Finding outstanding
team members is hard enough, so don't waste all that time, money and effort by
then losing someone through bad management or poor leadership.
Here's
7 common ways you lose employees you shouldn't...
Ignore the input, ideas and insight of your team, and plan your direction without their input...at your own peril.
2. Hire because you "need someone"
Do you hire to fill a slot or to make a difference? What are the talent gaps in your current teams? Do you look for people that bring those talents and make your team stronger?
3. Don't improve your training program on a regular basis. Turnover
thrives on bad training programs and poor communication. Now that Baby Boomers
have earned and aged into the Area Director/Senior VP ranks of our industry,
and Generation X managers are running units staffed with Gen Y--giving new
insight to the term "Generation Gap"-- shouldn't we ask some serious
questions about the current relevance of our communication and training
materials? Are they aimed and designed for the right mindset? Are we talking
down a few generations in tone, style and format? The generation gap
today is less a lifestyle difference and more of a technology disconnect
between the age groups. Relative to cyber-skills, we have Digital Aliens
training Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives.
3. Don't let your employees know where they stand-good or bad.
What's the old saying? Never let either good work go un-praised (if you see it, say it) or poor work go unnoticed (make it private and positive).
4. Don't re-recruit your crew every single day.
As Michael McLaughlin said in a recent Workforce magazine interview: "Maybe if you keep your eyes closed, you won't see the rush for the door when the economy picks up again. " Sound pessimistic...or prescient? You be the judge. After every shift let each team member know how they did and how much they're appreciated.
5. Play by the Rules. Lots of them.
A sure way to turn over more employees is to over-burden them with rules and regulations. A better philosophy? Strong culture, thin rulebook. And it's helpful to remember the difference between rules and principles. Rules tell your people what they can do. Principles tell them what they cannot do. And as far as rules go, the bottom line is that only one thing that's "sacred" is this: the customer comes back.
6. Hire the wrong people.
High-performers like to work with high-performers and hate working
with low-performers because they cause all kinds of problems that
high-performers have to fix.
7. Keep them in the dark.
If you don't give your team a plan before each shift they'll
presume you don't have a plan. then they'll substitute their own plan.
by Jim
Sullivan