subject: A Primer on How to Increase Employee Retention [print this page] Today, at a time when jobs are scarce, successful employees working at large companies desperately need some incentive to stay motivated and hopeful on the job. They know they have few opportunities to take a job with another company. A forward-thinking manager can help see what others don't. It's logical to expect that an employee with a passion for his work will want to ride out the rocky road and stay the course.
Ideally, managers need to remember that even though business may be suffering, morale needs to stay high in the workplace. Companies who don't keep this in mind are the ones that, as soon as the labor market is on the upswing, will experience turnover rates as high as 50 percent.
One of the biggest reasons that people leave their jobs is being unhappy with their manager. In the limited confines of a small office, there is a greater chance for even more of a strain in the workplace. Linda Argote, a professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon, says "In bigger companies there are more opportunities to move to other jobs if you're dissatisfied with a particular supervisor but like the firm, whereas smaller companies may have fewer options so they run the risk of losing the employee".
There's one thing for sure, employee retention can't be increased simply with motivation. Things like bonuses, personal days and company luncheons are all ways to reward your workers for a good job and spur them on to deliver more amazing results down the road.
However, managers who shell out these types of extras also need to focus on the big picture. They need to take into account that there are usually two things going on with their employees at any particular time. There are things that discourage people in their jobs and there are things that motivate them and make them want to stay in their jobs. The reasons are different for each person and managers oftentimes slip-up by concentrating on what motivates their folks without taking into account what discourages them. If you recognize the differences you can grow together and learn together. And if you can retain great people, you'll have a great organization.
