Retaining your best employees

Retaining Your best employees

Are you retaining your best employees?

How do you know who qualifies as “best”?   Years ago Jack Welch had each level of employee rate those below them and asked them to eliminate the bottom 10% 

BUT – what were they evaluating?  Was it biased?  How could you tell?

So the first problem trying to answer my question – is how do you define “best.”  Clearly, it is different for different activities – but it is also different based on who is doing the evaluating.  Is it possible to create a fair and neutral evaluation tool?

Next of course are the decisions necessary to make sure that you retain those you wish to retain. 

Which remind me of something I so strongly dislike:  “Last in first out.”   Yes, I know its done to prevent anyone thinking there was favoritism or discrimination – but you might be throwing away some of your best employees if you do this during a layoff. 

What’s more important – safety or getting the best value from those you employ? 

Another way to guarantee loss of great employees is not reward them for their extra efforts.  If you have a policy of “even-ness” or “fair-ness” it means that everyone with the same job title gets the same pay.  BUT, what if one of them works really hard and is not only competent but creative and the other is mediocre, doing just enough to not get in trouble?  You will lose the better employee soon.

The very best way to lose your very best people is to have a policy that says from each according to his/her ability to each according to her/his needs.  Under this policy, your janitor might be eligible for a higher salary than your chief engineer. 

Another thing to remember, is sometimes the person doing the same routine work day in and day out is one of your best.  He or she is reliable, careful, and conscientious.  Although not the innovator or creator, this steady as a rock person is needed in your organization – and needs to be recognized as one of the best. 

We tend to think only the more creative and flamboyant activities show us the best – but let’s never forget the slow and steady that are the root of everything that your organization needs daily. 

There are levels of “best” – not just the shining stars. 

Another thing to consider is what you reward.  Too many companies reward quantity because it is easily measurable and forget about quality – which may be more subjective.  BUT if you only reward quantity, quality will surely suffer. 

Think about a call center operator.  Do they stay on the line with the customer until the problem is solved – or are they quick to get off the phone so they can take the next call and meet – or exceed their numbers? 

What about the person on the assembly line?  Move it fast – or make sure its right? 

SO – how do you retain your best employees? 

1. 1.    Be aware of who does what and how
2. 2.    Have a list of what you can reward
3. 3.    The most creative and innovative must be rewarded
4. 4.    keep quality in mind not just quantity
5. 5.    Remember that the steady-routine person is also valuable
6. 6.    Have small rewards and recognitions that you can freely give as you notice something special.
7. 7.    Have a budget for bigger rewards – for individuals as well as for teams
8. 8.    Raises and bonuses – to those deserving (don’t keep it even)
9. 9.    Opportunities to present to the executive staff for the deserving
10. 10. More challenging assignments
11. 11. Recognizing their ideas in team meetings and brainstorming meetings
12. 12. Public recognition:  Newsletters, bulletin boards, awards they can keep in their cubicles, etc.
13. 13. Talk to them – make sure they are happy!

I’m sure there are other ways as well – what do you do to retain your best employees?  I’d love to hear from you.

Values - Culture and Change

Do the CEO’s values trickle down – or do they dissipate and change over time as the company grows?

If you read the story of In-N-Out Burger (and the first half of the book is worth reading) Mrs. Snyder, one of the owners,  laments the fact that they have grown so big she no longer knows anyone by their first name.

Corporate CEOs have reported similar problems – as they grow they no longer have the same level of “touch” and influence on their staff.  Layers and layers, levels and levels get in the way.

When you go from start-up where you have hand-picked your team – to departments and divisions you, the CEO, lose touch – and become far less effective in making sure the culture and values of your company stay as you wish them to be.

So, how do your values trickle down?

Having signs in the lobby espousing “our values” has limited (if any) value.

I consulted with – coached/mentored – many people who were on the management staff of one of the largest semi-conductor companies in Silicon valley.  The values of their C-Level staff included allowing constructive criticism (the opposite of the tyranny of pleasantness.)  What was meant by this was to allow people to actually discuss the merits of an idea freely.  To chew it over and come to the best decision.  In other words, discuss the idea, the plan – not attack the people – not go along to get along if you felt strongly this wasn’t the best way to do it.

Unfortunately, as it “trickled down” – some managers used the concept as an excuse to ridicule staff members.  Not what was intended!  And, of course once managers ridiculed it was license for everyone on that team to be nasty to each other.  Not the intent of the C-level executives at all.

In another case I asked the VP of HR doing an interview with me what the company values were – and he responded they didn’t have any – but if someone “crossed the line” they would get fired.  I was shocked and expressed my views that it wasn’t a good way to help employees know what was expected of them.  P.S. I didn’t get the consulting contract – he liked his ‘loose” way.

One of my favorite examples though is when a new CEO came into a government agency that had been limping along and hired me to:  “Raise the Bar – Make things Better.”  That was my mandate and that allowed me to work at every level in the organization, starting with their C level staff and moving down to department heads, and staff inside the departments.  We made major changes in the culture, the work ethic, and the values of the people in this agency.  AND – they were reinforced by team workshops that were created for a variety of reasons, such as for process improvement, or 360% evaluations (which I conducted) etc. 

What I am saying is that you can’t just pronounce you want certain values.  You need to make sure everyone understands them – as you intend them to be understood  – agrees with them – and lives them.

Unless reinforced frequently (maybe quarterly) in many cases there will be slippage – or as someone told me recently “softened/”   This is what is mean by “regression to the mean.”

Change requires solidification and reinforcement.  Especially culture/value change.  It must be discussed, role-modeled at all upper levels in the organization, reinforced, and reinforced again. 

Coming back to the example of the hamburger chain – they are now all over the country and the Snyder family (I think they still own the franchise) can’t be everywhere at once.  SO – they have district managers who are responsible for maintaining the quality and culture in all the restaurants.  If you have ever gone into one you will notice tha they are spotlessly clean and staff actually smiles.

To look at another – more extreme example – I was talking with the Senior Vice-President of Marketing for a fortune 100 software company and she told me that her prime responsibility was to “make sure everything fit properly into the landscape.”

I love that expression.  She went on to explain that they had marketing and sales people all over the world, and although there needed to be uniqueness in how they marketed to a particular culture – it all had to fit together – into the overall design fo the company.

SO:  my message:  Don’t take anything for granted.  Your values will be misunderstood, there will be slippage and your reputation and bottom line will suffer unless you make sure that they are being continually reinforced in the manner in which you intended.
 

Managing Remotely

Managing Remotely

It happens all the time.  Your staff is working remotely and suddenly you realize you didn’t get the information you requested last week.  What do you do?

Do you immediately chastise them for not sending you the information?  NO!

Now you have to check your voice mail messages, your text messages, your personal e-mail and your office email addresses, and maybe even facebook or linkedin. 

The problem is two-fold.  One:  there are too many ways in which we communicate with each other these days.

Two:  We need to create processes (systems) with our staff so they know how to communicate with us – and what to use when.

In addition, we need to honor the system once we create it. 

There is no perfect system – but here’s my suggestion. 

First and foremost – have a code for sending/receiving e-mails. 

Red – for urgent – need your response asap

Yellow – important – today or tomorrow please

Green – this week

Blue – whenever….

I also suggest having them use cc when they don’t need a response, but just want to make sure you are being kept in the loop/

What about other tools:   IM, Video, Phone?  

IM – if your red code on the e—mail didn’t get a timely answer 

Video conferences are vitally important to help people on your teams get to know each other – and of course to help you get to know them.  They are also useful when you have brainstorming, or conflict to resolve – or anything really that requires give-and-take in a more personal and informal manner. 

Sometimes you just need to talk it out with an individual on the phone.,  This is especially true if there has been mis-communication in the e-mail exchanges.  If you need it – schedule it.  Also let your staff know that they too can use this medium if they feel that something requires a more detailed or complicated explanation or discussion.  Be sure that you allow time for these – and that your staff has permission to schedule them as they feel the need. 

I also recommend that both sides of a phone conversation take notes – and send each other their e-mail understanding of the salient points and decisions made during the phone conversation.  This takes a few minutes – but the time and aggravation it saves make it well worth it. 

Person-to-person – have we forgotten all about it?  It is by far the best way to communicate.  Not only are there words but there are facial expressions and body-language all giving us context and clues. 

It is so important to have your team members meet each other, get to know each other, and feel connected to each other.  This is the “honey” that helps build goodwill and putting in the extra effort.’

If staff is local – you can bring them together every other week.  If just a car or train ride away – maybe once a month.  If they are every where in the country, perhaps you need to be more frugal and only bring them together quarterly.  Even if they are in other countries and you can only afford to do it twice – or even once – a year, DO IT.  The rewards will be great. 

As a manager, if you can I’d strongly suggest you go to your people monthly or quarterly if you can’t do it monthly.  Again, there is nothing more valuable than face-to-face communication. 

Yes, it costs money.  Yes, it is inconvenient.  Yes, it takes time away from actually doing the work.  But if you could measure the value received against the perceived costs, you’d fine that the scales are slanted heavily in the direction of more value – much more value – than costs.