-1.jpg)
The success of your business relies on the individual and combined skill of your people.
Top performers are the ones who make a company hum. Not only are they exceptionally capable and productive, they develop in-depth knowledge of your business and products, can fix things when they go wrong, lead innovation, and serve as mentors to other employees.
They are the people who, in a highly-competitive job market, you are going to find very hard to replace (if you can replace them at all). So it makes sense to do all you can to retain your good workers and develop a highly-productive, dependable workforce.
Once you have understood some of the main reasons why talented employees might leave, the next thing to do is develop strategies to keep your top performers and make your company a place where people want to come to work.
1. Be proactive
The 2022 Workplace Wellbeing Survey by nib New Zealand and the Employers and Manufacturers Association found 1 in 4 Kiwi workers intend to change jobs in the next 12 months.
No one wants to be churning staff at that rate, but many companies overlook the need to have a long-term strategy for retaining their skilled people.
Design an employee retention program to give your top people reasons to stick with you. Don’t wait until you feel an employee is going to leave – or worse, you’re sitting in the exit interview – and try to convince them to stay or match another job offer.
Ensure you understand each person's needs and can meet some or all of them, whether it be better pay, improved work-life balance, career development, or more benefits.
Not only will your skilled workers be around to help the company succeed, they’ll be able to pass on their knowledge and abilities so you’ll be better covered if you ever need to replace them.
2. Hire the right people
Staff retention starts right at the beginning of the employment process. It sounds obvious, but there are many things to think about before you even schedule an interview.
Identify the sorts of skills, backgrounds, or personality traits your top employees have in common. Understand your company culture and pinpoint the aspects of it that are particularly relevant to the job.
When you start screening applicants, think about how candidates might fit with the company and the existing team, and whether they have the skills to assist your business with its short and long-term goals.
Look for those with longevity at previous jobs, especially if the company went through difficult times, or a person who plays team sports or volunteers.
People who show commitment, are self-motivated and interested in developing their skills and careers will be more loyal than those motivated by money and power.
Then, when you are ready to make a job offer, establish clear expectations so you can avoid misunderstandings or disappointments down the track.
Get more top recruitment tips.
3. Support wellbeing
The disruption and pressures of the past few years have shone a spotlight on employee health and wellbeing.
People now expect their workplace to prioritise not only their physical health and safety, but their mental wellbeing as well (the 2022 Workplace Wellbeing Survey found 65% of workers who intended to stay in their jobs worked for businesses that are proactive about wellbeing).
There are many aspects to supporting employee wellbeing, from offering an Employee Assistance Programme to raising awareness of mental health and promoting open conversations with your team.
Also don't forget to prioritise your own mental (and physical) health and resilience, for your own good and that of the wider business.
Learn more strategies for building resilience in your people.
Watch: Sylvie's tops tips for retaining talent
4. Offer career paths and professional development
Plan for the long term. While top talent may naturally exceed in their roles, there’s no guarantee they will want to stay there forever.
You need to understand how key staff see their career progressing. 74% of respondents who were planning to change jobs in the Workplace Wellbeing Survey said they were looking for employers offering a career development strategy linked to a recognition and rewards programme.
Identify their career goals, then work with them on a plan to attain them and grow with the company.
Promote from within as often as possible and provide equal opportunities. This sends a clear message that you are committed to developing future leaders, and you want your people to drive the company's success and share in it.
Learning and acquiring new skills need to be another core focus. The nature of work keeps changing and employees (and companies) need to keep pace. This doesn’t only mean attending formal training courses and gaining qualifications; encourage employees to learn by doing, each project and every task. Give them the freedom to not get it right the first time, and then share those learnings with the wider team.
Your high achievers will end up being your best workplace trainers.
5. Make your employee benefits personal
We all have different motivations, so tailor your staff retention strategies to individual employees.
Find out what fires your skilled staff up. Financial incentives might not be as high on the list as you think.
Instead, your top performers may care more about being challenged by their work, learning and growing, or having more workplace flexibility.
Understanding the needs of your employees and customising each person’s benefits package and working conditions will definitely take some work on management’s part. But the time and effort will help your people feel truly valued, boosting employee satisfaction and, ultimately, loyalty.
6. Keep communication open
More than ever, employees want a company culture of openness and transparency. They want to know how the company is doing, what it values, where it is going, and how their efforts fit into that plan.
If your workplace has an open environment where management shares information and employees feel free to speak their minds, you will foster a sense of shared purpose, and you can expect it to be easier to retain skilled staff.
Make communication regular and ongoing, both formally and informally. Give performance feedback, hold meetings so people can offer ideas and ask questions, and encourage individuals and teams to share information.
Occasionally, it may help to bring in an impartial third party for staff to talk to so you can get a gauge of how they really feel.
Make sure everyone in the business is committed to open communication. Invest in training and development for management to cultivate their interpersonal skills.
Listening to your employees and acting on what they say will help them feel valued.
Learn the best ways to manage workplace issues.
7. Make work meaningful
Rather than reactively managing your people’s performance, concentrate on finding ways to keep the work they do meaningful and challenging.
More than most, your high achievers will want to use and extend their skills, so encourage them to take the initiative, remove barriers to getting work done, and offer job flexibility as much as possible.
Keep reviewing and adjusting roles to fit strengths and talents. As part of your ongoing communication, ask people why they work for you and what you can do to make things better. Try to keep it positive and focussed on aspects of the job that can be improved.
Listen closely to what your top employees say; you’ll get many good ideas, not only for improving work conditions but other areas of your business as well. You’ll also get a better understanding of why people might be attracted to your company, which will help with recruitment.
As always, keep any promises you make.
8. Reward success, understand failure
Understanding and accurately measuring employee performance and satisfaction, and then recognising and rewarding achievement, will support your ongoing retention efforts.
Again, this should be built into the company culture, not only as part of your formal performance review system, but also more casual acts of appreciation, such as lunches out or simple workplace congratulations.
Look at ways to offer rewards for employees who stay with you for a predetermined period or exceed their performance goals.
Your high achievers might not be the only ones who go above and beyond, and if you reward every good example, you'll create a culture where everyone wants to be one.
Of course, the flipside to achievement and success is underperformance and failure. You should expect this; it happens in all workplaces, even to the strongest performers.
Instead of punishing poor performance, use it to get to the heart of issues and learn lessons from them.
Your skilled people may be overworked or have been promoted into a role they weren’t ready for. Personal issues may be affecting their ability to focus on work.
Offer support and flexibility, as good people will want to stay with a company that takes the time and effort to understand and solve problems.
