How to Keep Good Staff

You can recognise and reward excellence in staff performance through an employee reward and recognition program. Design a program around your employees’ needs and make it innovative, flexible, and meaningful to the employees and the business. The main objectives of the program should be to retain and motivate your top employees and to foster a culture of continuous improvement in the organisation.

It is important to have a reward system that recognises both individual and team performance. Provide rewards for employees and teams who exhibit behaviours that you have identified as critical to the business and who have been responsible for driving improved business results.

Do This

• Thank staff who have done a good job, and mean it.

• Praise your good employees regularly and give them feedback about the contribution they’re making.

• Celebrate and recognise individual, team, and company performance and success.

• Encourage laughter and fun.

• Develop a staff incentive program that is simple, clear, and easy to manage.

• Design the program to be innovative, flexible, and meaningful to both the employee and the business.

• Ensure the program has the objectives of retaining and motivating top employees while fostering a culture of continuous improvement in the organisation.

• Set specific, attainable, quantifiable, and meaningful goals, and clearly communicate them to staff.

• Consider rewards for length of service, sales, suggestions or ideas, safety, attendance and ‘employee of the month’; as well as for exceptional performance.

• Consider non-financial incentives such as assistance and support in busy periods, flexible working hours, telecommuting, job-share, and child-minding facilities.

• Ensure remuneration is fair and at, or above, industry average.

• Find out what motivates and engages your employees and provide the resources and environment where people want to come to work.

• Foster strong leadership. Most people don’t leave their job, they leave their manager.

• Invest in your staff. Train, coach, and review staff performance regularly and effectively.

• Offer employees continuing opportunities to develop skills and grow their careers within the organisation.

Don’t Do This

• Make promises to candidates that you aren’t sure you’ll be able to deliver on from day one.

• Underestimate the influence of employee word-of-mouth to attract new employees. Unhappy staff won’t attract new candidates; they may dissuade potential employees.

• Invest money in becoming an ‘employer of choice’ without carefully considering exactly what you’re trying to achieve and how the changes will align with your business and truly benefit staff.

• Make big decisions about new employee benefits or workplace enhancements until you’re sure you’ll have the capacity and resources to follow through with them.