Maintaining Talent’s Enthusiasm

In this era of the knowledge economy, a talent team is one of your company’s greatest assets and a key factor in building a sustainable business. All great leaders know that the ability to hire top talents is a key ingredient for success. However, building that team is only the first half of success: the second lies in keeping the team together.

Companies without strong retention practices are in greater danger of losing those key players to better opportunities. So what can companies do to be prepared, to protect their best and brightest from jumping ship—or worse, getting snatched away by the competition?

While rewarding valued employees with a pay raise is a tried-and-true retention tool, companies without the ability to increase employee wages can still build strong staff loyalty and retention without spending a lot of additional money. Below are some tips for managers looking to develop new, improved, and cost-effective retention practices.

Maximize your talent’s strengths

A good manager sees his or her employees’ current value, but a great one assesses their future value as well. Oftentimes, an employee has additional skills and assets that aren’t being utilized in their current position.

Get to know your team members’ strengths, weaknesses, unique talents, and experience

Doing so will help you tap into their full potential and set both them and your company up for increased success. Failing to do so, on the other hand, will lead to employees who feel ignored and unheard.

The Chinese have won more Olympic gold medals in ping pong than every other country combined. At the 1988 Olympics, when China again captured gold, the coach of the Chinese team was asked by a reporter to talk about his team’s daily training regimen.

The coach said, “We practice eight hours a day, perfecting our strengths. Here is our philosophy: If you develop your strengths to the maximum, the strength becomes so great it overwhelms the weakness. Our winning player, you see, plays only his forehand. Even though he cannot play backhand and his competitors know he cannot play backhand, his forehand is so strong that it cannot be beaten.”

Support your talent’s decisions

It’s important to avoid micromanagement and to give your top performers the empowerment and autonomy they need to succeed. However, a self-motivated employee still needs the time and attention of a manager to feel like a valued part of the team.

 Be sure to devote plenty of time to your strongest employees: deliver constructive feedback, provide an opportunity for the exchange of ideas and decision-making, and above all communicate a vision for future success that will drive their goal-setting and decision-making processes.

Here are five simple ways to support your talents and let them know how much you value their contributions:

• Treat them like team advisers
• Provide the resources they need to perform their jobs well
• Allow them to offer suggestions and feedback
• Give them opportunities to improve their skills
• Recognize their effort

Recognize your talent's effort

Lack of recognition is one of the top reasons cited when people leave their jobs. Praise and rewards are extremely powerful motivational tools that go a long way toward increased retention. Take the time to develop some formal and informal practices for recognizing and rewarding the accomplishments of your employees.

Doing so will make them feel their contributions are valued and appreciated and will likely encourage and inspire the whole staff toward greater success in the future. Recognition can be as simple as a companywide email congratulating a team member on an accomplishment or an announcement made during a staff meeting followed by a round of applause. You can also recognize employees with simple, inexpensive rewards such as individual or team casual days, movie tickets, or extra time off for a job well done.

Here are five creative ways to recognize your talents:

1. Get each employee to write something positive about the talent you’re recognizing on a piece of paper. Either give them the box of collected sayings or frame them for the person.
2. Create a video recognizing your talent. Post it on YouTube for your employee and anyone they want to share it with.
3. Buy an elaborate costume jewelry crown (the more elaborate and gaudy, the better) and crown them during a morning meeting. “King for the day” privileges include primo parking, free lunch at their desk, and the option to leave 30 minutes early from work.
4. Buy one of the talking photo frames available at any photo store. Place a certificate of appreciation inside and record a 10-second personal message of appreciation in your own voice
5. If the talent consistently performs well, give them “performance hours” tokens they can redeem to take a longer lunch, run errands, or use for personal reasons.

All your hard work and appreciation of your talent can be destroyed in an instant if you yell at, disrespect, or belittle them in private or public. They won’t remember the 100 times you said you appreciated them; they’ll remember the one time you didn’t. Bite your tongue, smile, and always show respect regardless of your personal feelings.

Conclusion

When it comes to retention, the bottom line for companies is to cultivate a work environment and a management style that recognizes your team members—especially your most valuable players. With a little thought, effort, and creativity, you’ll be on your way to building a lasting lineup of top performers.

Last but not least, there is no magic to finding ways to retain talented people. We have to remember that when all is said and done, people are simply people: they need to be loved, they need to be valued, they need connection, and they need purpose.

As a great leader, take action now!