The interwebs are abuzz with the recent statistics that the percentage of employees voluntarily resigning is now greater than the percentage of employees being laid off. While this is probably a good sign that the economy is indeed starting to improve, as it shows workers are more confident to move to new positions, it should also serve as a warning to employers: are you doing all you can to make sure your super stars aren’t joining the exodus?
The article 6 Ways to Keep Your Employees from Jumping Ship offers some advice to employers who want to retain their best employees. All of this talk about employees leaving and how employers can keep their best talent got me thinking, as I have been diligently preparing my company’s employer questionnaires for a number of top workplace/best place to work programs, what are some of the best practices that great employers have implemented to keep their employees motivated and satisfied? I’m not talking about just during the bad times; I’m also talking about the good times, too. It’s easier to keep employees in a bad economy, much more difficult to keep them in a good one.
Compensation is usually the first thing to come to mind, though very few people leave a job simply for more money. I’ve read articles and blog posts galore that exclaim this very notion. Like the saying goes, money doesn’t buy happiness. So what does buy happiness? Being treated like a person, and not a worker bee, is a good place to start. For example, my company is very good at communication. We have town hall meetings every month, and management tells us what’s up with the company and financials at every meeting. When the economy first started to implode in 2008, they were very forthcoming about what each and every one of us needed to do to achieve management’s goal of not laying off one single employee (result: no layoffs!). We employees like to know that what we do affects the whole, that we have a role to play in how the company succeeds (or doesn’t), and that management acknowledges the role we play and doesn’t take our hard work for granted.
Sure, there are many other great things my company does (we have been named a Top Workplace and a Best Place to Work, after all), but, dear readers, I want to know what, as employers, you do to keep your employees, and employees, what makes you stay.
#1 by Andy on October 25th, 2010
I didn’t seem to get this memo!
#2 by y8 on July 30th, 2011
There are certainly a whole lot of details like that to take into consideration. That may be a nice level to bring up. I provide the ideas above as normal inspiration however clearly there are questions just like the one you deliver up the place crucial thing will likely be working in trustworthy good faith. I don?t know if finest practices have emerged around issues like that, however I’m positive that your job is clearly identified as a good game. Both boys and girls really feel the impact of just a moment’s pleasure, for the remainder of their lives.