Page 58 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

38 Building a High Morale Workplace

Make the Most of Their Time
John Patterson, Priceline.com’s former vice president of tal-
ent (see, even the big shots don’t always stick around forev-
er!), shares the Tom Peters philosophy on what managers can realisti-
cally expect from today’s employees.“Everyone is a temporary
employee in this talent war,” he points out.“It’s your job to make sure
each employee’s two or three years on the job is as productive and as
rewarding as possible.” Maybe if more managers would adopt this atti-
tude up front, they wouldn’t be setting themselves up for the
inevitable employee morale roller coaster ride.

Tough Managers Fight Back

Is there a way for a manager to fight back? Yes, just do your
best. Hold on to your stars as long as you can. That’s it. That’s
all you can do. If an employee gives you two great years, then
fine, you got two productive years and so did the employee. If
an employee gives you 20 years, then count your blessings, but

just don’t expect that to be the norm.
Employee retention experts agree that holding on to star
performers as long as possible keeps workplace morale healthy
and in balance. Experts also say that in order to keep the best-

of-the-best, managers have to provide intangibles such as
autonomy, purpose, and challenge—the preferred diet of the
free-agent worker. It’s the human side of doing business that
keeps us all in business. It can be harder than it looks, but don’t
get discouraged. Learn from veteran managers who have devel-
oped a special knack for recruiting and retaining top talent.

Taking Care of Talent

Thomas Kasten worked for Levi Strauss & Co. for 33 years. In
that time he learned a few things about getting, keeping, and
growing employees. Kasten refers to this as “the care and feed-
ing of talent.” Like so many other managers who have been

around for a while, Kasten knows that employees aren’t attract-
ed and retained by tangibles alone: “Compensation and benefits
no longer dictate why and when a talented person joins or
leaves a company,” he asserts. Oh, sure, there are people who