A while ago, I wrote a blog about 10 ways to help great people quit which gave you great ideas in how to not treat your teams.

First thing is first, work out why you want to keep the staff that you have. To help with this, ask yourself these questions:
Why do you think your good employees leave?
Why do you want to retain staff vs bringing in new ideas and new blood?
How do you retain the great staff that you’ve invested in, to keep?

If you’re finding you have a large number of employees leaving, you need to understand the core reason why they are and ensure your exit interview procedure is asking these questions. In general, we know everyone is different, and there could be a number of reasons that makes employees leave. Maybe they are bored, uninspired, they don’t feel valued within the team, they think the grass is greener elsewhere, maybe their manager didn’t have great managerial skills.

If you want to increase your understanding of what your team are wanting/feeling/needing, ask these questions of them “In what ways would you like your job changed?”, “In what areas would you like increased responsibility?” and “What skills do you have that you are currently not using?”

If you feel your staff may not have any effective motivation to stay at their job, simply ask them what motivates them to stay. There are many different motivating factors in life, different people are motivated by different things. Depending on the role that your team has, they’ll be motivated by different things that need not cost you a lot of money.

Have you ever thought about what motivates you? I know for myself it’s changed throughout my career and life, motivation is different from years ago and should change throughout your life as your needs and wants change. Teams love when you meet with them regularly to discuss their motivation levels. What motivates me now? Success of the team that I’m working with! Being proud of the job they are doing. Seeing them succeed. How about you?

Motivate your team as an ‘all in’ approach and expect your team to eventually leave. Motivation is not a cookie-cutter approach; it doesn’t work the same for everyone. Please don’t assume you know what motivates your teams! You know what assume does?

There seems to be very little loyalty to the job these days, effective managers need to create the loyalty – one-on-one! Loyalty is a multi-billion dollar business and shouldn’t be taken lightly! Understanding what loyalty is and how powerful it is to all aspects of your business is very powerful, not only to your employees, but also to your customers. Embrace loyalty in the workplace. It can take a lifetime to create and a second to destroy. I love training this topic!

Fact: Loyal employees bring more business. They bring other valuable employees/associates and increase morale.

Create a fun working environment that your team wants to come to and stay around! Just look at Google and Facebook, the most famous fun workplaces these days, make the team environment suit them.

Did you know it costs 3 times the persons salary to replace them, including training, hire fees, advertising and business lost. That means big money to business for replacing a key team member!! However, it’s not all bad because new people bring fresh ideas & perspective. It’s a great balance but I wouldn’t recommend it for an entire company/department at the one time. Retaining the RIGHT staff helps to keep morale and keep a great team. Helping some team members to see the door is also great for the team too. In my teams, I look at old & new ideas, the ‘Tried & True’ vs ‘ Never Been Done Before!” All ideas & members are valuable. Everything in moderation. I believe sometimes you need to let people go, they can grow and learn and then be welcomed back with more power, knowledge and enhanced attributes.

Invest in your team. There a great costs involved investing into a great team and company, turnover vs training is wasted money. Training is an investment to building a great future team and talent. Any time a company invests in an employee it costs money! Think about investing wisely, in those who want to be loyal to you. Don’t invest in team members just to tick off an Action Plan. Invest to invest in the future. I truly am saddened when I hear a great former student leaves a great company, something was ‘broken’ in the chain and no one was able to mend the link.

Remember, knowledge gained from existing staff is greater and valuable to the company. Make sure, if you’re a manager, you treat your staff well and keep them engaged in the company and team. If you can’t create promotions and new roles for great people, get them to lead and work on projects, let them show you ready they are for the next step or what areas need improvement. Great teams create great things! You can create greatness if you allow your teams to be great.

Training new staff takes time and can put a strain on existing resources to ‘carry the load’. Ensure the people who are ‘covering’ the trainee are suitable with that time, show respect to everyone in your team! When you invest on training, be creative and do it at a time that suits your whole team. Your training should be motivational & send the team away with new skills & a great mindset. Training should be given equally throughout a great team.

Retaining great staff is wonderful for everyone’s morale and great for customer confidence in the company. Customers love hearing hero and legacy stories of your staff and the company. They’re valuable to the business. As time goes on the average LOS (Length of Service) of your employees is going to get much shorter. Unlike the days of our forefathers who stayed in the job for 40 years etc. Keep your staff engaged and employed for longer. To calculate the amount of time each of your team have worked with you then divide by the number of your staff – that’s your Average LOS!

Talk to your team and engage them in your big picture, make them a part of the business as a whole. Ensure you keep the conversation open and flowing, not just an annual discussion. Rewarding your staff in a way that is most valuable to them, not just something that you think they’ll like. Do you know what does motivate your staff? Can you confidently name them all? Without talking to my teams, I couldn’t name what motivates my team, because their motivations change constantly and so do mine. Customers can see when there’s a great work culture and when staff are happy, they want to spend more money with you. Support your teams career goals, identify how you help to get there, within your company or other departments even if you lose that member from your team, it’s wonderful to be able to expand them within the company. Many teams make up great companies, share your great team members with other teams because sharing throughout other teams is a great way to engage the whole company and other teams too – enhance everyone’s experience. Keep your teams aware of the big picture plan, goals and KPI’s will help them to feel engaged, wanted and a part of the winning team. When goal setting, include the team and they’ll tell you how they can contribute to the success, they’ll be more engaged in what’s needed.

You’ve employed great people. Allow them to be heard and let them show you how great they can be. How do you manage in Inter-Generational workplace? Do you manage everyone the same, or do you change it up for the different generations? This is where I specialise in and I’d be delighted to show you how this can work in your workplace.

Click here to see how I can help you get the most out of your invaluable team and create amazing teams of the future.