Page 223 - Retaining Top Employees

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Summary: Making It All Work 211

Adding Value to the Top Employees
It’s equally important that your retention strategies add value for
the top employees. Otherwise, the program will fall into disuse.
The simplest way to do this is to review your list and add a
note about how each element adds value for the employees
involved. Again, that will be easier for some elements of your
program and less so for other elements. If you fail to find any
way in which some element of your retention strategy adds
value for your top performers, either alter it to do so or scrap it.
Adding Value for You
When designing your top employee retention strategy, did you
encounter any elements that inconvenience you significantly? If
there are elements of your strategy that consume your
resources (your time and energy, primarily) and don’t deliver an
obvious added value for you, then chances are that over time
your support and enthusiasm for those elements will wane and
eventually die.
This is a very common cause of death for retention initiatives:
there’s little or no personal benefit for the championing manager
to continue putting the energy and resources into the activity.
Of course, all retention activities are making your job easier
by reducing turnover of top employees, but this benefit is medi-

Make the Added Value Tangible
Make the ways in which retention activities add value for you
as tangible as possible. If you award an “employee of the month,” hold
the dinner in a restaurant you enjoy visiting. If you institute a mentor-
ing program,make sure you personally mentor someone you enjoy
sharing time with.
These suggestions may seem simple,but you’re more likely to con-
tinue with these activities than if you’re making the “employee of the
month” award in a corner of the company cafeteria in a rushed lunch
hour between meetings or you’re involved in mentoring the employee
from hell.
Make it work for you and you’ll be more committed to making it
work for others.