How do you keep your most valued people? Here are a few quick ideas to consider:
Communicate Well:
- Create a robust company mission statement/core values and cast the vision often
- Create your own Personal Ground Rules to share with your team and anytime onboarding a new employee…”Here is what it takes to work with me effectively” (See Personal Ground Rules blog post)
- Set expectations well by over-communicating what is expected, getting buy-in, describing what is at stake and following up afterwards
- Be concise by choosing words that are descriptive and memorable
Know Your People:
- Manage by walking around to get to know your people
- Be curious about what they are interested in
- Be an active listener by asking clarifying questions
- Keep notes about what you discover as a reminder for your next conversation
- Have Stay Interviews to discover why your best people keep choosing to work there (see Stay Interviews blog post)
- Do a Working Genius workshop to increase productivity and reveal what brings energy, fulfillment and joy to each team member
Affirm/Acknowledge/Reward Your People:
- Have regular (monthly/quarterly) celebration ceremonies to acknowledge milestones, promotions and significant progress being made
- Give significant gifts to all team members at unexpected times (Gift-ology by John Ruhlin has some great ideas)
- A word of caution here is to make sure your gifts and awards are significant and appreciated…it can work against you if you give something token cheap (an internal group of trusted employees could help you discern the best acknowledgements)
- Create friendly team competitions that support one of your Core Values
- Start a Dream Manager program to support your employees in what they consider to be meaningful personal goals…use a bulletin board to acknowledge/celebrate dream achievements (The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly is a great read and describes this well)
- Ask your employees to bring to work something that represents who they are and hire a photographer to take pictures of each one to be displayed in common areas…this is a great way for your people to get to know each other and feel seen at the same time
Develop Your People:
- Create an internal professional development program that provides progressive certifications to be achieved
- Provide one-on-one coaching for your leaders, especially your managers…”People don’t leave companies, they leave managers”
- Provide workshops and team building exercises
- Do Accountability Challenges where you pair up those who sign up to set personal and professional goals for a month and check in with each other at a set time each evening (see Accountability Challenge blog post)
- Create a formal mentoring program for those who sign up (See Create a Mentoring Program blog post)
These are some of the ideas I have accumulated over the years that seem to have made a positive impact. Ultimately, this about increasing morale and developing a healthy corporate culture. You will likely discover your purpose, meaning and joy will increase as well.
Here is a link to a YouTube I did on this subject:
