Involved Employees More Likely to Stay

By John A. Haas
Management Strategies Group

Last issue I wrote about the prospect of stressed employees "bolting" as the economy improves, and suggested some retention strategies. Here's another way to show employees that your company offers the best alternative.

Survey Results

My colleague Bruce Katcher of Discovery Surveys (discoverysurveys.com) surveyed employees at three successful organizations: a healthcare provider, financial service company and manufacturer. He found that 9 of 10 employees had very positive views in the following areas: commitment to quality; understanding of organizational goals; confidence in senior management; pride in the organization; and 8 of 10 felt optimism about the future. In short, employees want to feel the organization knows where it's going and feel they are involved in the journey.

Creating a More Inclusive Culture

A management culture that includes performance-based incentive compensation programs can powerfully reinforce those areas employees of successful companies value the most. In fact, the process of designing and implementing incentive plans in itself can contribute to employees' feeling valued and included.

Here are some ways incentives can reinforce positive employee attitudes:

Communicate specific business goals for the coming period l Consider incentives a natural extension of business planning, translating organizational goals into actionable individual and team goals l Include as many employees as possible in performance-based earning opportunities, possibly tied to their managers' goals l Celebrate successes. Create "buzz" around progress toward goals l While you pay incentives from profits, most goals should be within each participant's ability to directly influence outcomes l Design incentives so all participants can meet or exceed goals l Involve participants in identifying Key Performance Indicators that are easily tracked and regularly reported l Ask each participant to propose realistic, "stretch" performance targets and weights for KPIs for the next period. This helps create "ownership" l Share individual goals among participants to encourage teamwork and assure mutual consistency l Encourage detailed written Action Plans for each goal, which supervisors can review and suggest improvements to help assure success.

If employees understand the organization's goals, believe they are achievable, know what they can do to help achieve them and see a path to get from "here" to "there," get out of the way--good things will happen!

Summer 2004 -Volume 14, Number 3

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