Retaining Talent: A Key to a Healthy and Successful Organization

The benefit of retaining top talent in organizations is an issue that every effective manager should be concerned with. In most cases, organizations experience high turnover rates resulting in additional expenses for hiring new employees. The productivity and growth of such organizations are also affected profoundly. The question here is why have some organizations become more favorable to work at while others are not? Why do employees leave a certain organization for another? By understanding this, managers can be able to turn their organizations to be among the best places of work.

A critical concern faced by organizations in the current time is how to retain their staff. Retaining talent is deemed significant especially in the present knowledge economy. While most executives are aware that retaining talent is a key priority, a number of organizations are still struggling with the issue. It is important for management to know the most effective ways of retaining talent as by doing so they are able to create healthy and successful organizations.

The most effective way is creating an environment in which talented staff can develop. Talented individuals look for opportunities to grow and improve their skills; therefore they will seek for organizations offering abundant opportunities to do so. Organizations which develop their staff more rapidly experience low turnover rates as employees have a low likelihood of leaving. Besides, organizations which are serious about developing and retaining high-quality talent perceive themselves as growth platforms whereby individuals can develop themselves more rapidly. This, in turn, generates a self-reinforcing cycle considering that talent produces more growth opportunities.

Research has indicated that retaining talent is linked with various benefits including consistent sales growth, high customer satisfaction rates, positive morale, as well as institutional knowledge. In fact, talent retention is a key analytical gauge of the general health of the organization.

It is worth noting that better benefits, higher salaries or bonuses are not the major factors which make employees leave their jobs. The majority leave in search for

a better manager or a conducive working environment. With regard to this, creating a better and positive work environment, seeking employee opinion, and developing management skills for the managers are amongst the major factors to retaining the top talent in organizations. In short, understanding staff who have many gifts could save companies unnecessary loss of talents.

Why Employees Leave

Most of the research that has been carried out on talent retention has focused on understanding the various reasons why employees make decisions to leave organizations. Having a clear understanding of why people leave is important as organizations are able to obtain a better idea of why people stay

thus, can discover ways of influencing such decisions. Some of the most essential determinants for staying or leaving an organization include:

Work-life balance The relationship between employee and his or her manager

Degree of cooperation with coworkers Amount of meaningful work being offered Level of trust in the place of work Opportunities for growth Ways of Retaining Talent

Show Great Leadership

It is true to say that people do not leave organizations, but they leave their managers or supervisors. Most people may stay at a job that is not convenient enough or has low pay if they have a manager or a supervisor who motivates them and leads the way. Organizations with a culture of strong leadership and management are termed as the most excellent and fantastic to work at.

Offer Opportunities to Learn

Management teams in many organizations consider structured education as the only way of helping talented employees grow. While it is effective, managers should consider other memorable and effective ways. For instance, team building activities not only help employees grow but they also extend their world of exposure. Providing a memorable experience turns out to be more exciting, motivating and promising as compared to other rewards.

Know the Rates

Salary is considered as one of the motivators of good performance. However, as compared to other factors such as favorable working environment, employee engagement, and good management among others, it ranks low. Some organizations pay their employees high salaries but poor working environment make them to leave. Nevertheless, too low salary packages are not only a poor motivator of working performance, but they may make employees to look elsewhere where salaries are fairly better. Although employers do not need to offer excessive salary packages, they should not be at the lowest end of the scale unless they are

When you create a culture where people are recognized, engaged and they believe in what they are doing, they not only stay with the organization but attract others there as well

offering rewarding career pathways.

Understand and Embrace Real Diversity

Real diversity entails embracing individuals who both look different and think differently. Most organizations search for people with corporate or industry experience. While this is so, the fit to be considered is whether an individual believes in organizational values.

Build Career Entrepreneurship

Providing career entrepreneurship means moving from a loyalty to a commitment mindset. While individuals are rewarded for merely being there for long hours in a loyalty mindset, a commitment mindset involves defining what people are being offered in return for their services and offering internal career training. It empowers them to be better managers of their own careers.

The question of how organizations can build career entrepreneurship is very significant. There are various ways to do so. These include allowing individuals to set their own career goals, offering them with appropriate instruments to reach such goals, and allowing them to gauge their achievements. Assisting individuals set their own roadmap makes certain that they are engaged.

Role of Managers and Supervisors

Leaving a job is a difficult decision made by

employees. In most cases, it is contributed by dissatisfaction with the managers rather than dissatisfaction with the organization. The leadership capability and management styles of the supervisory staff play a vital responsibility in retaining top talent.

For many employees, working experience is shaped by their direct relationship with management. The presence of appropriate communicative and supportive relationships between employees and their managers has been reported to result to high job satisfaction, thus high retention rates. However, pleasant relationships are not always a guarantee to retain employees.

Some of the factors that supervisors and managers should consider in order to actively retain top talents include:

Setting clear and achievable expectations for every employee Communicating frequently with all employees

Identifying the distinctive attributes of every employee- it includes strengths and weaknesses- and acting accordingly. Seeking employee ideas and input Providing regular performance feedback While it is valuable for managers to possess expertise in a certain operational area, effective managers should also have strong leadership skills. These enable them to motivate, encourage, coach and mentor their employees. Organizations that have a commitment to attracting and retaining talented employees recognize that constant leadership training for management is paramount.

In a nutshell, talented employees are the basis of any healthy and successful organization. Establishing the right environment, developing leadership skills amongst management team members, as well as gathering feedback from employees are the keys to retaining the existing talent in your organization.

When you create a culture where people are recognized, engaged and they believe in what they are doing, they not only stay with the organization but attract others there as well.