In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Dr. John Graham, professor at Duke University’s Faqua School of Business, stated that CFO’s top concern is hiring and retaining qualified workers.
The Center for American Progress found that the cost to a company for the loss of a highly skilled employee is 213% of that employee’s annual salary.
From this, you would imagine that the top priority of companies is to have an employee retention strategy. Many do not.
Something that can be done right away:
Acknowledge and reward contributions made by your existing staff in creative ways. This will energize team members and help them to feel a sense of belonging.
Rewards do not have to be financial, rather, find out what is seen by each team member as their own measure of success and use that as a reward.
For example, success for one team member may be to present a report in front of the CEO. For another it may be being seen as a valuable part of the team able to provide the resources for the team to succeed.
Your job as the leader would be to provide the resources and opportunities for both these team members.
Keeping team members’ drive up for succeeding in these non-financial performance measures will keep them together longer, more engaged and proud of their team membership.
If you do not know and don’t ask, you will be missing out on valuable information that will help you cultivate a workplace in which people want to stay.