Ramp up retention

I caught up with one of my favourite entrepreneurs for lunch the other day. He was like a ‘pig in mud’ as he explained his employment strategy to me. Having been through the 1990s recession he knew exactly when to act. When the recession started he began to seek intelligence about his competitors’ top staff. As it progressed he began to circle, approach and hire.

At the same time he started on a ruthless strategy to let go his B and C-ranked players every few months to minimise the impact on clients and staff. He was also pleased to find the revolving door of Gen Ys leaving his company after a few years came to a halt. As a result he has his dream team in place backed by hand-picked employees and he is confident they will stay because the employment market is so bad. But he is still not satisfied and has had so much fun he is still out hiring and firing.

Enjoy it, I told him, because now you need to change strategy. As the economy staggers back on its feet, the employment market will become a lot more competitive and the new focus will be back on retaining staff.

A white paper by Manpower Australia/New Zealand warns employers not to assume that their employees won’t be looking at other employment opportunities in a recession.

According to a Manpower study, while 75% of Australians surveyed indicated their overall satisfaction with their current job, 30% of those admitted they were planning to leave.

So how do you keep satisfied staff who take the view that the grass is always greener?

Well, the top three indictors for job satisfaction are work-life balance, future career opportunities and money: all three of which have been cut back through the recession.

So my satisfied friend who is sitting back resting on his laurels could be in for a shock. He needs to refocus from attraction to retention and consolidation. Of course he should stay on the look out. But now is the time to start working on making sure that team is going to stay. And not to assume that just because they are “satisfied” they are not looking for other jobs.

So my advice to him is, the party is over. Now the hard work begins… Again.