|
|
|
Retention
Money is a convenient and overused excuse for
leaving. It's the most common excuse that an employee quits the
organization for money, but is rarely an actual excuse. An employee
working in any organization values challenge, developmental opportunities,
friendships with peers and supervisors, flexibility, appreciation and
other real benefits more in their work environment, which is the actual
need in most of the cases.
Though Money is a natural and fundamental concern. Before you spend a
penny on additional salary, benefits or other programs, it is important to
find out specifically what is broken in your relationship with employees.
If you don't do this, you risk fixing the wrong things and wasting
precious money, time, effort and good will.
Here are a few data-gathering techniques:
|
|
|
Exit interviews -
Find out what leads your employees to read want ads or accept a call from
a recruiter in the first place. Listener will glean a lot of good
information from these questions. There are a number of good questions you
can use to get the information you need. One of my favorites is “Tell me
about the three things you'd change tomorrow if you owned the company.”
Another is “What things, if changed, would have prevented you from
considering another job?” An active and patient listener will glean a lot
of good information from these questions. |
Focus groups and surveys
There are a number of decent employee-opinion survey products commercially
available. Learning to do a focus group is easily within the grasp of most
HR professionals. Focus groups and surveys done by outside personnel tend
to get more forthright answers than those done by in-house personnel.
Retention interviews
Identify the employees you really, really need to keep. Sit down with them
and discuss the company, their personal satisfaction, ideas to make their
job even better than it is, and related topics. Showing your interest is
often rewarded with additional commitment and longevity.
|
|
|
One word of caution for all of these techniques: Don't use them if
you aren't willing to listen to what people think. More important, if you
are not willing to consider making changes, you are well advised not to
ask.
The “sugar high” of raised expectations
quickly diminishes into all-time lows of employee morale if people think
you aren't listening. You will find that the answers to turnover are not
as elusive as you may think. They are, in reality, fairly basic.
|
The suggestions you harvest from employees
will help you design the practical solutions you need and can afford.
Contributing Writer: Shuporna
Chakraborty
shuporna.chakraborty@gmail.com
|
|
|
|
