Manager Training is a Key Step in the Retaining Your Best Employees

 

Research on employee satisfaction from just a few years ago showed that:

 “Half of employees who don't feel valued by their employer intend to look for a new job in the next year. Among those who feel valued, just 1 in 5 (21%) will send their resumes elsewhere.”

With labor market in complete flux as it is today, that % may double or even triple.  While you are doing everything to find and hire new workers, you also need to do what’s necessary to retain your current ones.

Lots of studies show that employee recognition is one of the factors that will keep your employees from job hunting.  The first factor of course is pay and benefits, but when you reached the plateau on those and there’s not much more give in those budgets, you need to look at other ways to get things done.  Monetary compensation is not the only reason employees stay with a company.

Behavioral psychologists know that you appeal to a workers' sense of value when you reinforce their performance with positive consequences.  Employees that feel valued at work, tend to stay at work with that company. If it’s that easy, why do we constantly work with clients who are having problems with their current recognition efforts?  Could it be a simple matter of management training? 

According to David Ballard, PsyD, an assistant director of organizational excellence at the APA:

"Most managers and supervisors are never really trained to give effective recognition, and don't track the effectiveness of programs that they have in place.”  Managers need to be trained "in the basics of recognition and reward theory to make sure that recognition is closely tied to the behavior that they're trying to recognize and encourage."

No single reward strategy will appeal to all your employees.  Everyone has a unique way that they like to be recognized.  And the front line manager is the best suited to bring that recognition to the employee, to know what they want.  Once they know what their employee’s value, if they make it a priority to implement a reward system that addresses that value, you will get more of that type of performance. 

And, while you’re at it, you may want to institute a recognition system to reward those managers who are going the great job of recognizing and retaining their people. 

Employee Referral Programs – Fill Your Hiring Needs

According to Dr. John Sullivan, an expert on employee referral programs andd HR thought leader from Silicon Valley:

“Employee referral programs are the most powerful corporate recruiting tool, bar none. They can produce a high volume of quality hires who have been statistically proven to have lower rates of attrition.  When designed well, they can not only be cost-effective, but they can produce one of the highest ROIs in the entire HR function.”

Dr. Sullivan has advised large companies all over the world and has found several things that are important do to make your referral program as successful as possible:

·       It must be responsive and provide feedback to the preferred candidate within one - three days of the referral and to the referring employee just as quickly.

·       It needs to be given preferential treatment in the timeliness initial contact, phone screening, interview, and the decision about hiring the employee.

·       It needs to target hard-to-fill positions that are essential to the organization.

·       It needs to include all employees to make referrals, regardless of the position they hold.

·       The most important factor in employee referrals is swift candidate evaluation and decision feedback to the referring employee

Great referral programs become part of your company’s culture and some ways to hep make them successful are:

·       Interview referring employees to determine how they met the employee they referred

·       Ask for referrals at all employee onboarding meetings

·       Give current employees referral cards to pass out when they meet a well-qualified potential employee

·       Provide training about how to build their online and offline social networks and use them to recruit superior candidates for your company

·       Where possible have dedicated staffs to deal with the program

·       Provide non-monetary incentives such as public recognition, periodic banquets or lunch with the president to honor employees

·       Develop easy ways for employees to track the status of their referrals

·       Give positive feedback in performance development planning 

·       Provide daily feedback and recognition to those who refer qualified candidates.

·       Let referring employees know what’s happening with their referral every step of the way.

  

Referral programs don’t always have to have monetary rewards, cash is not always the answer. All employees have different motivators.  Determine what they are and use those as inducements.  If you are trying to make your referral program positive, immediate and certain, don’t issue awards that only pay the referring employee all or part of it after the new employee works out successfully for six months or a year.  That becomes de-motivational and takes the energy out of the program.  

Employee involvement is key to an effective employee referral selection process.  The more you do to get it, the better your program will be.

For more information on Ultimate Choice Inc.’s products or services or other white papers please contact us at Ultimatechoiceinfo@cox.net