How do you keep your star employees from walking away?

How do you keep your star employees from walking away? InterSearch Slovenia‘s perspective

Star employees and consultants do more than just a good job. They radiate a positive attitude and improve on tasks, not just complete them. They may even set higher standards for their work than their manager does.

In the case of star employees, preventing them from leaving is the best solution. If your star employees do decide to walk away, it could take time and money to replace them. Research shows that it can take up to six weeks to hire for a management-level role. And then there is usually also the notice period that can add up another few months before the candidate can actually join the new organization. The onboarding process usually takes the longest. It’s estimated that it takes at least a year for a new employee to match the productivity of the person they’re replacing. To sum up, with the loss of a star employee and the hiring of a new one, we lose more than a year.

So, what are the steps that every manager should consider in order to retain the star employees?

• Encourage internal movement

“Suddenly, internal mobility has become much more important than it was when there was a tight labor market” says Robin Erickson, PhD, principal researcher at The Conference Board.

Internal mobility refers to the change of the role that an employee may choose to engage in within the company, shifting from one organizational unit to a different one and perform different activities. Internal movement is crucial in tightening skills gaps, preparing employees and company for the labor market of tomorrow, as the labor market continues to narrow, and skills expire at a rapid rate.

Mr. Erickson added: “Before, it was easier to find a candidate externally who had the required skills. But with hiring freezes during COVID-19, if you’re not allowed to hire from outside, you now have to find people inside for critical roles.”

• Figure out what they value

Business owners should know that they have to offer competitive pay and benefits to job seekers. But there are also many other different factors that employees should consider when evaluating a potential offer:

– Flexible Schedule (work – life balance)
– Feeling valued
– Interesting work
– Opportunity to Advance
– Development
– Recognition
– Team and working atmosphere
– Working from home

• Allow funding for development

Employee development helps attract and keep great employees. It helps them to stay on top of changes so they can deliver great work.
Development of employees helps them feel engaged, skilled, and motivated. It allows them to work in the direction of the company’s business goals.

• Provide feedback—positive and negative

Feedback is always given to a person or a team of people regarding the effect their behavior is having on another person, the organization, the customer, or the team.
Positive feedback is when you tell someone about their good performance. This feedback must be timely, specific, and frequent.
Constructive feedback alerts an individual to an area in which their performance could improve. This is not criticism and it should always be directed to the actions taken, not to the person. The main purpose of negative feedback is to help people understand where they stand in relation to expected or productive job behavior.

• Be an awesome manager

An awesome manager is able to blend into the background, changing small things to great effect. Becoming a better or even an awesome manager isn’t something that magically happens overnight. It’s a process… 5 key tips to become one:
– Motivate your employees
– Make people feel good
– Tell your employees how much you appreciate them (at least from time to time)
– Treat everyone equally
– Treat your employees well

Written by Kaja Sukovic, Project manager P&P InterSearch Slovenia