Keeping the Good Ones

Training employees will lead to increased productivity and better outcomes. Therefore, it is necessary to treat team members as people first and as employees second. It will motivate their engagement in work and interest in outcomes. Actually, staff training will inspire employees and provide them with necessary practical tools in order to keep the good people the company already has. The core principles of successful management are:

• To offer yourself (director, senior manager) as a person firstly and director secondly
• To offer time with a regular take 10 check-in
• To offer motivation and appreciation

It is known that companies spend lots of capital investments in tomorrow’s leaders without paying attention to today’s employees. It is suggested that money is the main reason of departures. Nevertheless, it is not. Money plays important part, though this part is minor compared with other factors. Motivation based only on material awards is insufficient, although lack of money is also a de-motivator.

So, there is not need to throw money after employee who is unhappy, because it will create an unhappy employee who is better off financially. It is necessary to outline that variety of factors exist to motivate employees. Therefore, motivation should be intrinsic. There is not single method to motivate all the employees at once. Motivation depends on each employee. Directors should understand these principles, if they want to develop leaders. Otherwise, directors will serve only corporate ambitions of leading competitors.

The first key is to build a better culture. If a company wants to retain its employees in whom it has invested capital, time and relationships, it has, firstly, to provide improvements of corporate structure. It s required to look at corporate hierarchy culture – vertical or horizontal. Vertical structure results in decreased communication, less employees’ empowerment and general decrease in commitment, whereas horizontal structure does the opposite meaning it aims at decreasing friction and power struggles between employees and senior management.

Horizontal structure tends to ensure higher visibility and accountability. The next step is to improve employee commitment and communication mechanism. It is important to remember that to improve the quality of employees’ life means to ensure better commitment and performance of the company.

The second key is to empower employees. Actually, empowerment is a matter of discussion, though often this concept is misunderstood. It is proved that empowered employees are able to make quicker decisions, they are more confident in their abilities, etc. Thus, empowerment increases employee’s satisfaction and decreases corporate costs related to remediation work.

Motivated employees are willingly engaged in innovations and problem-solving processes. The main benefit of empowerment is that it generates loyalty among employees. Therefore, empowered employees realize that their contribution is valued and they are respected.

Finally, the third key is to improve relationship skills. It means that relationships within corporate culture may either make or break the company’s performance. Relationship and communication skills are vital component of corporate culture. The company’s managers and directors should display corporate personality traits such as sense of humor, family values, empathy, genuineness to motivate employees follow their example. People should be valued more then outcomes.

Further, chief executives should be readily accessible and easily approached. It goes without saying that the better relationship skills among employees and directors, the better the corporate culture. Effective communication is playing nowadays one of the most important roles in organizations and companies, because it is the only source of mutual understanding among employees and customers, directors and suppliers, etc.

References

• Keeping the Good Ones. (2001). Retrieved March 11, 2007, from http://mpcfilms.com