From assets to investors

T+D, April, 2003 by Beverly Kaye, Sharon Jordan-Evans

It's time to view employees more as investors in your organization rather than its assets. That's just one epiphany of 25 global talent leaders who convened in Los Angeles to discuss, debate, benchmark, and collaborate on the timely topic of engaging and retaining talent.

How do you build a culture that engages and retains talent in an uncertain economy?

How can you foster loyalty and commitment in your workplace?

Those were key questions addressed at the second annual engagement and retention think tank (Go To) T D, January 2002, to read about the first meeting. This year, 25 global talent leaders convened in Los Angeles, to discuss, debate, benchmark, and collaborate on the timely topic of engaging and retaining talent. Collectively, they acknowledged that the current challenge isn't just about retaining talented people but, more important, about fully engaging them.

It's about capturing people's minds and hearts at each stage of their work lives. To be fully engaged requires emotional involvement in one's work. That leads to increased productivity and, in turn, higher customer satisfaction and greater profits. Engaged employees bring value to organizations and improve their competitive positions. In turn, these employees reap personal rewards from their work. Their engagement, commitment, and loyalty are a result of being challenged, developed, appreciated, heard, and respected.

All of these global talent leaders agreed that the term employee retention has acquired new meaning or, perhaps, new importance during recent economic turmoil. They see disengaged employees as psychological casualties of talent mismanagement; the employees who leave are the physical casualties. Both types drain an organization of the brainpower and commitment that are viral to ensuring productivity and profitability.

So, how to keep them?

The findings from Career Systems International's ongoing Retention Driver Survey support what the talent leaders found: There is no mystery about what keeps good people in their organizations.

The key factors:

* challenging and exciting work

* career growth

* development

* a good boss

* working with great people

* fair pay.

The challenge lies in how to apply that knowledge in fast-paced, competitive work environments. It's interesting to note that those retention drivers didn't change much from 1998 to 2002, despite drastic shifts in the U.S. economy and labor market.

Key findings, best practices

Once the global talent leaders discussed current realities and defined engagement and retention, they shared key findings and best practices. We have summarized them here. Some are short and may seem basic but could remind you of something you haven't been doing. Others are complex and may represent innovative thinking. Any could spark your creativity and help you build or strengthen an engagement-and-retention culture in your organization.

Reciprocity is key. Employees are investors in their companies and expect a return on their investment. Without it, they leave--physically or psychologically. Retention is based on the concept of reciprocity. If you create the kind of environment people want to work in, they'll deliver. When people are ignored, they can undermine overall productivity. Employees actually have the power to fire their bosses--by delivering weak performance and low productivity.

Weave retention into the DNA.

Managers who successfully retain and engage talented people have woven retention and engagement deeply into the fabric of their organizations. They don't treat retention as another event to focus on when time permits, nor do they stamp it onto an already message-laden culture. Instead, they strive to make retention and engagement an ongoing expectation of their management teams.

One organization experienced a devastating reduction in business in a geographic region, which it attributed to talent turnover. The business downturn was reversed through a manager-focused initiative that required

* managers to hold a "stay" interview with every employee

* each unit to select a distinct retention strategy from a menu of many options and implement it

* managers to submit bimonthly reports about their retention activities.

While developing managers into talent-focused leaders, this organization created a reward program for its managers, Re-Recruit New Hires ASAP. Strong leaders have the power and influence to build loyalty in an organization. Loyalty is earned, not a given, and employee loyalty is earned early on. It begins with orientation.

One talent leader describes his organization's newhire program as focused on these basics: Seek great job fir, train early and consistently, and hold managers accountable. The organization consistently trains talent (especially in customer service) and, at regular intervals, evaluates job fir. Managers are required to create development plans with each employee and have bonus-based scorecards that measure not just turnover reductions, but also employee engagement.

Another talent leader strongly emphasizes the importance of treating an employee's first year as the beginning of the retention cycle. The focus should be on an effective on-boarding process and an in-depth introduction to the culture. The first, and continuing, handshake engages the employee and builds a relationship that extends the bond over time. This organization increased its ability to lure the best and the brightest with its comprehensive orientation program. The attention to on-boarding played a major role in the organization-wide attrition rate, which dipped below 4 percent, with an even lower rate among newly hired employees.