Tips for Employee Retention and Motivation

Business owners in a workshop at a recent annual conference were asked to share their secrets to employee retention and motivation. The owners teamed up to brainstorm answers to each of these questions. It wasn't long before everyone started to see a common element in all three areas.

Everyone agreed that it’s the people and their attitudes that make the difference. They also concluded that it’s you, the management team, that has to first make the difference.

So, take a close look at your retention and motivation strategies as they are both under your direct management influence. Here are some of the team's answers:

Employee Retention

Keep your promises

Build employees’ self-esteem

Host staff events / team building

React on employee suggestions

Hold regular staff meetings

Employee motivation

Provide ongoing staff training

Keep employees informed of business status

Frequent /consistent rewards and recognition for performance

Set goals, review, evaluate, give feedback

Lead by example

Be sensitive to personal issues

When you take a close look at these two areas, you can see much overlap. What you do to increase employee motivation will also increase employee retention and vice versa.

Let’s look at staff meetings and reacting on employee suggestions, for example. With inclusion, you are indirectly empowering employees to contribute to the success of your whole operation because it gives them a chance to see and understand the bigger picture. This, in turn, leads to taking initiative and improving things in employees’ own areas of responsibility, particularly if they are recognized for them.

By sharing the results of the period with employees and asking them what went well and could use some improvement, you are obtaining a wealth of information and including them in the operation’s overall success.

What do you think will happen when it comes time to implement some of their suggestions? Do you think they will object, or do you think they might take ownership in implementing them beyond your expectations?

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. This is an important employee retention and employee motivation discipline. From this point on, you will notice that employees will go out of their way to do a great job because you took the time to include them, to empower them, to thank them and to show them that you care.

Bob Urichuck is an international speaker, trainer and best-selling author. Learn personally from Urichuck in the areas of sales, motivation, leadership and team skills. Urichuck presents a series of great ideas and strategies with combination of facts, humor and practical concept in a high-energy and self-discovery process that you can apply right away to achieve results. Subscribe to Urichuck’s free newsletter by visiting www.bobu.com.

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