Employee Retention Techniques For Effective Managers
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Employee retention is a key measure of the health of your company. If you are losing critical team members, you can safely bet that other people in your department are looking as well.
To retain staff, Effective Managers begin by communicating clear job expectations to the employee. They share their vision of success to each employee in terms of expected deliverables and job performance.
Frequent feedback and appropriate employee recognition are critical activities that effective managers use to motivate their staff to reach for higher levels of performance. His staff leaves meetings with their manager feeling empowered and confident in their ability to accomplish their assignments.
Employee complaints about managers and supervisors center on these areas. Employees leave companies whom managers fail to:
Set Clear Expectations
Employees want to know what is expected in terms of productivity, work quality and quantity. Expected behaviors or competencies with specific examples that illustrate how to demonstrate the desired competencies is critical. A manager who believes “he will know it when he sees it” but can’t describe what he expects should expect an increase in employee turnover.
Create An Atmosphere of Fairness.
Effective Managers treat others fairly. Everyone is expected to follow the department norms in terms of absences, breaks, and vacations. Assignments should be given based upon ability and not personal bias. He should have an open door policy and be willing to explain his decisions to anyone on his staff.
Discuss Career Development and Compensation Potential.
One of the main reasons employees leave is perceived lack of career development. If your company has a policy about tuition reimbursement , guidelines concerning outside training, or views about industry association participation, then share that openly with your staff.
Openly share your process for determining raises or bonuses. Believe me, your employees know what the current compensation market is for their particular job. If they believe their total compensation is not fair, they will start looking and once they start looking, they will find something. As a manager you job is to not give them a reason to start seeking other opportunities in the first place.
Provide Regular Performance Feedback.
Everyone, even your best performers, want to know how they are doing and where they can improve. Waiting until an annual performance review is too infrequent. Schedule a routine time to discuss how an employee is performing and also ask them how you could help them. You might get some valuable information that will help you to improve as a manager. A real double benefit.
Hold Routine Staff Communication Meetings.
These meetings are two-fold. They provide an opportunity to share news about goals and objectives and the company performance, but they also provide a forum for the team to ask questions. A lot of people will not ask a question in private but feel more comfortable in a group setting. Also, everyone hears the same answers.
Additionally, you can tell a lot about the employee climate by the gestures and actions in these group settings. In a time when so much information is shared via email, there is still a need to communicate in person. Your employees will appreciate your taking the time to hold these meetings.
Make Employees Feel Recognized, Appreciated, and Rewarded.
Practicing saying “Thanks” goes a long way in reducing employee attrition. There are lots of free or low cost recognition ideas that will show your staff that you care. If your company has an employee incentive plan, then make sure everyone understands it and as their manager you should actively support it.
Practicing these Employee Retention Strategies will help keep your most desirable staff with your team and make your job as manager much easier.
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Tagged With Career Development, Effective Manager, Employee Attrition, Employee Performance, Employee Retention, Recognition Techniques