In this period of economic boom and low unemployment - a seller's market for skilled knowledge workers - what must you do to hold on to the members of your staff whom you want to keep?
To get these answers, I interviewed a hot-shot headhunter: someone who is probably calling your best people today, offering them the stars and the moon to leave you. I asked him exactly what you would have to do to put him out of business. He laughed and said that there was nothing you could do to protect your employees from him. But I'm a pretty good investigator and, in about an hour, I had gathered a list of ten actions you can take to put the headhunters out of business with your valued employees. When our predatory friend heard his own list read back, he asked, "Where do I sign up? I want to work there!" Here's his list.
Motivation. Find out what motivates each employee and feed that need. Period. No compromises.
Money. Pay a salary roughly equal to market rate Understand that the figure may change dramatically on any given day.
Personal Impact. Make sure individual employees have the freedom and the authority and the information to solve - on their own - problems they encounter. "On their own" means not having to ask for permission or wait for someone to help.
Real Accomplishment. Do whatever is necessary to assure that the people you want to keep frequently and regularly complete projects they are proud of: that they have a strong feeling of making a valuable contribution to something that matters.
Growing Challenges. Engineer opportunities for employees to move into new areas of work that are interesting to them, both inside and outside their work group. In the old days, this meant promotions, but now, we're able to provide challenges with flexible, open jobs. Make whatever they person see as greener pastures easily accessible without leaving the job.
Fun. Make the workplace and the environment fun, clearly a challenge because fun means different things to different people. You'll know when you've accomplished this because the people who work around you will be relatively stress-free, yet energetic. They see their jobs more as play than as work.
Incredible, Unusual Benefits. Provide a constantly changing stream of surprisingly interesting perks, both as bonuses for doing well and also for no particular reason. Here's what you're competing with: regular onsite massage therapy, onsite basketball courts and exercise rooms, weekend use of the company HumVee for finishing a project early. My company offers unlimited use of a mountainside re-treat in New Mexico for vacations, for personal recharge, or for no reason at all. Employees can even work from there for a while (it has an office setup); all we have to do is take turns.
Location. Commute. Allow the people you want to keep to work wherever they want. At home, if they wish. In another city, if they wish. Provide the electronic technology to make this work. You might be surprised how many people leave good jobs to take control of their work location. (The in-house corporate counsel in one of our client companies – a corporate officer – quit recently because the CEO wouldn’t allow her to work from home a couple of days a week.)
Make Them Rich if They Stay. Or at least give them a real chance to get rich. This issue is different from salary. We’re talking capital here, stock options. A shot at personal wealth.
Time and Freedom. Let the valued people control their own schedules. Be sure that they have the time they want to spend with their families or with any other activity that is important to them.
That’s it! Do all these things and your employees won’t even take the headhunters’ calls. Remember, the headhunter made this list; he guarantees it!
Fair warning, though. My headhunter friend (he prefers "recruiter") tells me that if you fall short on just one of the ten items, sooner or later, he’ll be able to lure away the people you want to keep.
Easy? Of course not! This list is impossible for almost everyone. (The headhunter is no fool.) The point is, your most valued employees are easily accessible targets for any company that wants them. So, what do you do?
If you – or your company – are unwilling or unable to take the headhunter’s ten "easy" steps to retain your employees, I’ll show you a more complex – and arduous – process you can use to keep your access to what you need from your best people. What I’ll offer you is not guaranteed – like the headhunter’s plan – but it will increase your retention of that "knowledge capital" we’re all reading about.
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