October 2005

Roadmap for a High-Performing Organization Part 2:
Retain Top-Performing Employees
By Julie Merrill, Change Catalysts

Are you struggling to retain your best performers as the economy strengthens? An article in the June issue of Best Practices addressed hiring and assimilating great people (www.womeninconsulting.org/company/articles/high-performing-organization.html). Here are some simple ways high-performing organizations retain their top performers once they have been hired.

Development and performance feedback

A study of managers and employees revealed a dichotomy about what motivates employees. Each group ranked what they believed were the top motivational factors for employees. Here are their respective top five responses, in order of most motivational to least:

This demonstrates both a wide gap in understanding employees' motivation and the need to provide interesting work, engage and develop employees.

The implication? Build unwavering commitment in your organization. Focus on your employees' growth, development and advancement by providing opportunities to perform, stretch and be recognized. These might include presenting at a staff meeting, chairing a taskforce, leading a cross-functional project outside their traditional job responsibilities, or rotating high-potential employees through short-term staff assignments to executives. Create yearly plans that match development opportunities to the employee's needs, career interests and reward profile.

Define great performance for your organization and expect it. Employees appreciate honest, constructive discussions about their accomplishments against objectives. (Remember setting and discussing those shortly after you hired them?) A company-wide performance-management process optimally addresses all types of performance (exceptional, average, poor) during quarterly conversations and annual goal setting. These timely discussions allow outstanding performers to advance and produce even greater results for your company, as well as address those underperformers who are not contributing.

Be aggressive in creating success for your employees and they will do the same for you.

Recognition and reward—catch people doing things right

Recognition and rewards come in many forms and, to be effective, must reward the business results and values of the organization and match the motivational character of the employee. Coach your managers to recognize the different motivations of individual employees and help them choose the right reward methods, which might include:

• Incentive plans. Keep these simple and understandable so that eligible people can easily calculate the rewards for their success. Make sure you're actually rewarding the behavior you desire. Adhere strictly to the programs and make payouts as promised.

• Peer award programs. Turn recognition over to your employees. This is one of the most powerful programs you can institute. Examples of simple and easy-to-execute plans include excellence nominations turned in weekly, with ALL the nominees being cited in a Friday morning email with balloons tied to their chair, or a traveling trophy that gets passed from great performer to great performer each week.

• On-the-spot awards. Allow managers to immediately give $75 to $100, along with a memo or certificate recognizing a significant contribution.

• Thank you's, both public and private.  A heartfelt acknowledgement of an individual's accomplishment is an instant boost for the employee. Send an email, stop by the employee’s desk, deliver a favorite coffee drink, take a work team out to lunch.

There are a thousand ways to recognize people. Invent some and you will reap boundless rewards.

Communication, communication, communication

Like location when you are buying real estate, communication is THE essential factor to your organization's success. Update employees about organization successes, changes in direction, upcoming challenges. Employees are your absolute best source of information; solicit it from them. What are customers asking for? What products or features do customers like? What do they have problems with?

Create a communication plan that outlines what you expect from yourself and your managers; execute it and revise as you get feedback from your employees. Here are just a few ideas to consider for communicating within your organization:

• Quarterly business updates. At meetings for the entire staff, executives provide business updates and progress reports, make critical announcements, allow questions and answers. Invite high-performing employees to make presentations as a recognition and development opportunity. Include informal socializing afterwards.

• Weekly (or biweekly) staff meetings. Each manager meets with his or her staff as a group to share and hear information directly affecting the team. 

• One-on-one meetings. Managers meet individually with employees at least every two weeks, focusing on goals and objective progress, development plans and coaching.

• Casual information exchanges. Executives spend an hour monthly with a cross-functional group of employees to hear insights from the front line. Find out what works (leverage it) and what doesn't (fix it). It is critical to assure follow-up regarding items that need investigation or fixing.

• CELEBRATE! Whenever the organization has a business goal "win," celebrate it. This may mean an office-wide email announcing the signing of a new customer, an impromptu gathering with pizza or cake to recognize hitting the quarterly sales targets, or a full party to mark three years of consistent growth. Find ways to recognize accomplishments and milestones.

Consider annual employee surveys to track how your plans and actions are changing the work environment.

A final thought

These preceding paragraphs only scratch the surface of creating a high-performance organization.

Constantly innovate your organization's practices to better accomplish your business results through your engaged, enthusiastic employees. Create new horizons for employees and they will lead your organization to unforeseen heights.

Julie Merrill, president of Change Catalysts, orchestrates change while mitigating risk and resistance for mid-size businesses during growth, consolidations and major transformations. Clients realize business results while accelerating the attainment of innovative, motivating environments and collaborative teams. For more information, contact Julie at 510-597-0474 or Julie@change-catalysts.com.