Recognition as a retention tool
21st December 2011
Finding new employees can be a costly and time-consuming task. Advertising the role, interviewing, a possible drop in productivity if nobody is doing the vacant job and training a new starter are all part of a process that highlights the importance of staff retention.
Retaining key employees year on year not only saves you the above, but also increases your average in-house knowledge and experience, breeds loyalty and helps with succession planning.
There are a number of retention techniques you can deploy to keep staff engaged and many of them come under the theme of “recognition”.
Recognition
The importance of acknowledging employees’ contributions is vital. People like to know when they have done well because it makes them feel that their effort was worthwhile and appreciated. Failing to do acknowledge them can be de-motivating and lead to reduced productivity, pride in their work or even them leaving.
Recognition can take a simple verbal form or be something more tangible. Incentives are an excellent way of keeping staff morale and motivation up, especially in target-driven industries. Performance-related pay is fine, but recognising what your employees actually want is also worthwhile, for example bespoke or optional benefits to suit their situation, or an improvement on their work/life balance, such as flexible hours.
A more formal verbal recognition can be given through appraisals. Employees like to receive feedback because they have no other way of knowing how their manager rates their performance. Not only do regular appraisals provide you with an opportunity to tell your team what they are doing well, you can also offer constructive criticism, set new goals to work to and concerns can be raised that one might not want to discuss in front of colleagues.
An open environment
Outside of the appraisal scenario, it is important to recognise that employees need to be able to speak their mind, voice concerns and express their ideas. Publicly acknowledging open communication channels and encouraging a forum and environment where people can share their thoughts is important. If people feel restricted or too scared to speak up, they are likely to resent the company and the subsequent bad atmosphere created could result in them leaving.
Don’t underestimate your staff
To retain the best employees, it is important to make sure that you recognise their talents, capabilities and ambitions. Underestimating what they can do or not acknowledging how far they want to go will make them feel unappreciated, undervalued and underachieving.
If someone is competent enough to take on something new, propose that they do. If someone has a definite career path in mind, make sure that the training and development opportunities are there, so that they don’t seek them elsewhere. Never underestimate an employee’s take on the bigger picture either – if they have defined career ambitions, they will want to have confidence that existing management and senior staff can ensure the company’s success, otherwise they might start looking for a better prospect.
Retention can be difficult to manage but when done correctly, the benefits are clear. With motivated staff and happy employees, any company is going to perform to the best of its ability. Recognising this is the first step to success.
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2 Responses to “Recognition as a retention tool”
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I totally agree. I try and comment on all of my staffs achievements however small that comment may be from a simple “thanks” to perhaps a comment on the volume of documents they processed during the month/week/day. Last year I was so pleased with my ledger clerk who continually surpassed expectations and always went the extra mile when needed without ever being asked to, that I increased her salary by 25%. She was quite low paid and the increase had virtually no impact on my client but it totally rocked her world and productivity from her continued to soar.
Some companies are good at recognising how to get the best from their staff, but I have seen others which are very rigid – you take their package or leave. When that package includes long hours as a minimum, rigid leave entitlements and bonuses and pensions wrapped up in lots of small print, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Either they are consciously using this to achieve mini-me conformity in their staff or they lack any emotional intelligence. Either way, I am happier to work on an interim basis than to feel trapped in such a company.