them in kind, as bonus , public recognition, a new role that they have been looking forward to, a vacation with family, or with a subscription to a course they have been wanting to do are all tangible ways to show your appreciation. There could be more relevant and meaningful ways of appreciating and encouraging good performance depending on the industry you are in.
Pay competitive salaries preferably better than the industry average – While money is not the sole motivator for many people, a good salary is a big draw for one to stay back in a job. The lure of a better salary elsewhere should be the last reason why you are not able to retain a good employee. A below par salary could even make an employee leave a great job just for the practical limitations associated with a poor pay. When compared to the time, energy and funds to be spent on new hires, and training them, it makes sense to compensate the existing ones well enough to buy their loyalty.
Give independence to operate along with responsibility – Someone always watching you over the shoulder and not trusting you to do a good job is not a great feeling to have. There should be enough care taken before deciding if an employee is equipped enough to handle a responsibility. However, when it is eventually given, it should be given accompanied with your trust in his capability and enough power to execute it well. Responsibility without independence and trust would be pointless and suffocating. Your employees should have the right to speak up their mind and have freedom of expression and the right for giving feedback. They should have the independence to chart their own path to achieve common goals.
Be flexible, sensitive and respectful – Above all, your employee is a living breathing human being with emotions and personal challenges similar to you. So, respecting him as a human being while being sensitive to his needs and providing as much flexibility as possible are signs that you care for him. To be heard and understood in the professional and personal sphere is important for an employee to retain the right attitude towards work. This fosters a sense of camaraderie and community in them which translates itself into productivity. Covid lockdowns have proved to us that so many roles at work can be perfectly taken care of from home as well as from the office. When you trust your employee and his integrity, giving him the opportunity to work from home is a huge step towards fostering flexible work environments. Your ultimate goal is to maintain productivity and better still increase it. If that is ensured it is of no one’s concern where a person works from.
Offer a challenging environment – As people grow in their careers, salary stops being the single most motivator. Challenges of the mind retain them in their jobs from then on. People in the early stages of their career might be accepting of monotonous job roles as long as the financial compensation is good. But money alone cannot retain interest for long. The brain that is not challenged dies a slow death. To be able to overcome a challenge and feel good is more motivating than an easy, unchallenging and boring job. Hence, taking effort to move people who have proved their mettle up the ladder to more challenging roles in the organization is more of a necessity than an option. If you want to have them and their contributions around for longer, make the job interesting for them!
Invest in the growth of promising employees: With a keen eye, you can spot the motivated, go-getters who appear promising. These are employees who can contribute to the growth and success of your company with the right kind of incentives. One of the important areas in this aspect is providing them with mentoring and training. The employee shouldn’t feel that his role or he himself doesn’t matter. He should be made to feel special and not just a cog in the wheel. It is your role as a leader to find that fine balance to encourage without mollycoddling.
If you are looking for any mentoring help for your team or if you are looking at equipping yourselves with a motivated set of smart employees with some targeted soft skill coaching do write to us at harish@harishrao.world to know how we can help you with it. We understand the difference the right mentoring and training can make to a person’s productivity. We would love to work with you on this or any other business coaching needs you may have!
