Retaining your team: Loyalty development

The concept of a job for life no longer applies to most workers, who are happy to move to new roles whenever they feel their needs are not being met. Retention is therefore a major challenge facing employers today.

Follow these best practices to improve your staff retention rates and get the best performance from your teams.

Retaining your best talent

Largely speaking, the more invested a worker feels you are in their skills and future, the more likely they are to stay with you and help grow your business. It’s also important to cultivate an environment of challenge and praise to help motivate your staff and compel them to continue growing with the business.

Learn more about inclusive leadership: Unlock Success with Inclusive Leadership | Hays US

Developing loyalty

The concept of a job for life no longer applies to the vast majority of workers, who are happy to move to new roles whenever they feel their needs are not being met. Retention is therefore a major challenge facing employers today.

You may also like: How to prevent our best people from leaving | Hays US

How to give performance reviews:

In today’s competitive market for top talent, performance reviews are essential to retention. With the correct preparation and a positive mindset, you can use the review to: 

• Revive lacking motivation
• Kick-start stalling projects 
• Reward productive employees with more responsibility
• Deal with problems head-on
• Set objectives for the future
• Assess training needs
• Learn more about the group dynamics of your team

Contrary to popular opinion, many employees look forward to their performance review. The performance review is a chance for staff to gain recognition and reward (pay reviews should be separate), look ahead and set objectives that will help their career, as well as identify support they need and resolve grievances.

Preparation

Preparation is essential. Gain insight into the outlook of your employee and ensure time is used efficiently. Have the employee complete a pre-review form and compare answers with previous review notes and assess:

• Were objectives set and if so met?
• Were there previous issues; have they been addressed?
• Were there wants by the employee; have they been realised?

The review

Do not reschedule. Ensure the employee knows this is important to you and the organization. Conduct the meeting first thing to avoid delays from competing demands and allow an hour for the review.

Have an agenda and review it at the start of the meeting. Explain the importance of the review and that the purpose is to focus on the employee. Try to follow a logical order, ideally along the lines of your prereview form. The discussion should centre on the following:

• A review of objectives set at the previous appraisal
• What objectives were met and is the employee deserving of special praise?
• What wasn’t met and why? 
• How do they view themselves as part of the team?
• Do they enjoy their job?
• How do they assess their own skill areas?
• Do they have a clear idea of their role and the department’s role?
• Where do they see themselves developing over the coming six months/year?
• How are they going to achieve these aims?
• Are there specific targets which can be realistically met?
• How will performance be measured?
• What training needs are required to fulfil these objectives?
• What other issues would they like to raise?

Handling confrontation

You may be required to communicate that the employee is failing in a particular aspect of the job. This could be as simple as timekeeping or personal appearance, or more sensitive, such as competence at specific tasks or ability to get on with colleagues. Be prepared to handle the conversation sympathetically:

• How can your comments be best phrased?
• Can you at the same time highlight positive points?
• Are you being constructive in your criticism?
• Have suggestions as to how these points can be resolved?

The opportunity to ‘raise other issues can result into personal gripes about other members of staff, complaints about office ergonomics, accusations of unfair treatment and grievances about workload or resources. Think on your feet and get to the root of the issue: What prospects are there for personal and professional development?

• Ask your employee to provide specific examples not generalisations
• Read between the lines; determine the root of the issue
• Provide a challenge. Have the employee develop a plan to resolve the problem themselves before you provide suggestions.

Providing a career map

Help your staff build a career map. This can help clarify your employee’s targets for career progression and identify specific areas that require training. Before the review, have your employee complete the following exercise to review in the meeting:

• Identify existing skills and future potential
• Identify long-term goals
• Write out 20 questions needed to answer/complete to achieve the outlined goals
• Lay out an action plan to achieving these goals
• Determine smaller objectives that help make the long-term goals more attainable
• Identify the first steps to achieving the above

Post-review action

It’s essential to make the action points happen and to be seen to be making them happen. If you’ve committed to exploring further training or arranging meetings with other departments, then find out or get these sessions set up as soon as you can. The quickest way to lose valuable staff is to let decisions made at reviews fall by the wayside.

The importance of a performance review

The quickest way to lose valuable staff is to let decisions made at reviews fall by the wayside.

Be prepared and download our previous guides:

• Unlocking Recruitment Success: Hays Hiring Guide | Hays US
• Mastering Staff Retention: A Pay Review Guide| Hays US

Our Hays professionals are ready to support you and your company today and tomorrow. Contact our experts today.