Yea, it’s been a couple of days, and as happened often in the past, my Wednesday rant is pushed back a day until Thursday.  Hold it, shouldn’t that be “pushed forward” a day, ’cause pushed back a day would mean I would write it on Tuesday.

Anyways…

Retaining Top Employees in Tough Times

A great title of an article in the WSJ the other day.  It made my heart all melty.  I’ve been talking about this concept often in the last couple months, as companies continue to lay off employees, demanding more of the survivors that are still left.   Remember that Conference Board survey I mentioned a while back that indicated HiPo’s (High Performers) give one-hundred and twenty percent effort compared to the average employee, but twenty-five percent of them planned to quit their job in the next twelve months.   If that doesn’t show the need to reward and recognize the best employees, I’m not sure what does.

I conducted the opening keynote yesterday at the Northwest Indiana SHRM conference, there were more than one hundred and twenty folks in attendance.  The conference was at the Radisson at Star Plaza in beautiful Merrillville, Indiana, a quaint ‘burb close to Chicago.  From the moment I parked my car in the lot, I knew I was staying at the right place.  One of the groundskeepers saw that I had a lot of “stuff” in my car and ran in to get a luggage cart.  He helped me unload the three boxes of books, two briefcases, my suitcase and my suit bag from my car, and then wouldn’t let me push the thing into the hotel, he did it for me.

We spoke briefly on the walk, he asked me my name.  He followed me to the desk and told “Anita” who I was by name, she happily checked me in.  She asked me for my Radisson number (which I don’t have memorized, heck it’s sixteen digits), and then looked it up for me so I wouldn’t have to check my I-Phone.  Another employee pushed my luggage cart up to my room, explaining the perks of staying there; a really cool rock waterfall pool, the exercise room, the “Green Room”, even explaining where I would be speaking the following morning.

Every single employee I saw smiled and said hello while looking at me in the eye.  Trust me, I’m not that great to look at so I figured it was something they all do with all customers, all the time.  They made me feel special.  They gave extraordinary effort to make me not only satisfied, but loyal to their hotel.  And you know what… I am.  And here I am gushing over a hotel to all you readers.

Happy employees make for loyal customers who recommend the organization as a great place to buy from.  Stealing a line from an author friend of mine… Loyalty Rules.

Retaining Top Employees in Tough Times - Part 2

Uh oh, some back-sliding.

I watched a two minute video on WSJ online that attempted to answer this question, and as I had feared, it was all about compensation.  Annual salaries, deferred compensation and deferred bonuses, a new “awareness” that customers and the public saw excessive salaries as a driver of the economic meltdown. Although they were specifically talking about AIG, their comments could be used across industries.

As I explained in my keynote speech yesterday, retention is easy.  Golden Handcuffs work.  Give an employee a comp and benefits package that can’t be replaced and they will never leave.  They won’t work hard, they won’t be motivated to go the extra mile for customers, they won’t doubt negative information they hear about in the press, they won’t be active members of their “team”, they wont go above and beyond the call of duty, they won’t act ethically,  they won’t be careful users of company resources, they won’t recommend the organization as a great place to work to their friends, family, and colleagues…. BUT THEY WILL STAY!!

What a deal.

If only the article would have been titled “Engaging Top Employees in Tough Times”, they could have scored a home run.  Funny, that is the title of my upcoming keynotes in Quito, Ecuador and Lima, Peru next week.

Go figure!

Retaining Top Employees in Tough Times - Part 3

I’m headed down to Quito and Lima on Monday for a series of keynotes I am conducting for C&D (Conocimiento & Dirección, Revista-Conferencias-Consultoria, 10 años apoyando empresas líderes en América Latina).  In case you were wondering, that’s Spanish.  C&D publishes the premier HR magazine in Central, Latin, and South America and also conducts numerous human resource conferences in the same locales.

And no, I haven’t picked up enough spanish to be comfortable beyond asking where the bathroom is; that is why I am bringing my son, and invested in translation software for my I-Phone.

I promised Diego (my contact in Ecuador) and Carla (my contact in Peru) that I would try to learn some more Spanish before I get down there next week.  We’ll see how it goes.