Retention: The pound of cure for recruiters
Why hire, when keeping them is so much easier?
If the cost of replacing a typical employee is up to twice the annual salary of that worker, why don’t organizations spend more time and resources trying to retain their employees? It’s a question that Beverly Kaye, EdD, CEO and founder of CareerSystems International in Sherman Oaks, CA, thinks about often. "If you walked into your office and found a computer stolen, you would rant and rave," she says. "But if a $100,000-a-year employee walks out your door, you don’t blink an eye."
Kaye says when she talks to groups or clients about retention, most react the same way: by telling her they know all this stuff already. "But sometimes, even if the intentions are in the right place, actions don’t always match up. The day’s work, the day’s problems, get in the way," she says.
Those who do think about it often seem to think keeping staff is all about money. "Most of what it takes to keep your top talent isn’t about money or perks. Most of it is in a typical manager’s control."
There are many reasons why good performers leave, says Kay Robinson, SPHR, director of human resources consulting services at the consulting firm RSM McGladrey in Wilmington, NC. First, they don’t see a link between their performance and their pay, and they see no differentiation between a good employee’s treatment and the treatment a mediocre employee gets. "They see no opportunity for advancement, they don’t see their contributions as valued, and they don’t get to use their natural talents. Sometimes they leave because there are unclear or unrealistic expectations, which means the company has failed to communicate well. But most importantly, good talent leaves because they refuse to tolerate abusive managers."
In coming up with performance appraisals, look at a manager’s or supervisor’s vacancy and turnover rates, Kaye says. Be sure you ask them why they think they lost certain talent and what they are going to do to prevent future losses. Make sure you also get feedback — anonymously is best — from employees about their managers. And rather than focusing on exit interviews for employees who are leaving, have "staying" interviews with those who remain.
Kaye explains what she does with her own team. "I take a dozen core people on a retreat each year and take them one by one for a walk on the beach. I ask each one to tell me what it will take to keep him or her on the team for another year. It usually takes about an hour for them to answer."
In a tight economy, some of what they want may be hard to give. "But I always learn something about them — something they want that is easy and that I wouldn’t have even guessed at on my own." One person wanted a new title because it would please her mother. "I never dreamed a title would have any importance to her," Kaye says. Another person wanted the chance to be on a specific project; a third wanted to be in on the brainstorming session for Kaye’s latest book. "If you don’t ask, you can’t know. And in health care, where there is so much stress and so little appreciation, you might be surprised at how far finding ways to say thank you’ will go. Just acknowledging that a patient was really hard on a nurse means a lot."
Three things make a difference in retention, says Kaye:
• knowing the importance of supporting the growth and development of your staff;
• knowing that that how you treat people one-on-one matters and is a key builder of loyalty;
• knowing that it is possible to build an environment in which people truly want to work.
A top-down issue
If leaders aren’t committed to employee retention, then you can’t expect those on the front line to pay that much attention to it, says Roger Herman, chief executive officer of The Herman Group in Greensboro, NC, and author of many books on employee retention. Once the leadership is engaged in the process, then you can ensure that your organizational culture reflects that belief.
Senior management then makes sure the leadership’s statements about retention are put into action, Herman says, and that employees are really cared about, empowered, and given meaningful work. "Human resources is in the middle of all of this, but I think it’s not an HR issue, but a management issue," he says. "HR can advise, teach, coach, and equip the managers, but the managers themselves have to do the retaining. There is plenty of research that has been done which shows conclusively that the most influential factor in how long someone stays in a position is the relationship between an employee and his or her immediate supervisor."
Kaye agrees that the role of human resources staff is not to focus on retention themselves but to instill in the manager the importance of having a "talent mindset." Talking it up isn’t enough, either. "You have to invent accountability systems that say you won’t tolerate managers who don’t treat people well. If they lose talent, if they don’t try to keep talent happy, then you’ll ding them. It’s only about profit in that the way to profit is through your people."
Robinson concurs with her peers that retention must be a core issue for an organization. "If an organization is truly focused on being the employer of choice, everything that you do, from selection and orientation to training, management, and rewards will focus on employees as an asset," says Robinson, who works extensively with health care clients.
Almost every mission statement says something about the importance of an organization’s people, Kaye notes. "But then they don’t walk the talk. Senior leaders have to model the behavior, and every single manager should have a retention plan in place for their talent. Once they have the plan written down, senior management has to have tight systems in place to ensure it is carried through." After all, she adds, most managers focus on what is inspected, not what is expected.
Robinson says having retention plans written down can be a great help. "People have to see and hear about the importance of retention all the time," she says. "It has to be listed in your core values and be part of the way you do business. It’s not a policy or a guideline but the very essence of who you are."
Put together a team of people to work on retention, Robinson recommends. "Have a cross-section of people from management to maintenance and ask them what it would take to keep them within the organization. Brainstorm about the things you want to do, be it training courses, bonuses, nonmonetary rewards, or other kinds of recognition. Often it is the little things that count, like loans for computers or buying lunch at the end of a big project. This doesn’t have to be expensive stuff."
Indeed, Kaye says, there are several books that have many ideas for inexpensive yet powerfully effective tools for keeping your good employees.
The retention committee should have a budget and a bottom-line stated strategy of what it hopes to achieve, such as keeping turnover low or reducing a high rate, says Robinson.
The current shortages in health care are expected to last well over a decade. But even when they end, and for positions for which there is no crisis in hiring and retention, this is something you should have in place, says Kaye. "It is your people who deliver your service to your patients. If you have employees who are treated badly, they can’t deliver good service to patients. So if patient care is important, and if your mission is to take care of sick people, then you better learn to take care of your own employees the same way you take care of patients."
Robinson says it is vital to care about retention, regardless of the recruiting climate. "When you do need to recruit, if you don’t show you care about keeping your employees and keeping them happy, then people won’t come to you. Turnover is costly, and not just because of the costs of bringing in a new person. It costs you in productivity, low morale, overtime, and training. And in a health care setting, it can even impact outcomes and quality of patient care. When you lose people, you aren’t losing the worst of your team, you are losing the best and brightest."
Employees are smart, she says. "If you want to attract and keep the best, you have to treat them that way, and it has to be a forever strategy."
Further Reading on Employee Retention
• Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business: 24 Ways to Hang on to Your Most Valuable Talent by F. Leigh Branham, American Management Association, November 2000.
• Keeping Good People: Strategies for Solving the Dilemma of the Decade by Roger E. Herman, McGraw-Hill, December 1991.
• How to Become an Employer of Choice by Roger E. Herman and Joyce L. Gioia, Oak Hill, April 2000.
• Love em or Lose em: Getting Good People to Stay by Sharon Jordan-Evans and Beverly Kaye, Berret-Koehler, April 2002.
• 1001 Ways to Reward Employees by Bob Nelson and Kenneth H. Blanchard, Workman Publishing Company, January 1994.
• First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, Touchstone Books, May 1999.
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