Retaining Top Talent

Priya’s accountancy firm had been running for 4 years, she had painstaking built her business from scratch; knew each client personally and had recruited and developed her team so that she as certain that her clients were receiving an excellent service.

Then Richard one of her longest servicing employees resigned.

She was distraught, “I’ve poured so much into developing him, why would he leave?” she asked. “He seemed happy, what if this is the start of a exodus?”

Ever felt like this?

Losing a valued employee can be a business owners worst nightmare. It’s takes a lot of time, effort and resource to recruit and onboard new team members.

Priya and I met with Richard to get some feedback on his decision to leave to business, turned out that he found a new job, closer to home, that would enable him to spend more time with his young family.

While he wasn’t about to change his mind about his resignation, he did give us some valuable insight in to the team and we used them to communicate effectively with staff and build team morale.

Worried about losing a valued team member? Here are a few tips to help you:

1. Build and maintain great relationships with your team; have a open and respectful relationship with your team, spend time together and show genuine interest in the things that they are interested in.

2. Communicate your team mission and aspirations; ensure that everyone in your team knows how they fit into the aspirations for the business and what their path to growth is.

3. Ask for feedback; it is important that your team feels heard and they their ideas are taken into consideration as you grow and scale your business.

4. Measure morale regularly; team meetings and employee satisfaction surveys are a good way of checking in.

5. Understand what motivates each individual; everyone is different and that may mean communicating and creative incentives differently to suit individual personalities .

Need help recruiting and retaining your team, DM us and we’ll be in touch to schedule a quick call to see how we can help you

Are your Job Descriptions up to date?

I have to be honest, I’ve personally never had a job description (JD) that was up to date for more than three months at a time, but that’s because I’ve always recognised that to progress my career I needed to do more than my JD.

That being said, it is always good to keep track of how roles are changing and developing within your business.

This week I met with client of mine to discuss an upcoming restructure that has come about because of business growth. We had already established the new structure and additional roles that would be needed.

So we looked at what needed to be removed from his role to ensure that he was able to focus on the important elements, which would ensure the business continued to thrive, and then reviewed the existing JD’s for his team, so we could add some additional responsibilities.

What was interesting was that some of the tasks that the CEO was doing were already in his teams JD and that there was even one individual who did not have a job description at all! Needless to say that has been rectified and we have formulated a plan of action, for consultation and implementation.

It is really hard effectively recruit, set objectives and monitor success without having an up to date job description as a foundation document. Also when dealing with under-performing staff it is important that their job descriptions are correct, as you could be disciplining then for under-performing a task that they morphed into with no training or support.

A JD doesn’t need to be pages and pages, or a To Do list! Just ensure it covers the following:

• Job Title
• Who the role reports to, and other key stakeholders
• Where the role sits within the team, department and business
• Key areas of responsibility and the deliverable's expected
• Required education and training
• Soft skills and behaviours necessary to excel
• Location and travel requirements

And Remember NOT to include:

• Internal terminology, jargon or acronyms
• Anything that could be considered discriminatory
• Writing a Wish List

As a business owner you wear many hats, it’s important for your personal growth, as well as that of your business to ensure that you have an effective and efficient team, where responsibilities and objectives are clear and transparently communicated. Having up to date job descriptions is a big part of that.

Why you should treat your employees like customers

I spend a lot of time deciphering issues between managers and staff, and also colleagues through mediation. Sometimes it’s a breakdown in communication, sometimes its lack of understands and sometimes it’s one person thinking that the other is a mind reader!

We are often surprised at someone’s behaviour or response to things, but to those who know them best, it is virtually impossible that the individual would have reacted in any other way.

While we invest a lot of time in the recruitment process, finding out about the persons experience, management style and even psychometric testing; what do we do after they are employed to understand the way they work and what motivates them, beyond checking they have achieved their targets?

If we treated our staff in the same way that we treat our customers, making sure that we understand as much as we can about them, it makes even the difficult conversations easier as you can adapt your style to your audience and prepare better for the reactions you might receive.

Here are a few tips to help you:

Build relationships

It goes without saying that in order for someone to open up to you they need to have a relationship with you. You have to create a safe environment so that if a staff member has an issues inside or out of work, they fell comfortable talking with you. You can start by really listening to them when you ask what they did at the weekend or how their family are, remembering their favourite band or the ages of their children can go a long way.

Know what makes their faces shine

I once had a HR Assistant who loved working with entry level staff, she really enjoyed getting graduates their first job and supporting them as they navigated their way in the corporate word. Working with them truly made her day. Knowing this made it easy to motivate her and I knew that I never had to worry about my graduate programmes once she was involved. Understanding what makes your staffs face shine is the key to retaining your key employees.

Don’t make promises that you cannot keep

The saying “under promise, over deliver” springs to mind! Be clear about the conditions for promotions, pay rises, working from home, etc. A lot of hurt feelings and resentment can be avoid if we are clear in our communications, with a customer you document what they receive from you in return for a fee. You start in the same way with your employees but do you continue that in your 1-2-1’s and performance review meetings?

Show your appreciation

When you have a great customer, you offer them exclusive deals and keep in touch to ensure that you are front of mind when that need your services. Your staff are the key to your customer’s satisfaction, make sure that they feel that appreciation, it doesn’t have to be a financial reward but something well thought out.

Need help engaging with your staff, our management fundamentals course is a great place to start, find out more here.

Are you a Leader or a Follower?

“Leaders Bring You Along, Managers Push You Along”, have you ever heard that saying?

There are distinct differences between a manager and a leader, even though you do have leaders who manage and managers who are leaders.

Remember when you started your business? You had to motivate yourself, push forward and make things happen. You had to win that business, make the sale and convince your family, friends and funders that your business was a going concern that will be hugely successful?

You led them to understanding your business, to join you on your business journey as a client, investor or cheerleader. That’s what a leader is, someone who takes people with them, using a compelling message.

Sounds easy right?

As an entrepreneur, you need to have the skills of both a leader and a manager. It’s not easy as often influencing others can take more time than just directing them to a task! And time is always short for an entrepreneur!

However the pluses for leading your team, is that by giving them greater autonomy, you get freed up to do the high value tasks that only you have the skills to deliver and who knows what amazing ideas your team may have for improving your business, creating efficiency and increasing your bottom line.

Below are some of the differences in the behavioural characteristics of a leader and manager:

Manager v Leaders Behaviours

Manager Drives employees ... Leader Coaches them

Depends on authority ... On goodwill

Inspires Fear ... Generates enthusiasm

Says “I” ... Says “We”

Places blame for the problem ... Fixes the problem

Knows how it is done ... Shows how it’s done

Uses people ... Develops people

Takes credit ... Give credit

Commands ... Asks

Say “Go” ... Says “Let’s Go”

See my Live Video on the subject here.

Next week we will be looking at how to develop your leadership behaviours.

Creating an Effective Talent Management Strategy – Part 1

In my last blog I explained why having a Talent Management Strategy was important and the value that it can bring to your business.

The CIPD definition of Talent is:

"Talent consists of those individuals who can make a difference to organisational performance either through their immediate contribution or, in the longer-term, by demonstrating the highest levels of potential".

The first task is identifying your talent, by doing the following:

• Identify what skills and expertise your organisation currently needs – Do you have the right skills to keep your clients happy, or enough people with those skills for smooth delivery?
• Identify what skills and knowledge are needed to achieve your medium to long terms business plans – Are you planning to expand? Or Diversify? Is there new technology on the horizon?
• Identify those individuals currently making a signification contribution to your organisation (especially those who have a unique skill, what I call a single point of failure) – don’t just look at your senior team, look throughout your organisation
• Identify those with Potential to make a significant contribution to your organisation in the future – Who is displaying the values and ethos of your business, Who has shown their ability and desire to be great?

Depending on the size of your organisation, these tasks may take a while.

Stick to reviewing staff identified based on their current skills and knowledge, and their ability to develop into the skilled individuals that you will need for the future, not your gut.

The Vlog on this subject, can be found here.

Next week, we’ll look at part two of creating your Talent Management Plan.

Let us know how you get along and if you have any questions the comments section below

What is Talent Management and Why is it Important?

At one of the Corporate Consultancies that I used to work for, there was a period of staff reduction, following 5 years of rapid growth. Restructures with the insecurity of job losses are always stressful, and so we spent a long time working out the strategy for change. How to communicate with staff and what support to give to those who would be displaced. We ran the programme well, and at the end of the process, achieved our goal and reached our savings target.

However, in the 6 months following the restructure we received resignations from a large number of highly valued, well performing staff. When we attempted to retain these individuals, the feedback we received was that they didn’t feel secure in their role and that they didn’t feel valued or invested in. They certainly hadn’t realised that they were considered part of the top 10% of the Company.

This company DID NOT have a Talent Management Strategy! They didn’t invest in ensuring that their top performers were happy and motivated.

So, What is Talent Management?

The CIPD describes Talent Management as ‘the systematic attraction, identification, development, engagement, retention and deployment of those individuals who are of particular value to an organisation, either in view of their ‘high potential’ for the future or because they are fulfilling business/operation-critical roles’

3 key reasons why Talent Management is key:

• Staff turnover will be reduced
• Client delivery will be improved
• Your organisation becomes a ‘employer of choice’

The Vlog on this subject, can be found here. Let us know how you motivate and retain your top talent in the comments section below.

Next week, we will cover how to start creating your Talent Management Strategy.