Page 225 - Retaining Top Employees

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Summary: Making It All Work 213

• A senior management champion
• The senior management team
• The top performer peer group
• Yourself
A Senior Management Champion
The most essential point of leverage for your retention strategy
is a senior management champion—someone at a senior level
who is passionately in favor of what you’re trying to achieve,
understands the issues involved, and is prepared to publicly
associate with it.
A senior management champion will specifically be of assis-
tance in the following respects:
• “Selling” your program to the senior management team.
Acting as a go-between and an advocate, the champion
is your representative at the senior management level,
helping you get the approvals and support you require.
• Providing advice. You’ll often want to seek guidance from
a member of senior management as you design and
implement your retention program. Your program cham-
pion should be the source of that help.
• Acting as a figurehead for the program. There will be
occasions (award ceremonies, program launches, focus
groups with your top performers) when the pres-
How to Find a Program Champion
You might be lucky: you might know who your senior man-
agement program champion is or is likely to be.You might
even be spectacularly fortunate,if the program champion is your man-
ager or supervisor,since that makes communication and working
together much easier.
But what if you cannot readily identify such a champion? Then,your
best strategy is to engage with the person from senior management
who has the most to gain by your efforts—your manager or whoever
benefits most from the activities of your top team. Explain what you’re
trying to achieve,demonstrate how that person will clearly benefit,
and ask for his or her support.