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EMPLOYEE RETENTION: HOW TO KEEP THE KEEPERS AND MAINTAIN OPTIMAL TURNOVER LEVELS

How to treat those who leave and those who remain

The way you treat people when they leave a company – voluntarily or through a reduction in force (RIF) – impacts retention. In short, one of the keys to retention is how you treat those who exit. It’s necessary to be respectful and fair, to make the cut as clean as possible instead of doing it multiple times. Your treatment of the people who are asked to leave is going to be weighed by those who remain. If you make multiple layoffs, those people – as well as people outside your organization – are going to wonder what’s going on with your company. You must work hard to build trust and respect among those who are left. This means not hiding the facts. If you do, you will be found out at some point. To prepare for a RIF, dot your I’s and cross your T’s. Have your business rationale at hand, your selection criteria developed, your managers trained, your severance packages ready and your succession planning in place. You want to execute simultaneously with precision but with humanity. Treat people with respect – don’t notify them with an impersonal e-mail or conference call. Communicate openly and truthfully.

How to structure an effective retention policy

A lot of thought goes into who gets retained and who isn’t – but remember to think about retention policies for the long-term. Employee retention – and the intellectual capital within your workforce – is critical to success. Research has shown that the reasons people leave employers are very different from the reasons they stay. The exit interviewee may say “I’ve found another job,” or “the pay is better,” but nine times out of 10, those aren’t the reasons the person started looking around in the first place. The reason they start looking is because they don’t feel appreciated.