How to Attract and Retain Talent

Who should listen: Employers who want strategies for retaining their best employees.

Key idea: Employees need to feel appreciated.

Action item: Develop relationships with the people who work for you. Learn about who they are outside of the office.

You’ve probably heard the adage that people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad bosses. It’s true, of course, but it’s not the only reason. It’s not even the number one reason.

Hiring people is one of the most consequential actions that companies take. If you get the right person into the right role with the right support, then extraordinary things can happen. If you don’t, then your life, their life, and the lives of those around you can become a “drinking from the Pepto bottle” situation.

via GIPHY

This week, we suggest 4 actions you can do to both attract people to your company and combat the many reasons why people leave their jobs:

1. Provide a path toward earning more compensation.
2. Help employees become the best versions of themselves.
3. Align employees’ career goals with opportunities in your company.
4. Support a high-performance culture.

1. Provide a path toward earning more compensation

Providing fair compensation is a way to ensure that employees are recognized and feel appreciated. The provision of a clear path toward more compensation also helps employees grow.

We often hear employees tell us that they work hard and should make more money because of their effort. They work hard—they may be the most dedicated employee you have—but if their work is not directed toward money-earning activities, should you reward them with a raise?

The disconnect in this situation is that employees who work hard want to be compensated for what they’ve done, but what they’ve done hasn’t been aligned with the company’s goals or priorities. That’s where you, as the boss, need to step in.

Make sure your employees understand the goals. Coach them to recognize work that contributes to, rather than detracts from, these desired ends. Steer their energy, skills, and talent in the right direction, and you’ll be thrilled to reward their work.

2. Help employees become the best versions of themselves

There is little chance that you’ll help an employee in their personal development if you don’t make an effort to know them as a person rather than just as an agent, an underwriter, an advisor, a claims adjuster, or any other job title.

When you get to know someone outside of the office—when you listen to stories about their lives, their family, their dreams, and their challenges—you’ll be in a much better position to help them because you’ll understand them more than you otherwise would.

Knowing your employees as people with lives beyond work means you’re better equipped to help them develop needed skills. You can expose them to enriching situations. You will understand and perhaps empathize with their needs. And you can point them toward resources.

You don’t have to become intimate friends with those who report to you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take an interest in seeing them achieve in ways that are rewarding to them.

3. Align employees’ career goals with opportunities in your company

Career advancement is not always within an immediate supervisor’s control, but, when it is, you should strive to help your employees align their goals with opportunities that will help them achieve what they desire. When you can do this, your employees will find more satisfaction in their work because they’ll be able to see how what they are doing is getting them closer to where they want to be.

If your employees are truly your greatest asset, then you should invest in that asset. Provide support for their attendance at industry conferences. Offer opportunities for training, and pay for certifications when it’s appropriate. There are many ways to help your employees feel supported.

4. Support a high-performance culture

When you allow poor or disruptive employees to continue working at your company, you’re doing a tremendous disservice to the morale and productivity of your high-performing employees. Put up with someone’s bad behavior long enough, and you’ll lose your better employees because high-performers want to surround themselves with others like them who will help them grow.

Additionally, your top talent will likely come to resent their situation, and quite possibly you, because they’ll be relied upon to pick up the slack—and they will because that’s who they are—but they’ll only do it for so long.

The squeaky wheel may get the oil, but it should also be the first one you replace.

Please enjoy this episode, and we’d appreciate it if you would give us a 5-star rating and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. (Not sure how to leave a review? Click here.)

Connect | Resources

Additional episodes you may find helpful in attracting and retaining talent:

• 164: 7 Tips for Managing Virtual Teams | Episode 164
• Peter Taunton – Founder of Snap Fitness on How to Scale and Lead a Business
• How to Use the Predictive Index to Build a Team | Episode 168
• How You Train 76 Agents to Close 800 Transactions (With Mark Pattison) | Episode 267
• 4 Things You Need to Turn a Team Into a Company (with Tom Toole) | Episode 285