Page 195 - Retaining Top Employees

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The Role of the Manager, Part 2 183

• Miles traveled per
Trends, Not Numbers
week, month, and Your milestones should
quarter. have timelines.What mat-
• Meetings held per ters is not the absolute numbers; top
week, month, and performers will always rack up high
quarter (a frequent numbers for all of the milestones.You
sign of work-life need to track trends over time and
watch for any sharp spikes or dips. If a
unbalance).
spike or dip is not explicable for
• Cups of coffee con-
operational reasons (for example,the
sumed per week,
end of the financial period or a push
month, and quarter. to get a new product out the door),
• Make sure to investi- then find out why it happened.
gate both spikes and
dips in the milestones you choose. Either one indicates a
possible work-life balance issue.

Managing Departing Employees and Alumni
A little-acknowledged responsibility of the manager of top per-
formers is to manage their exit from the organization.
You will recall that one of the pillars of the new employer-
employee relationship is an acceptance that the employee will
leave the organization eventually. You should no longer be
thinking, then, in terms of losing top performers, but rather of
accepting the inevitable—and even encouraging them to move
on when the time is right.

Manage the Exit
A well-managed “separation” from the organization will reap
retention benefits for the organization in the long run in three
ways:
• It will attract other high performers. A top employee who
leaves the organization in good shape and in a healthy
manner will become an evangelist for that organization,
spreading the word about what a great employer you
are. And guess who these people bump into a lot? Yep—
other top performers.