Page 96 - Retaining Top Employees

McKeown05.qxd 4/13/02 9:28 PM Page 84

84 Retaining Top Employees

Compensation as Recognition
Top performers want to know (and usually want others to know)
that they’ve delivered the goods.
The first retention goal of the compensation package should
be to provide the tools to allow the employees to clearly estab-
lish whether or not they’ve achieved their goals for the period
under review.
There’s nothing more frustrating for top employees than to
be unsure if they’re making the grade or not. If the confusion and
frustration about this point lasts, the employees usually leave.
It’s vital, then, that your compensation packages leave no
room for doubt as to
Let Others Know, Too whether the employees
Remember: there’s a fair have met targets or not
amount of ego involved in and what the implications
being a top employee. Consider mak- are either way.
ing performance recognition a matter
of public record. Compensation as
When I owned the Pizza Hut fran- Motivation
chise in Ireland,I would circulate the
Top employees need moti-
discretionary bonuses paid to the top
vation—it’s what gets
10 unit managers each quarter.The
them up in the morning. If
public recognition not only affected
performance by generating a sense of they don’t feel motivated,
they’ll eventually move on.
competition,but it also helped us
keep many of our best managers in a So as well as recogni-
very competitive market. tion, your compensation
package must include
motivational elements—incentives, bonuses, and perks that
motivate employees not just occasionally, but regularly. Many
organizations resort to motivational compensation too late—
when the employees’ morale has already dropped. (“Things are
looking ugly out there. We better throw them a bonus.”) This is
almost always a dollar short and a day late. Build motivational
elements into your compensation package right from the start.
Compensation as a Team-Builder
Top employees can be notoriously poor as team members.
Although this isn’t true of all top performers, many consider