High-Performing Superstars - Building and Retaining Your Team - Part 3

When we were defining the problem of skilled labor shortage and just beginning to chart the way forward it, it was stated you will need well defined, hiring and retention practices. You are hiring for the long term, so set your standards and requirements for positions at a high level. Additionally, you want to position your company to be known as one willing to pay well for good skills and also to be known as a company where your employees, once hired, don't have any desire to look around for greener pastures. They know your company is where they want to stay.

The above is all about setting standards. Certainly it's about setting standards for pay in order to be able to attract the type of person you want within your organization. More importantly, it's about setting those standards that, in broad terms, define the manner in which people are treated within your organization. Most people simply refer to that as the company's culture. Specific examples of areas in which to create standards would be:

• Establishing career paths, not just jobs

• Fair and equal treatment of your employees

• Clearly and consistently communicating the company's direction and progress

• Mentoring and training

• Recognition of individual contribution

• Demonstrating appreciation for performance.

The list is not intended to be all-inclusive. It does recognize areas that are key to establishing the type of culture that will cause your people to want to work hard to be able to remain within your company. You may have noticed that pay has only been mentioned once and nothing has been said about bonuses and monetary incentives. That is with forethought, because companies are becoming increasingly aware money is not the prime motivator for an individual leaving or staying with a company

If, as has been indicated, 45% of today's workers want to change jobs in order to improve their situation, then effectively what we're trying to accomplish is a paradigm shift. That won't come easy. It will require diligent effort to design the overall plan for your company and establish the standards to support the plan.

To this point, all efforts would appear oriented towards doing what is required to up your retention rate for outstanding employees. However, we can't lose sight of the fact that not every employee is self motivated to achieve the highest levels of performance. Some companies have a standard directing that every year or so employees are reviewed and the bottom 10% of performers are considered for elimination and replacement.

Some trimming and replacement may be an inevitable, but I don't consider routinely trimming 10% of the bottom performers to be cost-effective in a labor environment marked by increasing costs for decreasing skills. It also runs counter to the image you're developing of a company that wants its employees for the long-term. It's important to develop standards that address and define what constitutes poor performance. That way both managers and individuals have a yardstick to measure against. When an individual is at risk of failing to meet the performance standards is when elements of the standards, mentioned above, for mentoring and training can come into play.

Look for Part Four: Mentoring & Training