The following are the first 5 of 10 staff retention tips that my HR associate and I have come up with to help you and your municipality keep your very best staff.
- Recruiting the right people and keeping the right staff really matters… especially now.
- In a recent survey staff cited the following three top reasons they would begin looking for a new job:
- 53 % want more money and better benefits.
- 35 % said they were dissatisfied with the potential in their job and their career development.
- 32 % said they were ready for something new.
Keeping your key staff is an absolute must if your municipality is going thrive over the next decade. Most municipal managers I talk to agree that retaining their best staff ensures:
- tax payer satisfaction
- satisfied coworkers and reporting staff
- community growth
- effective succession planning
- …and deep and abiding organizational winning attitude.
To most municipal managers retention is a “no-brainer”. Why do less than effective managers play a big part in causing great staff to quit their jobs?
Employee retention does matter. Issues such as training… which includes both the time and the money; lost information; employee sadness, insecurity and a costly candidate searches all add up to this:
Failing to retain key staff is very expensive.
Some experts estimate that losing a middle manager costs a municipality up to 100 percent of their salary. The loss of a senior Municipal manager is even more costly. What would you say - double the annual salary or more?
Retention is all the more important as every town and every city in Canada faces the inevitable. Over the next few years while Baby Boomers retire, they will be replaced by Generation X and… here is the rub: There are roughly half as many GenXers available to do the work as there are boomers leaving. Simply stated, there are going to be a lot fewer people available to do the work.
Retention is one of the biggest indicators of the health of your organization. If you have been losing key staff you can safely assume that others in that department are looking around too. As part of your strategy to retain staff a good “Exit interview” with those who are leaving will give you invaluable information that you can utilize to retain those who are left. Take the results seriously. The kind of information you can gather in an exit interview is invaluable.
You will never have a more important source of data about the health of your municipality.
- A satisfied employee has a clear idea of what is expected of him every day at work. Changing expectations keep people on edge and create unhealthy stress. They rob the employee of internal security and make them feel unsuccessful. Role clarity provides a specific framework so they can know clearly what is expected of them.
- The quality of the supervision an employee receives is very important to employee retention. Employees quit their managers and supervisors more often than they leave municipalities or jobs. It is not enough that the boss is well-liked or a nice person. The supervisor has a key role to play in retention. Anything a manager does that makes an employee feel undervalued will contribute to turnover. Frequently staff complain about leadership lapses.
- --lack of role clarity,
- --lack of clarity about earning potential,
- --lack of feedback about performance,
- --failure to hold scheduled and worthwhile meetings,
- --failure to provide a framework within which the employee perceives he can succeed.
- Freedom to speak their minds mind freely within the municipality is another key factor in employee retention. Does your municipality offer an environment that welcomes ideas. Are staff comfortable providing feedback? If yes, your staff will offer ideas in an environment where they feel free to criticize and as a side effect be willing to commit to continuous improvement. If not, they will bite their tongues or find themselves constantly "in trouble" - until they leave.
- Using your staffs talents and skills will keep them happy and wanting to stay. The right kind of employee wants to contribute the overall good of the town or city…even in areas outside of their specific job description. How many people could contribute far more than they currently do? The key here is to know what skills, talents and experiences each one brings to the table…as their manager you need to take the time to tap into it.
Watch for the next 5 staff retention tips coming next month
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