To retain your great talent for your organization you need to put forth a great effort during their on-boarding and continue to engage your employees with Stay Interviews. What do I mean?
If you want your great talent to stay with your organizations then you need to make them feel welcome on day one and let them know how important they are to your organization, your mission, your clients and other employees in the organization. How do you do this – well you don’t say here is your desk and computer we know you will be great and let them fend for themselves. You need to provide them with all the information about their job/position with a job description (see blog on job description tips). You need to provide them a profile or brochures about your organization – either the profile you use for your recruitment (see sample profiles on this website) or brochures that describe the organization, mission, vision, organizational chart, etc. Then explain how your new employee fits into the organization and how they will make a difference. (see tip related to on-boarding for more information)
Once they have been with you for 3 months make sure you check in to see how they are doing and at 6 months and 9 months. Then at one year you should do a Stay interview to find out what you can do to keep them engaged and find opportunities for them to grow. (see tips on Stay interviews). In addition to the tips described I have provided you with a number of additional questions to ask the employees during the Stay Interview (This is information obtained at the International City/County Manager Association Conference 2019)
- What do you like most about your work?
- What keeps you here?
- What would entice you away?
- What do you want to learn this year?
- Is there anything you’d like to change about your job?
- Do you feel recognized for your accomplishments?
- What strengths or talents do you have that aren’t being used?
- How do you like to be recognized, acknowledged, and rewarded for a job well done?
- What is your greatest challenge or roadblock?
- What part of working here strikes you as ridiculous?
- What would make your work more meaningful and satisfying?
- How can I or the organization help you reach your career goals?
- What support do you need to be more effective?
- If you could wave a magic wand, what changes would you make in the work environment?
- What can we do to ensure we keep you with us?
For a great source on this topic see my partner, Georgian Lussier’s book titled “Are your Star Performers Packing their Bags? How to Persuade them to Stay” it can be purchased by going to this Link: https://ryangroup.contentshelf.com/product?product=I130129000000BF7
