What it takes to retain talent

“Good Morning George” - Deepak wishes his boss on a fine Monday morning and announced his decision to quit the company he had been working for the past 3 years as ‘Customer Relations Manager’. George the General Manager of the division was taken aback by this sudden and unexpected decision. Deepak had been a well-meaning guy with robust performance year after year; and was hoping to move up the ladder for shouldering some more responsibilities. His boss, George explained to him how much the company cared for him and his future career plans. Deepak was intently listening to what George had to say, as this was the first time a meaningful dialogue was happening between a Senior and a team member. However, this was a little too late as Deepak had already made up his mind.

This is the first thing that we, as leaders, don’t do with our talent. A continuous performance and career aspiration dialogue is a must, and a leader has to be candid and transparent enough to let his/her people know what the organization has in store for them. This is in itself is a motivating tool for retaining talent.

Another critical aspect for talent retention is how well the leader is engaging his/her employees. The talent today looks for roles with substance, job clarity, timely recognition, and a sense of achievement. Employees also want to be included in important discussions, brainstorming, special projects, and provide a meaningful contribution. A partially engaged employee doesn’t produce less, rather he doesn’t produce at all. A leader needs to devise plans and strategies to ensure adequate employee engagement. A tool I used in one of the telecom companies I used to work for, was “OWN YOUR FAMILY”.  A leader was directly responsible for his direct reports for their career aspirations, development needs, rewards and recognition etc. Every leader took responsibility for their direct reports and it worked beautifully across the organization.

One also needs to understand that organizations have to create a workplace that attracts, retains, and nourishes talent. This covers a host of issues, ranging from developing a corporate mission, culture and value system to insisting on a safe working environment and creating clear, logical and consistent operating policies and procedures. The three fundamental aspects of the workplace are: the ethics and values which is the foundation upon which the organization rests; the policies that interpret those values and translate them into day-to-day actions, and the physical environment in which people work. The overall goal is to make the company a place where people want to work. The leaders and the organization need to craft their shared Vision, Mission, and Values which go beyond the company description and create a sense of pride in the entire team. The principles of an organization need to be reflected in the behavior of its leadership at all levels and tie all the elements of the business together. Some of the most integral values are:

Stay focused on the customer.

Be fair and honest.

Cultivate a feeling of family.

Promote integrity.

Make work fun.

These values and practices all relate in one way or another to corporate culture. More than ever, employees want a culture of openness and shared information. They want to know where the company is going and what it will look like in the future. How is the company doing financially? Where does it stand in the marketplace?

Above all, employees insist on knowing how their specific jobs fit into the grand scheme of things and what they can do to help the organization get to where it wants to go.

Today’s talent hates the monotony of playing the same role year after year. The organizations and the leaders have to prepare a robust talent management framework wherein there are wide enough opportunities for the high potentials to move laterally and vertically within the organization. Ideally, people should move into new roles within a defined timeline. The talent management framework must be perceived as fair and transparent.

Leaders need to take the pulse of their people on a regular basis through frequent dialogues, open house sessions, town halls, and skip-level meetings. They need to ask employees why they work for the organization. When they do, two things happen. One, employees are reinforced of their purpose in the organization. Two, the leaders gain a better understanding of what attracts people to the company. The leaders can then use that information to recruit new employees, saying: "Here's why people work for us. If you value these things, perhaps you ought to work for us, too."

Effective employee compensation strategies stem from one fundamental principle: money alone will not retain most employees. In the old days, companies essentially paid people for their time. Today, more and more companies pay for performance – in every position, not just sales. To retain employees, the compensation plan needs to incorporate this trend. Pay-for-performance plans come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but they all involve two basic activities: defining the job and checking performance against expectations. One has to design reward systems to stimulate employee involvement. In many a case, these systems could be non-monetary such as sabbaticals childcare and/or eldercare, employee assistance programs etc.

Let us keep in mind that employee compensation constitutes only one piece of the puzzle. If all other pieces – the environment, relationships, support, and growth strategies don't fit together into one interlocking whole, you won't be able to hold people to work for you.

Lastly, timely recognition, appreciation, spot awards, pat on the back, loyalty rewards are a must. The leaders need to be very proactive and forthcoming in devising the recognition and rewards framework which is consistent with its organization values, behavior’s and DNA. It has always been the biggest tool to engage and retain the key people in organizations and needs to be embedded in the daily operations of a company.

For effective information flow and decision making, while all the successful organizations have taken recourse to ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) tools, it is important that companies have ERP (Employee retention Practices).

Let us imagine that your most critical talent quits tomorrow, visualize what you would have done to retain them, and start translating those plans into action NOW so that others don’t follow the suit.