I came across an article recently from World at Work that reported an alarming 47% of high performing employees are actively looking for another job. Retaining star performers should be a priority for not only human resource managers but also the organization as a whole. More than likely, employees who leave your company are taking their knowledge and talent to your competitor, creating a real threat to your business. If you can retain star performers, you can keep employees from taking their expertise elsewhere.
The first step in increasing employee retention is to find out why employees are looking to leave your company. Vickie Elmer, in an article from the Washington Post, outlined the top three reasons employees leave a company revealing that insufficient compensation, lack of career advancement and too little recognition will make employees look for greener pastures.
In order to combat these three top complaints by star performers, I advise clients that the key is to engage them with employee awards to prevent them from getting turned off and tuning to other possible employers. By designing a new employee incentive program or overhauling an existing one, managers should be able to target star performers with relevant and attainable goals, mentoring and job training opportunities, health and wellness objectives and consistent recognition.
Retain star performers by making the connection between their day in and day out work and the organization’s overall success. By linking their job-specific goals to point values or monetary amounts via employee incentives, HR managers are connecting the dots between what employees do and how it impacts the business. Also, goals for star performers need to be relevant and attainable in order to maximize interest and engage employees.
In addition to building out job specific goals for star performers, other activities can be incorporated into the incentive program. Commonly, mentoring and wellness objectives are added to job-related goals to generate excitement and participation in the program, but more importantly these initiatives help to engage employees. Mentoring programs allow star performers to share their success with protégés and helps build lasting relationships between co-workers. This in turn aids in the long term retention of talented employees.
In fact, CU360.org cited a MetLife Employee Benefits Trend survey that found “employees who are satisfied with their benefits program are approximately three times more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and feel loyalty toward the employer and their peers.” The survey also found that employers who include health and wellness incentives as part of their compensation package are more likely to retain employees.
Recognizing star performers with an incentive program and incorporating mentoring and wellness components will help to minimize the increasing number of top performers in your organization who may be dusting off their résumés. Be prepared and make sure star performers know they are considered as the company’s greatest asset by recognizing and rewarding them for a job well done.
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