Joy Mukherjee (Santanu)
Of course you can pay him excellent salary but I am not considering that as a probable solution because that’s not the most feasible way out. You need to think out of the box and provide some added advantages that will make the employee stick to the company.
1.The feeling of Ownership: Allow good employees to take the ownership of their work. Its better not to take the share of the credit of what they have achieved simply because you are the manager. The ownership of the work develops an emotional attachment and that is a feeling which money cant buy. Believe me guys, as a manager you will lose nothing. If your team members are appreciated then its actually your appreciation. This is common mistake that many managers do. They present a success to the higher management as their individual achievement. This frustrates the subordinates and they tend to move away from the organization emotionally.
2.Formal And Informal Appreciation: As a manager you should not leave any scope to congratulate and appreciate a resource in every possible way for any achievement. A two liner “congratulations” mail from a manager can be a big motivation and from the next time you can expect better results. You can also copy the mail to the higher management and another mail from any of them can be their added inspiration. Sometimes if you just pat the back informally as a recognition of their achievement, is also enough to encourage them.
3.Reward Program: May be at the moment you are not able to do an untimely salary appraisal for a resource who is a super performer. He may be trapped by any of your competitors and can be hired at a better pay scale. No matter if you cant give him a hike but arrange for some incentives for his achievements. Sudden Bonuses and Incentives act as a huge motivating factors and even if other companies offer him something more than what he is getting, he may just stay for the incentive and Bonus scheme. Infact you have nothing to lose. You are only rewarding the resource when you are being rewarded by the client. Share a small portion with your team and see the difference in dedication and commitment.
4.Show Career Path: You need to show your subordinates their career path and where they should see themselves after a certain period of time. This will make their goal clear and they will adhere to the organization for better growth opportunity.
5.Arrange Regular Training: As a manger its your responsibility to create opportunities for your team members. Arrange trainings so that they can learn and adopt new technologies. May be you cannot give all people same opportunity because scopes are limited but anyone who gets the chance should fight with the peers and win it.
6.Work Environment: Please remember the workplace is not a classroom. Please do not impose such rules and regulations that make them feel they are in school. Make the environment jovial and fun-filled yet with some restrictions so that they can enjoy their work. Allow short breaks, little fun but be cautious that’s not overtaking the spirit of work. Make it “Wao its Monday to Thank God Its Friday”. Practice Team Building programs by arranging short excursions, celebrating festivals and arranging small parties after office. This helps each other to know in a better way and gives the feeling of a family. Thus they will re-think before changing organization.
7.Explore the extracurricular activities: If possible find out the hidden talents among your team members and project it in Annual Cultural Program in Office or other events like picnic and party. These help in gaining popularity and it creates a comfort zone for the employee to stick to.
8.Be a friendly Boss: This is my last tip. If you present yourself like a BOSS then it will make the environment stuffy and your team members will not enjoy working. If you be a friend then they will take you lightly and you will lose your position. So better is to be a friendly Boss who knows how to deal with the situations. I will end this write up with a story of a snake whom God once told not to bite anybody. After few days the snake went to God and said “As I am not biting people are teasing me and throwing stones at me. What should I do?” God smiled and said, “I asked you not to bite but never said not to raise your head if needed” So as a manager you don’t need to bite but of course raise your head if required.
At the end remember very few people leave company just for high salary. Some small appreciations, Token amount of Bonus, Healthy work environment and some motivation may reduce the attrition rate and give you a stable team.
Please feel free to share your views.
It is an equation with each team member, we can only give what they want if we know them well. People will leave, they need to leave when the equation is disturbed … Another thing that I learned is, Bad people should leave and there should not any special attempt to keep the people but it is the attitude, where the team leader needs to think of people who are thinking about his/her project. Think win-win to keep any relationship (stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit4.php), Will be guanrantee everything .. no … but thats the only thing a team leader can do … stay honest, love your team, love your team more than individuals … larger picture in mind and keep sharing it … Don’t miss the comment on my blog post, really valuable discussion there.
Thanks,
Aji Issac
You have covered almost all the points; what I feel is: the strategy that works with one employee might not work with the others. As a ‘boss’ you have to identify what will work – once you do that, half the battle is won.
Few random points: a lot of people leave companies because of bad managers; people become careless and casual towards work if they are not happy with the seniors. And employees always remember what you promised and did not deliver. So these are few things to consider. Even when the appraisal is not 100% satisfactory, you can retain employees by working on these aspects.
This is great advice. I’ve worked in both pleasant atmospheres and awful atmospheres, and the difference in each was the type of boss I had. Leaders don’t control, they inspire.
Great topic. I have been in a few jobs where I have stayed longer than my career plan should have allowed due to the good managers which were working with me.
Incentives are good and this doesn’t always need to be a big thing; simply buying a scratch card or a box of sweets and setting a small target with the positive work outcome can increase the teams productivity, make the day more fun and keep the environment sociable. For example – every time you generate a link you can take a prize from the lucky dip box. you will see the productivity shoot up for what may have only cost you £10
I also like the note on friendly bosses – if you are approachable the employee should be able to tell you if they have the “idea of leaving” before it becomes an ” I am leaving” situation- this give you the opportunity to them show how happy they are working with you
A happy worker will be productive and will want to grow in the company.
Santanu Da, I can really understand today at the moment the importance of a good leader. The last story of snake and god is really worth learning. I ll always remember this story at least. Manager’s most important responsibility is always his/her team members.
Thanks for sharing
Hi Santanu…Its a nice tips to the all concern and responsible people who really like to retain the "Team", The "Work Relationship" and most vital things is the "Objective" to which the organization is drive in.
Dear after working 13 years in the HR and IR filed I have gather experience some of crucial aspect reading the people retention/ attrition field. I would really like to share with you.
1) In our country business loss and profit are get more value that human loss and gain. Here human is consider as people skill, knowledge and its unique competencies. All the business summit we calculate how much our profitability and business prosperity raised and seldom any top management discuses and calculate how good manpower we lost which have direct invisible relationship with the business objective.
The Demand and supply relationship in the people market always shows excess supply. As a result top Management is always reactant to set as people objective in their work mission. The they responsible a single department will develop this condition. We all know that, we all are dealing human and its a most variable and valuable element in any organization survivable. Still we are ignorant on this matter. "THIS IS CALLED COUNTRY WORK CULTURE" and its required revaluation to change the thought.
Thanks,
Jishnu Chakraborty