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SEVEN STRATEGIES TO RETAIN EMPLOYEES
By Robert B.Tucker

As Indoor Kart Racing become more prevalent in the United States and elsewhere, finding and retaining good employees become as essential part of a successful business. Companies now face the most competitive job market in decades, and losing employees can ravage your bottom line. Consider the productivity and replacement costs involved when an employee walks out the door: research indicates that losing an employee costs a company an average of $50,000.

So how do you retain employees? Here are seven strategies that will help.

1. Create a great environment -
Building a supportive and challenging workplace in which communications is encouraged, initiative rewarded, and development is provided. A good work environment offers employees interesting work, growth opportunities, ongoing training and development, and a chance to be heard. This environment needs to be supported by a strong, well-defined culture and maintained by managers who take an interest in their employees. Create the kind of place that employees want to return to, not run from.

2. Support your employees -
Talk with your employees. Make sure they know their jobs and your expectations. Provide employees with clear end goals and the information resources necessary to work toward those goals. Include two-way conversations that allow employees to be heard. Value employee’s input and include them in the decision making process. Provide opportunities for making meaningful contributions. Good employee/management relationships are essential. The Gallup Organization’s study of 80,000 managers in 400 companies found that an employee’s relationship with his or her direct boss is more important for employee’s retention than pay or perks.

3. Provide ongoing training and development –
This is key to keeping employees – and keeping them enthusiastic. Involve employees in the discovery of new opportunities and innovations. Develop employees through mentoring programs. Provide learning opportunities at every level of the organization in the forms of seminars, educational opportunities or training programs. Armed with new skills and motivated by the learning process, employees will gladly assume new responsibilities and meet challenges with greater initiative. As long as workers are learning and stretching, they will keep adding value in the form of tangible end results, and will stick around.

4. Re-recruit -
Take the time to find out how your people are doing. Find out what their needs are whether they are being met and how the company can support them. Make it a priority to have the conversation now. Take time to ask them, “What are the kinds of things that will keep you? What kinds of opportunities, growth, etc. do you want?” Make it easy to move and grow within the company and employees will be less likely to look outside. Never assume they can’t be lured away.

5. Rev-up Recognition –
Respect and appreciation earn respect and appreciation. Employees often say that they never hear the words “THANK YOY” from their bosses. Genuine appreciation cost nothing, but can yield significant benefits. You need to let employees know how much you appreciate them – regularly. Recognize even little accomplishments. Give employees “brag time” to acknowledge their successes. Ways companies are recognizing their people more are by acknowledging achievements at work, birthdays, and milestone recognition at meetings.

6. Make work fun –
How can you make work more of an adventure? How can you get your people to want to come to work? When was the last time you celebrated some victory in your company, some milestone that everybody can get excited about? Find ways within your company that will make your employees want to work and succeed. Create an atmosphere that celebrates success.

One company instigated a plan called “corporate cookies” to build employee camaraderie. One afternoon a week, they have cookies delivered and everyone sits around the office talking about “what’s going right.” Simple things like cookies can have a big effect.

7. Walk your talk -
Employees are looking to the workplace and to you as a leader for authenticity. It is one of the most critical things. Herb Kellaher, CEO of Southwest Airlines, a company that’s shown profits year after year, had fewer customer complaints, higher satisfaction, greater retention of employees than any other US airline and has made Southwest one of the most desirable companies to work for in America according to “Fortune” magazine. What are they doing? They are making work fun, but they are also walking their talk. There is an authenticity about what management puts out in terms of company values and what they live by. Herb Kellaher said recently, “Figure out what your values are. Because once you figure out what your values are, the rest falls into place.”

Robert B. Tucker, President of The Innovation Resource in Santa Barbara, California, provides customized keynotes and seminars on the topic of “Managing the Future: Age Waves in the Workforce”. Details are available at 805-682-1012 or by e-mail: info@innovationresource.com.

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