The good news is Ontario unemployment rate is extremely low, the bad news is Ontario’s unemployment rate is extremely low. More and more companies are becoming increasingly concerned about good people leaving their organizations. Let’s face it, the economy is strong, and full-time job creation is excellent. There are a number of great jobs for people who can present themselves, their experience and skills to potential employers in a professional manner. Keeping good employees is going to get much harder to do.

Generally, people don't leave an organization where they feel at home. If people are leaving, it's often because they don't feel at home. Treating people as "insiders" is one of the real key elements of having a great workforce.

Where employees do feel at home, leaving (for geographical, monetary, career or personal development reasons) is usually a difficult, painful experience for both parties. Yet in companies where there are retention issues, invariably the issues started at the top of the company.

Not feeling loved or appreciated isn't something that can survive in a vacuum. A culture of mutual respect and recognition of achievement must be at least condoned, if not actually supported, by senior management, if it is to take hold within a company.

Changing such a culture is difficult, a bit like turning a large ship around. A large part of the issue is trust - where employees feel unappreciated, they are almost always distrustful. Consequently there are no "magic pill" solutions. It takes months, even years of consistent treatment before there is an appreciable change in employee attitude. Let’s face it, existing employees carry a lot of history (some call it "baggage") and will not respond immediately to any intervention you undertake- but they will over time.

Building and nurturing trust, the key to retention, are different for existing employees and new employees. The dynamics of these two groups differ. New employees arrive ready to work with the company and it's culture, and employee - employer attitudes (including trust) can be built from scratch. With the existing employees there is a lot of history, some of it good and some of it not so good, that has to be addressed.

Here are some of our recommendations:

1. Recruit for retention

Look for every way possible to ensure that recruitment is done with retention in mind. For example, are "prospects" treated well when being interviewed by others in your organization? When they walk into the company for the first time are they treated well? Do you use diagnostic tools that help you understand the person? 

2. Orient for retention

It is unbelievable how many companies mess up, at this stage. Typically a new hire judges the company and it’s commitment to them as employees in the first three months of employment…more than any other time of their employment. Having a weak (or non-existent) orientation program is simply dumb, I firmly believe a great orientation program can put years on your average retention period.

3. Manage for retention

The single biggest issue, and opportunity is, communication. For larger companies, mentoring, coaching and buddy programs are great and should be part of your toolkit. However, the key is to ensure that there is solid communication on a wide range of issues and, in particular employees need to be treated as "insiders", a valued contributor to the company.

If your company is becoming more concerned about attracting and retaining good people, just hoping and praying isn’t a good enough response anymore. Adopting a "wait and see" orientation in a buoyant economy is risky. Changing your organization to one that recognizes employee contributions, encourages achievement and growth, and encourages communication "up and down" the hierarchy, is truly a real challenge. A challenge, when done well, holds the promise of re-engaging the workforce, and retaining the good employees that are essential to any business.

Feel free to use this article, just give credit where credit is due!
Copyright 1999 © Sid Ridgley