Page 228 - Retaining Top Employees

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216 Retaining Top Employees

Get a Buddy
If there’s a danger of procrastinating with implementing ele-
ments of your top employee retention strategy,why not get
a buddy to keep you on track?
Find a like-minded (or at least sympathetic) peer who is interested
in developing a similar strategy for his or her top employees or at
least supportive of your strategy.Ask that person to be your buddy—
someone who will knock on your door to find out how you’re doing,
prod you to stay on schedule,and remind you of your reasons for
doing this and the benefits.
If you’re really lucky,you might find that your buddy has comple-
mentary skills and interests. Maybe he or she will take on that orienta-
tion program design or help you think through ways to approach the
HR department!

more dispiriting than designing and implementing a retention
strategy and seeing it succeed, only to find that you have to do
the whole thing all over again as employees get promoted,
transfer internally, or, eventually, leave the organization.
(Remember: even the best retention strategy won’t make any-
one stay forever.)
This means designing and implementing your strategy in
such a way that it will continue to operate over time with mini-
mum maintenance.

You Shouldn’t Have to Push Water Uphill
The first way to recognize that you may have longevity prob-
lems with a specific part of your retention strategy is the ease
with which it can be introduced. If you’re finding it difficult to
get people to accept and participate in some part of your pro-
gram, then it’s highly likely that this part will fall into disuse
over time.
The key in such circumstances is to find the root cause of
the resistance and to deal with that. If, for example, you design
a social events calendar to promote teamwork and assimilation,
but find that employees aren’t signing up for it, ask some ques-
tions. Is it because everyone is already working too hard to
want to spend any leisure time together? Is it because the