Finding good help can be difficult and expensive. It is much easier to keep the great talent you have. Unfortunately, many businesses stumble blindly through the process of keeping their top talent. Some employers will even use job descriptions as a reason to stifle a good employee. If you know who your best employees are and you want to keep them working for you, instead of the competition, here are some best practices to consider.
Give Them Challenging Work
Your best employees are smart, driven, and dedicated. The last thing you want is for them to become bored. Offer them the opportunity to solve problems your business is facing, even if it seems out of their wheelhouse. Keeping them engaged in the business and allowing them to take ownership of their jobs will help you keep them.
Recognize Them
Recognition and awards are nice but giving your top performers the opportunity to meet upper management and participate in offsite conferences can help improve their performance while also showing that you acknowledge and value their contributions. When employees get face time with the CEO, they feel important.
Help Them Improve
Some employees want to know more. Hooking your top performers up with a mentor can improve their knowledge and their performance. It will also show that you value their efforts, and you want them to be able to do more. Younger people should be paired with older people who understand and can communicate with the younger generation. Your senior employee will do well as a mentor if he or she is able to teach and value the employee you bring to him or her.
Give Responsibilities and Rewards
By adding challenging work to your top performers’ workload, you’re showing your trust in them. If you want real results, you have to communicate how failure and mistakes will be handled. If it’s a new duty, you can bet your top performers will fail and make mistakes; it’s part of the learning curve and should be okay. Of course, new responsibilities should be given along with better rewards. Don’t take advantage of your top performers and expect more work for no money.
Communicate Advancement Paths
Every employee in your company should understand the career path they can follow to move up in the company. Any employee that doesn’t understand the promotion process or sees inequalities in the way promotions are handled will become disillusioned in the business and find a place where it’s easier to advance. Having a path outlined and knowing what milestones the person needs to reach will help him or her assess the future with the company. The future is important to everyone, don’t bet your company’s future on a murky and ill-conceived promotion plan for your employees.
Finding the Top Performers
If you have a dearth of top performers or you need to improve and supplement your workforce, your HR department could use some help. Hiring a human resources headhunter will help you find your next top performers. Contact The Christopher Group and find out how our expertise can improve the recruitment and retention of the best people for your job openings.