Top 10 Retention Strategies: Save Money on Personnel Turnover

It costs too much to recruit, hire, train, and develop new personnel. Retaining your best and brightest is worth your time and resources. Great retention strategies can also demonstrate your organization's care and concenrn for your loyal people and can add to their productivity.

We gathered this Top 10 list from interviews with top level executives and successful Human Resource managers. I hope that you can find some strategies that would be worth trying in your organization.

  • Tip #1 Treat your employees like you treat your most valuable clients. It is cheaper to keep your good employees than it is to hire and train new ones. Your top 20-25% should be courted as you would court and then service your top customers.

  • Tip #2 Get your employees to "Fall in Love" with your organization. Communicate your vision in a compelling way. Show everyone the role they have to contribute to this vision. Create opportunities for people to connect with each other for support and to improve communication in work teams.

  • Tip #3 Strong retention strategies become strong recruiting advantages.

  • Tip #4 Retention is much more effective when you put the right person into the right job. Know the job! Know the employee and their motivations.

  • Tip #5 Money is important but it is not the only reason people stay with an organization. If your compensation plan is in the top 20-30% of your industry, then money will often not be the reason why people leave.

  • Tip #6 Employee committees to help develop retention strategies is a very effective strategy. Get their input! Ask, what do people like about working here? What would you like changed to make your company a better place to work?

  • Tip #7 Leadership must be deeply invested in retention. Management must be skillful communicating company policies in a way that creates "buy-in" from their staff and be open to employee input. Help create "ownership" in your employees.

  • Tip #8 Recognition, in various forms, is a powerful retention strategy. It does not have to cost a lot. U.S. Dept. of Labor - 46% of people leave their jobs because they feel unappreciated.

  • Tip #9 Remember, the "Fun Factor" is very important to many employees.

  • Tip #10 Know the trends in benefit packages. Do your best to offer the ones your employees need. Consider offering the best of the rest.

    If you have great strategies that have not made this list, please contact me so I can update this list. Look for more information in this article on retention at http://www.dstress.com/RetentionArt.htm

    Thanks, in advance.

    L. John Mason, Ph.D. is the author of the best selling "Guide to Stress Reduction." Since 1977, he has offered Executive Coaching and Training. His executive coaching has included developing programs which: improve communication (for individuals and organizations,) build effective teams, hire winners, retention of key personnel, improve meeting management, and assist with organizational development.

    Please visit the Stress Education Center's website at http://www.dstress.com for articles, free ezine signup, and learn about the new telecourses that are available. If you would like information or a targeted proposal for training or coaching, please contact us at (707) 795-2228.

    If you are looking to promote your training or coaching career, please investigate the Professional Stress Management Training and Certification Program for a secondary source of income or as career path.