Norman executive advises on employee retention By OKCBusiness Staff - 4/16/2007

Employee retention doesn’t have to be some mystery that eludes us. The key is having healthy workplace relationships. Good relationships have always been keys to success. When we were children, our imaginations and creativity engaged our relationships with playmates, good or bad. Yet, as adults, we often retreat to avoid conflicts.

If you are serious about building a successful company, you should think about building strong relationships within your company. Here are five strategies to assist you in your transformation to a stronger, more stable workforce:

• Don’t make it harder than it is.
Ask exiting employees why they are leaving. You may not get everyone to talk, but those who do can reveal some real eye-openers. Once you accumulate some information, don’t over-analyze it, but don’t discount it either.

• Develop manageable policies.
Policies that are too rigid can make managers and employees feel trapped because every employee situation is a little different. Policies should give general guidelines – boundaries in which managers are empowered to make decisions.

• Develop procedures.
Having procedures and job descriptions helps in all layers of the communication process, from training to appraising performance. Rid yourself of guesswork and inconsistency.

• Educate employees.
Ask yourself: Would I rather invest time and money to develop the knowledge, skills and abilities of my employees or re-placing and re-training them? Enough said.

• Train your managers.
Aren’t these the folks who are supposed to be driving your departments? Affecting the bottom line? Taking the company to the next level? Spearing the competition? Then why are you ignoring them? Remember, people quit people, not companies. In fact, when your managers quit, they are quitting you. The beautiful part is… you can control this. Develop your managers’ leadership and communication skills. They need to know how to hire, train, evaluate, discipline and, if necessary, fire the employees who answer to them.

Now, take action. Look at it this way – you’ve spent all your energy, time and money in creating your business strategy, as well as developing pricing and perfecting your products and services. Why have you ignored your people? Invest in them and you are practically guaranteed to retain a loyal, knowledgeable and quite remarkable workforce that will send your competition in a tail-spin!

Laura Moxley is owner and president of Your HR Resource, a Norman-based human resource consulting company.

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