During the
next 10, 20, and 30
years finding qualified sales and customer service people is going to
get more difficult, thanks to a shrinking workforce and a maturing
population. So… retention of your top people is more
important than ever.
Attracting talent, retention and training (or on boarding individuals)
all fall into one big melting pot. Finding, supervising and keeping
employees are not stand alone items – each affects the other.
Ten years ago the shot heard ‘round the recruiting world was
the McKinsey & Co. declaration that better employee talent is
worth fighting for. The 1998 bombshell article in the McKinsey
Quarterly -- entitled “The War for Talent” --
predicted a battle that would last for decades.
Publications like Fast Company quickly spread the news from the
boardroom bunkers to the cubicle trenches. The reason was demographics
and the retirement of the Baby Boom generation. The battle
cry was to not only improve hiring practices, but to work harder to
retain your best employees.
McKinsey’s supply and demand predictions have come true with
a vengeance. The U.S. workforce, which grew by 54 percent from 1980 to
2000, is only expected to grow by 3 percent from 2000 to 2020.
During the past decades, companies have proven that you can’t
win the war just by spending more. When it comes to finding and keeping
employees, pay is secondary for top talent. But if you build up an
outstanding reputation, people will line up to work at your
organization.
You have to realize that reputation matters. People talk. Images get
established. Web postings take place. Today no organization can afford
to have a bad reputation. A number of years ago, the airline industry
did a study that showed that a bad experience was communicated to
around 300 people and a great experience was shared with only 30 or
less.
So, where do you start in order to build a positive reputation from
within and without? It all begins with taking the time to
uncover, identify and understand how the team is communicating. No
matter how high tech our world has become with instant messaging,
emailing, and cell phones, the biggest problem we all have is still
communications.
To illustrate, think of a whale. Probably
everyone reading this article visualized something different. Some are
seeing in their mind’s eye a peaceful pod of gray whales
migrating south. A few think of a friendly Shamu jumping out of the
water at Sea World. While others picture a scary Monstro swallowing
Pinocchio. How often do you discuss a topic with someone in the
workplace and they completely misunderstand what you wanted?
Communicating with prospective employees begins way before an
application or interview. A number of years ago a client of ours
identified some traits they wanted members of their team to have. The
company realized they needed to position themselves in their narrow
marketplace as ‘the’ place to work. Whenever a
company executive gave a speech to an association group they always
ended the talk with mentioning that they are the Rolls Royce of
organizations to work for. If anyone knows of A players who want to
work at the best place to use their skills and talents, then have them
give the company a call.
Fast forward a number of years. My firm conducts personality testing
for all of this company’s final candidates. For certain
levels we also do phone interviews, always asking how they heard of the
organization. Consistently we have heard it was because of their
reputation in the industry for being the best place to work for
utilizing skills and talents.
Learn what is driving your top talent people. If you help them to
succeed you’ll create a high level of retention and become a
magnet for recruiting. Here are some action items for you to consider:
- Use an in-depth work style and
personality assessment during the hiring process and for current staff.
- Use the data to manage, which in
turn will reduce the learning curve for new hires and help to better
understand current staff members.
- Place individuals in positions
that they can succeed in based on their strengths.
- Take
the time to constantly mentor and create plans to help individuals grow.
- Identify traits of individuals
that you want in your organization and target those individuals through
specific messages in ads, on the web, through networking and
association gatherings.
For your A players (your major contributors), play to 
their
strengths and help them grow. Don’t ignore them just because
they are doing well. These are the individuals that if they
don’t feel engaged in helping the organization to continue to
grow and improve, they’ll leave.
For your B players, nurture them through mentoring so they can become A
players down the road. For your C players, measure and possibly remove
them if they are eating up your time. Never spend 80 percent
of your time and energy on the people who are producing 20 percent of
your results.
But don’t write those C players off too fast. A small hotel
chain had reservation reps that were not meeting the volume level that
was being required. The manager thought they were just C players and
was a very unhappy camper with his team. That person was placed in a
different department and a new manager came in who sat down with each
individual and then with the group. She discovered that 24 hours before
a guest was going to arrive at the hotel property that a high
percentage were calling in to verify the reservation and to get
directions. This used up valuable call time, so as a team they
brainstormed together and came up with a brilliant idea. Since the reps
were asking for email addresses why not send an email confirmation
24-48 hours prior with a fun page welcoming the individuals and include
links for weather and directions.
Guess what happened? Calls were reduced and the reps were able to take
more calls for new reservations with less hold time. All because the
manager took the time to ask questions to peel the onion back to
identify the underlying issue. When the reps were asked why this topic
hadn’t been addressed in the past they simply responded,
“No one asked and we never thought of it”.
So what does all of this have to do with retention? It’s
about setting your people up for success, and this takes active
management and mentoring.
To
find out more, listen to our teleconference
audio 
If
you would like additional information on this topic or others,
please contact your Human Resources department or Lighthouse Consulting
Services LLC, 3130 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 550, Santa Monica,
CA
90403, (310) 453-6556, dana@lighthouseconsulting.com
& our website: www.lighthouseconsulting.com.
Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC provides a variety of services,
including in-depth personality assessments for new hires &
staff
development, team building, interpersonal & communication
training,
conflict management, workshops, and executive & employee
coaching.
Permission is needed from Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC to
reproduce any portion provided in this article. ©
2008.
The information contained in this article is not meant to be a
substitute for professional counseling.
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