Secrets of Attracting and Retaining Employees

Dear John,

Here are some questions for you.
a. Do you have difficulties recruiting employees?
b. Do you have absenteeism problems?
c. Do you have problems with employee retention?

If you have more than one “Yes” to the above questions, you are being sincere.

We believe that an employee is more likely to stay on the job if he/she is happy with what he/she does on the job, and that he/she is treated well by the superiors, peers, andsubordinates.

In other words if you want to attract and to retain employees, you need to have the “rightperson for the right job, with the right pay”, and to have a workplace environment that supports the “treat me well” phenomenon.

The first challenge is to hire “the right person for the right job”

I believe that the key to do that is to have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of what the job requires of the knowledge and skills, and the types of competencies required for the job holder to excel on the job.

Job requirements are covered in the Job Description and Job Specifications which should also include a list of behavioral competencies, examples of which are Strategic, Focus, Polite,

Helpful, Teamwork, Urgency, Friendliness, Self Confidence, Trustworthiness, Creativity, Action Oriented, Passionate, etc.

The “right pay for the right job” concerns internal equity and the external equity.

Internal Equity deals with “Fair-play” within the organization. The concept of “Equal Pay for Equal Job” applies. In this respect we are talking about Job Values which are often carried out in an exercise of Job Evaluation.

External equity also deals with “Fair-play”. It is about what the organization is paying for the equivalent job as what other organizations are paying. For example, if Company ABC pays a Receptionist $2000 per month, and Company XYZ pays the Receptionist $1500 per month, the employee in Company XYZ may not be happy.

The “treat me well” phenomenon concerns the behaviors of employees working in an organization. Positive behaviors will lead to positive outcomes, and negative behaviors will lead to negative outcomes, which often might result with higher employee resignation and poor employee morale.

If you take the first letter from each of the factors above, you have the word “TRIAL”

TRIAL alone may not be good enough. There are other issues for consideration including the following:

a. What about allowing employees to have flexible working arrangements (FWA’s), for example Flexi-Time, Flexi-Job, and Flexi-Place?

b. What about giving more non-monetary rewards to employees, for example giving credit when due, frequency in communication, and provide life-long educational support?

c. What about conducting frequent surveys to seek out what employees want?

Please take time to reflect on the above factors and look for things which you can do in your workplace to practice Trust, Respect, Integrity, Accountability, and Leveling, and what you need to do to enhance communication and building rapport with your colleagues and Team.

I wish you success in your endeavor.