Page 94 - Retaining Top Employees

McKeown05.qxd 4/13/02 9:28 PM Page 82

82 Retaining Top Employees

2. Construct other elements of your retention strategy to take
over from your compensation plan as motivators. For
example, a top sales performer might receive a cash
bonus for some years on attaining certain goals, but in
year three she might
Baton Race instead be made eligible
Think of compensation as for inclusion in the orga-
the fast runner who takes nization’s management
the first leg in a baton race. Just like succession plan.
that first runner,whose goal is to open
up a lead that competitors can’t over- What a Compensation
come,compensation can make an
immediate impact on the retention of Plan Must Achieve
your top employees,establishing a lead
Now that we’ve discussed
that then passes to the other elements how compensation, for
of your retention strategy. Just don’t
maximum effect, must be
try to make the lead runner run the
used in context with your
whole race!
overall retention strategy,
let’s examine what your compensation package must achieve.
What are your compensation goals?
The Key Objective of Compensation Is Not Just Performance
In the “status quo” employer-employee relationship (Chapter 1),
when the deal was “You come work for me, do a good job, and,
so long as economic conditions allow, I will continue to employ
you,” the key role of compensation was to enhance performance.

Set Clear Goals
In my experience,most organizations don’t adequately
address setting clear retention goals for a compensation pack-
age.As a result,managers end up making one-time “deals” with each
individual,a situation that leads to a complicated,unworkable amalgam
of inconsistent practices.Also,such deals tend to come when the top
performer has already expressed a desire to go elsewhere—and
agreeing on compensation under such terms brings us right back to
the problem of dealing on price discussed at the start of this chapter.
Clarify the retention goals of your compensation package in
advance and avoid a lot of confusion down the line.