101: Retaining talent
In today’s economy, there’s a lot of focus on recruiting top-tier talent. But once someone grows from a new hire to an invaluable asset, how do you go about keeping them? It is, after all, less expensive to keep existing employees instead of adding new ones, and low turnover can be an indicator of a strong company culture.
Keep communication open. You may be the boss, but even you don’t have all the answers. Fostering a collaborative work environment comes with allowing employees to speak their minds openly, not anonymously, and it involves an approach a bit more hands-on than a casual open-door policy. “If you really want to know what people think about something, go ask them,” James Detert and Ethan Burris wrote in the Harvard Business Review. “Otherwise, employees might seek you out only when things are getting really bad for them.”
Make things flexible. In the current workplace, having the option to work remotely seems like it might be a given. But creating a flexible work environment goes beyond the ability to work from home. “You should be regularly checking in with your team to gauge their workload and overall happiness at the company,” Spencer Hadelman, CEO of Advantage Marketing, wrote on Forbes.com. “Scheduling team meetings that are just check-ins that have nothing to do with work is another tactic I’ve found successful in creating a great company.”
Tailor professional development. Getting opportunities to learn and grow builds confidence, but those opportunities are going to look different for everyone. A less experienced employee, for example, might benefit from working on a project where he or she can learn from more senior colleagues, whereas someone with a longer tenure would do better taking risks and expanding beyond their comfort zones, Margaret Rogers wrote in the Harvard Business Review. “Remember, safety is necessary when confidence is low, but pushing employees to the edge of discomfort results in real development.”
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