Page 23 - Retaining Top Employees
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                                                                  “Employee What?!”      11



                                          Level of Employee Turnover  before intervention  employee turnover
                                                                   Subsequent rebound in

                                               Level of turnover







                                                       Impact of compensation and
                                                       benefits' only intervention


                                                              Time
                                 Figure 1-1. The employee retention “weed garden”

                                     anything else obviously brings only trouble and grief.
                                  7. The employees become increasingly aware that the senior
                                     managers are withdrawing from constructive engagement
                                     and acting surly toward any suggestions from the employees.
                                  8. The organizational culture spirals downward into mutual
                                     distrust and the employee turnover problem returns—only,
                                     like weeds in a garden, even harder to eradicate.

                                    Figure 1-1 depicts the “employee retention ‘weed garden.’”
                                    In the chapters that follow, we’ll see what those higher, “non-
                                 compensation-and-benefits” needs are, how they are met, and
                                 how to plan and implement an employee retention strategy that
                                 incorporates ways to meet them.

                                 What “Employee Retention” Might Mean Soon
                                 We’ve seen that employee retention started as a simplistic,
                                 “compensation and benefits” response to the systemic rise in
                                 voluntary employee turnover, then developed into a wider, holis-
                                 tic approach, addressing deeper needs such as acceptance,
                                 esteem, and self-actualization.
                                    Before we move into the next section (and begin developing
                                 your specific response to employee retention issues), let’s close
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