How to Be the Company Employees Hate to Leave

When it comes to careers, the grass has never looked greener. With 57% of surveyed employees revealing that they plan to resign in the near future, it’s no surprise that employers are worried about losing their top performers. So what can you do to mitigate the loss of your superstars?

• Be an Engaged Employer. Want people to stay? More than perks and even pay, employees who feel they are engaged in their work are the least likely to leave. So why is it that only 12% of employees say that they are fully engaged… despite 80% of employers thinking their employees are fully engaged? Build a connection with your team and employees, and understand them so you can get to the core of what intrinsically motivates them. It may be trusting them with more latitude, or developing their skills and experience so they grow and at the same time feel increasingly capable and valued. Make sure they each see their being crucial parts in the vital whole that is your team, the department or even the company. Acting to strengthen engagement now is important, particularly if you have stellar workers who can quickly find employers whom they feel appreciate them more.

• Be Prepared to Be Persuasive. With job opportunities becoming increasingly visible and available through networking and social media, it has become easy for even satisfied employees to explore what’s out there, and therefore be more selective. While this has the advantage of delaying the departure of your more highly marketable employees, the reality is that, unless you come up with a compelling reason for them to stay or a strong counteroffer, your star employee is in effect a very appealing passive candidate.

• Nurture Future Superstars. Great employees are a result of finding great people and then mentoring and developing them. If you haven’t yet, develop a culture of mentorship and support. Develop succession plans, and while accountability and ‘owning’ projects are excellent work practices, have as much of your team cross-trained so that coverage is as seamless as possible, whether it’s due to employees going on vacation, the holidays or in case someone leaves. In many cases, having your best employees train and mentor ‘newbies’ may even make them feel more engaged as they, pay it forward by developing their protégés. In the same vein, be ready to move as quickly as possible on hiring replacements.

It’s good to be talking to people in advance, and finding positions for the great people in your organization so that you can nurture them and be ready to move them into key roles, and if you don’t have somebody in the wings, you need to move quickly to replace the position as quickly as possible. Speak to your hiring advisor about ways that you can reduce time to fill and cost of vacancy to minimize disruptions to your business.