Good help is hard to find. Retain the best, improve the rest.
Good help is hard to find. Retain the best, improve the rest.
The replacement, once hired, takes approximately 13½ months to achieve an equivalent degree of efficiency. When you do the math that translates into 8½ months of full-time work is accomplished during that initial period of time, a net loss of 5 full months.
Even in this depressed labor market where many intelligent and talented people are looking for work, the real problem being faced by businesses today is retaining their best and brightest; those people with the historical and institutional knowledge that are the heart and soul of every organization. How do you keep them when it is truly difficult and time consuming to simply get a handle on how they are feeling?
Begin with the premise that your efforts must be proactive, not reactive, and ongoing, not situational. Waiting to act only gives the employee with doubts time to justify his or her feelings and find a good reason to leave. And by the time you find out they are leaving, their decision has been made.
Assuming you agree with the importance of retaining your staff, there are two aspects to this issue, each requiring a different approach. First is the need to keep your best and brightest challenged and engaged.
The most limited commodity of any supervisor or manager is time. Having been there myself, I realize how difficult it can be to continuously find ways to keep your staff challenged and productive. The problem is, that is not your job, and when you fall into that mental trap, you need to dramatically change the way you are thinking and acting.
Your best employees are the ones that understand the business, value the products and services they provide to their customers, and enjoy working with the customers to help make their lives and businesses better for them. It is the classic win-win-win scenario.
The road to this destination is bumpy and filled with potholes. It is a journey that demands multi-tasking along the way. While delivering value to customers, your staff must also identify areas of weakness and work on improving them while at the same time looking forward to creative and innovative ideas that will help the organization grow and serve its customers in new and better ways.
One successful approach is to engage your top performers in strategic efforts that will help them find the innovative new ideas they can research and implement without your guidance or oversight. Begin by identifying a strategic objective, share it with your top performers and have them work on the issue. Send one of them to a class to gather critical thinking best practices and bring those learning’s back to the team.
The bottom line is that good employees enjoy a good challenge. When everything is running smoothly, you may be happy, but they tend to get bored. And a bored employee is an unmotivated employee. Your job is to make sure they stay engaged and thinking about what they can do to improve the business, whether it is solving a problem or creating a desired result. Don’t allow yourself to be satisfied with a job well done, your best and brightest won’t.
The second aspect of staff retention is improving the quality of the under-performers. Begin with the premise that everyone wants to do a good job, and that cannot happen until you make their job crystal clear to them.
Your role as their leader is to ensure they understand the value the business is delivering to its customers, their customers. They must understand the role they play in that process and have some way to connect to the ultimate success of the business.
I have often heard managers complain that the more information they give their staff, the harder it is to keep them focused on their jobs. Hogwash I say. An uninformed employee is someone who has been asked to do a job blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their back. If you are honest and sincere, little harm can come from helping your staff understand where the company is heading.
Give your staff clear objectives, and measure their performance. When they perform, reward them. Sometimes a little bit of recognition or praise it all it takes. When they don’t perform, use the opportunity to educate and explain how and why their actions hurt the company, and you. This is not the time for criticism.
Treat your staff as if they are important, and make sure they know why you think they are important. If you can’t do that, you probably don’t understand the value of each employee and may need to rethink your staffing model. That needs to get corrected before you do anything else.
The moral to this story is a simple one. Treat your staff as if they are the most important component of your business. After all, there is no way you can have more direct and regular contact with your customers than your staff can. If they don’t make your customers feel valued and appreciated, nobody will. So focus on your staff and help them become the kind of employee’s you want them to be. You might be surprised at how positive their reactions are.
Good help is hard to find Retain the best improve the rest - To learn more about this author, visit Larry Mandelberg's Website.
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According to several human resource studies, the cost of replacing an employee averages 150% of the annual wage of the person being replaced. And this only tells part of the story.
The replacement, once hired, takes approximately 13½ months to achieve an equivalent degree of efficiency. When you do the math that translates into 8½ months of full-time work is accomplished during that initial period of time, a net loss of 5 full months.
Even in this depressed labor market where many intelligent and talented people are looking for work, the real problem being faced by businesses today is retaining their best and brightest; those people with the historical and institutional knowledge that are the heart and soul of every organization. How do you keep them when it is truly difficult and time consuming to simply get a handle on how they are feeling?
Begin with the premise that your efforts must be proactive, not reactive, and ongoing, not situational. Waiting to act only gives the employee with doubts time to justify his or her feelings and find a good reason to leave. And by the time you find out they are leaving, their decision has been made.
Assuming you agree with the importance of retaining your staff, there are two aspects to this issue, each requiring a different approach. First is the need to keep your best and brightest challenged and engaged.
The most limited commodity of any supervisor or manager is time. Having been there myself, I realize how difficult it can be to continuously find ways to keep your staff challenged and productive. The problem is, that is not your job, and when you fall into that mental trap, you need to dramatically change the way you are thinking and acting.
Your best employees are the ones that understand the business, value the products and services they provide to their customers, and enjoy working with the customers to help make their lives and businesses better for them. It is the classic win-win-win scenario.
The road to this destination is bumpy and filled with potholes. It is a journey that demands multi-tasking along the way. While delivering value to customers, your staff must also identify areas of weakness and work on improving them while at the same time looking forward to creative and innovative ideas that will help the organization grow and serve its customers in new and better ways.
One successful approach is to engage your top performers in strategic efforts that will help them find the innovative new ideas they can research and implement without your guidance or oversight. Begin by identifying a strategic objective, share it with your top performers and have them work on the issue. Send one of them to a class to gather critical thinking best practices and bring those learning’s back to the team.
The bottom line is that good employees enjoy a good challenge. When everything is running smoothly, you may be happy, but they tend to get bored. And a bored employee is an unmotivated employee. Your job is to make sure they stay engaged and thinking about what they can do to improve the business, whether it is solving a problem or creating a desired result. Don’t allow yourself to be satisfied with a job well done, your best and brightest won’t.
The second aspect of staff retention is improving the quality of the under-performers. Begin with the premise that everyone wants to do a good job, and that cannot happen until you make their job crystal clear to them.
Your role as their leader is to ensure they understand the value the business is delivering to its customers, their customers. They must understand the role they play in that process and have some way to connect to the ultimate success of the business.
I have often heard managers complain that the more information they give their staff, the harder it is to keep them focused on their jobs. Hogwash I say. An uninformed employee is someone who has been asked to do a job blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their back. If you are honest and sincere, little harm can come from helping your staff understand where the company is heading.
Give your staff clear objectives, and measure their performance. When they perform, reward them. Sometimes a little bit of recognition or praise it all it takes. When they don’t perform, use the opportunity to educate and explain how and why their actions hurt the company, and you. This is not the time for criticism.
Treat your staff as if they are important, and make sure they know why you think they are important. If you can’t do that, you probably don’t understand the value of each employee and may need to rethink your staffing model. That needs to get corrected before you do anything else.
The moral to this story is a simple one. Treat your staff as if they are the most important component of your business. After all, there is no way you can have more direct and regular contact with your customers than your staff can. If they don’t make your customers feel valued and appreciated, nobody will. So focus on your staff and help them become the kind of employee’s you want them to be. You might be surprised at how positive their reactions are.
Good help is hard to find Retain the best improve the rest - To learn more about this author, visit Larry Mandelberg's Website.
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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