How to Reduce Employee Turnover - 2

Despite the growing trend for companies to turnover their staff frequently, or fire them and use consultants on an "as needed" basis, there is still a requirement for firms to keep their best performers for the permanent positions needed in the organization. With more and more people taking to working for themselves, or moving around experimenting with careers and employers, the task of keeping good staff becomes more challenging.
Employee turnover can cost organizations thousands of dollars when you consider lost production time, re-training, etc. One of the key ways to keep good staff is to instill in them a sense of loyalty and commitment. Here are some ideas to achieve this:


Start With the Basics.

When a new employee starts, assign a buddy to them. Make sure they understand how the company works, its policies and procedures. Give them a thorough orientation. Help them to fit in easily and quickly.


Plan Together.

If this is an employee you want to keep, make sure you discuss with them a plan for their career development. Ensure they know you are willing to invest time and money in them to achieve mutual goals if they are interested to stick around and learn.


Be Flexible.

Be flexible with work arrangements. The old 9 to 5 routine is going the way of the dinosaur. Allow for flexi-time. Consider allowing them to work an extra hour a day to build up time for a day off every couple of weeks. If the type of work they are doing permits, consider allowing them one or two days a week when they can "work from home".


Don't be Greedy.

Be realistic with overtime expectations. People are entitled to a life, and if you look after them holistically, they will reward you with the loyalty you seek. Understand their family commitments. Flexible work schedules are a blessing to working family partners, as are day-care crèches etc. You are not hiring a single automaton, you are hiring a human being with a life and a family, and it has to blend successfully if it is to be lasting and rewarding.


Forget the "Use By" Date.

Don't forget your retired staff. Many retirees soon find a life of retirement somewhat boring and will jump at the chance to work part time, or mentor new personnel (a win-win situation).


Reassure their Security.

If you want to keep staff, you have to prove that their career is not at risk by staying with you, and that you have what it takes to be a modern employer. Nobody is going to leave a company that pays well, understands their needs as a human being, and offers job security together with a career plan for advancement.


Don't Forget the Rewards.

Brainstorm and ask staff for their ideas on reward/bonus systems. Rewards need not entail cash bonuses, but may include benefits such as child crèches, flexible hours, time off, payment of Association fees, etc.


Show Interest.

Show an active interest in your staff's welfare and enjoyment in their employment don't wait until the once a year interview. You could try offering a company Social Club, or staff picnics, or a newsletter primarily for and about the staff rather than a strictly business newsletter. Do any of your staff do things like volunteer work, or work with Boy scouts, just for examples, because if they do, some recognition and perhaps some kind of donation or sponsorship towards their activity, sporting group, etc. would go a long way to ensure their loyalty and appreciation.


Keep an Ear to the Ground.

Don't wait until disgruntled staff come to you by then, much damage has already been done. Whether the problem is at an individual level, or involves an entire department, or an individual Manager, act quickly and be seen to be taking steps to rectify any problem areas. Consult with all levels of staff. Encourage your management to take weekly walks around departments, letting their presence be known, asking friendly questions, showing concern, and taking steps to rectify problems.


Never Mislead.

Finally, if the job opening you are offering is potentially a short-term arrangement, or likely to change or disappear in the future, be open and honest about it upfront. Never mislead employees. In a nutshell, the key to remember is that many employees think of their company (employer) as an extension of their family. Treat them as you would a valued family member and you will have lifelong loyalty. Treat them as a 'number', a disposable commodity, and you will have nothing.

-Terri Levine

Written by Terri Levine, MCC, PCC, MS, CCC-SLP, the CEO of Coaching Instruction.com, popular Master Certified personal and business Coach, sought after Public Speaker, and Author of bestsellers, "Stop Managing, Start Coaching", "Work Yourself Happy", "Coaching for an Extraordinary Life" and "Create Your Ideal Body"

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How to Reduce Employee Turnover

If you're starting a company, you probably have some ideas about what qualities you want in your first 50 hires. Intelligence is a no-brainer. Initiative, flexibility, and, provided you can find it, experience all probably reside at the top of your list.
Any list of desired qualities can quickly spiral out of control. Confidence, results orientation, ability to work in teams? Employees should have them. What about decision-making, resourcefulness, and the ability to deal with ambiguity? Startups need people with those qualities, too.

What You're Looking For

In staffing a startup, begin with a series of assumptions. You're going to grow—and you'll need people with the ambition and talent to grow with you. You'll be nonhierarchical by necessity—people throughout the company will make decisions daily that will affect your business, and they should be good at making those decisions. You'll have a lot to do—and you'll need people with enough enthusiasm and initiative to do a lot more.

"Employees need to be able to see a project through from inception to completion," says Virginia MacLean, the vice president of corporate marketing at Kaseya, a software development company in Silicon Valley. "You rarely have time to teach people the ropes, but neither do you have the bandwidth for the person who is used to making high-level decisions and passing all the tangible tasks off to their staff. There is no room to hide in a startup."

MacLean views every position at a startup as a "generalist" position, but she says don't confuse that term to mean "junior." "People are hired for their specific skill set, but are called upon at any given moment to complete a variety of tasks—some far below their skill level and some that stretch them beyond their skill level. That's the fun of a startup and that's the challenge," MacLean says.

Essential Qualities Redux

When hiring, even though your list of desired qualities may spin out of control, there's a set of essential qualities you'll need in your team. More to the point, you need people willing to take the startup risk with you. And you need them to care about what you're trying to do.

Most startups lure people with the promise of stock options and the opportunity to influence that value. Otherwise, "Why would they risk 10 percent of their salary today?" says Judd Hoffman, the president of Hoffman Recruiters, a technical recruiting firm based in Boston. "You don't want to convince them they're a risk taker if they're not."

"People who come to your employ because of a personal quest, a mission or calling or whatever terms you want to use, are the kind of people who will be able to ride out the ebbs and flows of a startup," says Jeanne Allert, a principal at Ellipsis Partners, an Internet strategy consulting group. "They keep their eye on the larger goal and can pick the others up when things are a little tough."

Finding individuals who are passionate about their work is not an easy task.

"We've always been pretty picky. A lot of companies, when they build, it's numbers, numbers, numbers," says Lisa Olson, a recruiter at Flyswat, a Web search and navigation service. "We want people to be here because they want to be here."

Identifying Great Hires

Of course, passion for the business is all well and good. But without results, it won't help you get very far. When hiring, consider your startup's assumptions. You'll be working with limited resources in terms of money, staff, and material. Startups need resourceful, flexible, problem-solving types of people.

"I want to hear stories of ingenuity and clever problem-solving that involved little-to-no resources," says Allert. "Sometimes I even pose far-fetched situations just to see if the candidate has the wherewithal to come up with a solution."

"People who require lots of resources and precision to execute their plans normally don't thrive in guerrilla marketing-driven environments, where death or glory will be celebrated in six months," says Andrea Butler, the vice president of marketing and communications at bTask.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling tasks.

The position you're staffing for will also determine the qualities you look for.

"Depending on the area of the business, like technology, I would never hire somebody who had not done it before," says Matt Coffin, the CEO of LowerMyBills.com. But in affiliate marketing, says Coffin, "There's not that many people you can find who have done it." Coffin put an inexperienced hire on affiliate marketing, and that person has excelled.

Strategies for Hiring

Another strategy for hiring in bunches is to recruit teams from other organizations.

"I'm a big believer in hiring in teams," says Coffin. Among others, he hired his tech team from USWeb (now marchFirst) and his PR team from Goldmine Software. "I find the leader in the group," he says. "They go back and spread the gospel."

Kelly Phillipps, CEO of Center 7, an application service provider, built his team through his and his employees' networks. "It's good to hire the best and allow that to snowball. High-caliber people have a gravitational force of their own," he says.

Phillipps says he's willing to bring on candidates who may not have the exact skills he's looking for, but who show potential. "We hope to find some of the explicit skills, but we're willing to build them."





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