“There’s good and bad turnover,” says Cortes, author of the book, No Nonsense Retention, which he characterizes as a collection of no-nonsense ways to retain your best people.
Firing a non-performer—a slug— is good turnover. But when a top performer leaves to go elsewhere and your organization is left with a huge void, that’s bad turnover. It can affect the performance of the whole organization.
Turnover is very costly, Cortes adds. Depending on the study you look at, the impact of turnover ranges from three months of salary for a low level employee, to as high as 400 percent of the annual salary of an upper-level person.
“If you are going to maximize your organization’s performance you have to make a conscious, top-down management commitment to develop a no-nonsense approach to retention,” Cortes says.
Here are his top must-do actions for retaining the human assets you’ve worked so hard to acquire:
1. Fire the Slugs
Hold your people accountable for their performance, Cortes says. If they don’t solve the problem, then terminate them with respect and dignity. And here’s the big bonus from firing slugs—your good performers will love you. For sure, they’ve been stewing about having to carry most of the slug’s load.
Chances are your high potentials are looking around. Time to get proactive about retention—attend BLR’s new March 23 webinar Stop Preventable Turnover: How to Energize, Engage, and Retain Your Top Performers. Practical, field-tested approaches. Guaranteed. Get info here.
2. Start at the Top
Assess your supervisory and management team, says Cortes. Seventy percent of employees say that the worst thing about their jobs is their boss. Find out what’s wrong and fix it, Cortes urges. Identify the prima donnas and micromanaging control freaks, the whiners, complainers, and blamers. Get them basic supervisory training and improve their performance continuously.
If you are the boss, take ownership of this process, says Cortes.
3. Clean Up the House
Identify the non-performers. Identify the poor managers and supervisors. If they do not respond to training and show significant improvement, remove them from an influential role and replace them with someone that does what is truly desired and required for the role and position they are in, Cortes says.
4. Manage Visibly
Get out of the ivory tower. Begin each day by walking around. Stroll around the floor several times a day. Meet the customers, talk with employees, visit with the supervisors, greet the vendors, help the delivery trucks load and unload. Get out of your office. Let people know you are there and that you care. The point here is that you set lead by example, Cortes explains. If they like you they are less likely to leave you. Visibility drives retention.
Top People Looking? Be sure they’ll stay with you—attend BLR’s new March 23 webinar Stop Preventable Turnover: How to Energize, Engage, and Retain Your Top Performers. Practical, field-tested approaches. Guaranteed. Get info here.
5. Care About Your People
If you don’t really care about your people, your business is doomed. Caring is the reason why people stay. Get to know your people. Learn what each person likes and enjoys. Listen to them and learn about their interests, families, and hobbies. Protect your people from harm and from others in your organization. People are loyal to those who care about them and care for them.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, Cortes’ tips 6 through 10, plus an introduction to the proactive approach to 2012’s biggest concern—retention.
I wish more employers weren’t so scared to fire the slugs. As long as you’ve been documenting their “sluggish-ness,” you shouldn’t have to worry about liability, and the benefits from the good response from the performers, as well as the motivation to the borderline employees, are well worth it.
Agree with Barb. Our two slugs just took early retirement. Those left behind just got a bonus. In just two days the morale and productivity of our department went up tremendously. And, it’s no problem to cover their jobs because we’ve been doing it for years.