Recruiting skilled and talented employees who can add substantial value to the company is a serious challenge for most employers. However, it is an even bigger challenge to retain such employees in the business as most tend to quit in search of better career opportunities and higher pay. Here we are going to talk about how you can make your most valued employees stay within the comp-any and help your business prosper. Read on.....
Retaining Your Employees
In a recent article, Entrepreneur, Results-Oriented CEO and Author Brett Fox writes “Employees, in my experience, have usually made up their mind when they resign. It’s become an emotional issue, and it’s very difficult to overcome emotion. Thus my perfect batting average. My view is simply, 'Don't let employees get to the point where they want to quit'.”
He believes that it is important to treat everyone properly, create a great work culture, assign interesting and challenging work and this will help to increase employee retention across all levels. Fox states “We unabashedly stole our company culture from Netflix with a little bit of Zappos and Sandy Koufax thrown in. We were thieves and robbers, but I’d like to think we were just being smart. I’ve always felt you can take inspiration from many different sources, not just from your industry.” He adds “I was fortunate to be exposed to Reed Hastings' (CEO of Netflix) wonderful culture manifesto (Culture) right after we started operations, and many parts of it resonated with me. I shared it with our executive staff, and they liked it as well.”
Here we are going to have a look at 5 important things that Brett Fox believes will help any company to develop a “fantastic” culture.
Hiring The Right Guy
Imagine you run a start-up with a team of 20 employees. What happens when you realise you have one bad performer? It means that 5 per cent of the workforce is incapable and ineffective. This is where you need to take fast action to fix your recruiting mistakes. However, you need to deal with terminations in the proper manner. Fox writes “Nothing kills a company quicker than mediocre co-workers, and this is especially true at a start-up where there is tremendous pressure to hire key personnel.”
Offering A Good Severance Package
You are bound to encounter different types of employees, but it can be overlooked as long as they perform effectively and embody the values of the business. According to Entrepreneur Brett Fox “It’s easy to tolerate jerks when things are going well, but things don’t always go well. One jerk, especially in a small start-up, can destroy a company. Hiring pressure can push you to hire a jerk, and you will likely regret it. We did hire a couple of jerks along the way. Shortly thereafter, they were given a generous severance package.”
Offering Freedom Is Important
Fox writes that only responsible employees are “worthy of freedom” and tend to thrive when provided freedom. Usually most businesses tend to impose more rules, restrictions and procedures as they grow. But it is imperative that businesses resist the temptation to do so no matter what.
He adds “Instead, make the bold decision that Netflix made to increase employee freedom (shown brilliantly in slides 43 and 55). We did, and it paid off for the team. Do it, and your team’s motivation will go up big time.”
No Vacation Policies
Yes, make sure you don't have any particular vacation policy, instead allow your employees to take as many vacations as they need, provided they get their work done effectively and without delay. Of course there is the possibility that your employees might misuse this opportunity. But it can create a negative outcome only if you are unable to recruit the right employees. In his post, Fox says “Hire the right people and this policy is self-correcting. By the way, a hidden benefit is that you don’t have to financially reserve for vacation when you go to a no vacation policy.”
What's Best For Business
You need to make sure that all policies are formed to enable the employees to work in the best interest of your company. Fox writes “The executive staff had a vigorous debate about enacting a rigid expense and travel policy. Again, the worry was abuse. Our theory was that it’s self-correcting. Employees that continually abused the policy would be given a generous severance package. I do remember one employee who tried to expense a one-mile car trip to interview a candidate. Can you imagine receiving a $0.55 expense report? I couldn’t. We talked about it in our staff meeting, and one of his peers set him straight.”
So there you have it...I hope these tips help you to create an excellent work environment that not only challenges and motivates your employees but also boost employees retention as well. Fox concludes by saying “All of this is great, but there is one more thing you, as a leader, need to do, no you MUST DO, to retain employees: You need to really care about your team.”
Feel free to leave your comments below. I would love to know what you think about this topic and how you retain your employees.
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