You have a team, and it is performing well. One of them leaves. What do you do? Now it is too late to fix it. The damage is done. You will need to find a new team member, do training, reconstruct the team, improve morale and get back on track.
In high performing teams, it is very important to have a solid team that can stay together for the long run. Otherwise, it is very complicated to make a company that outperforms competitors.
Less than 30 percent of U.S. employees say they are loyal to their company. Greater retention positively affects the bottom line and contributes more uplift for stabilizing individuals and teams.
Here are some tips you can apply today to increase the retention in your company.
1. Ask your team to tell you what they want
How much time do you spend with your team? When was the last time you sat down with your team one by one to have a meeting?
The average percentage of time a manager actually spends with his or her team members is only about 25 percent. How can you get to know your people better? One simple and inexpensive tool is having everyone take a four-quadrant Behavior Styles Assessment, discuss the outcomes, and keep using the findings overtime to work on reducing the natural gaps.
When relationships between managers and staff are more trusting and solid, people stay longer.
2. Give effective leadership and supervision
Do you have the skills to manage a team? Have you ever been trained to manage a team? Do you know what makes a team successful?
Many organizations promote people from within who are technically skilled but have never been trained on people skills such as communication and relationship-building. You need to allocate resources to bring your management team up to excellence through ongoing training, coaching and mentoring.
3. Provide and encourage feedback and recognition
Feedback is a two-way street. What kind of mechanisms and practices does your organization currently have or need to implement to ensure evaluation and feedback are done well and regularly? While managers/supervisors need to prioritize doing this, they also need to be trained on how to evaluate and how to give feedback in a way that does not lower morale but is received in the spirit of positive growth.
But feedback should not just be top-down. All employees have points of view. Lots of useful feedback remain uncovered because managers/ supervisors don’t ask for reviews about their own performance. When employees are given a voice (that is heard), they feel more a part of the organization’s success. That voice will inspire your better employees to stay.
4. Offer professional development
There are several ingredients that support professional development:
- It makes sense for your organization to spend money on training and coaching. Leaving growth to the all-too-usual learning on the job is haphazard and often ineffective. Employees are being trained by other employees who also learned on the job and who were trained by those who learned on the job, etc. Adding effective skill- and insight- based classes upscales the level of effectiveness and will give you measurable ROI.
- Employees who have professional growth and learning as prized values will appreciate the support your investment offers. That helps build their loyalty to your organization.
- Help your team members define a career track (one that is available within your organization), so the choices of training programs are in line with those defined goals.
The bottom line is that retention strategies such as these pay for themselves many times over when compared with the cost of turnover. It is simply common sense and great fiscal management to take another look at how you are approaching retention.
