Retention

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“Employee What?!”

Along the journey we commonly forget its goal. ... Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent stupidity in which we indulge ourselves. —Friedrich Nietzsche A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. —John Steinbeck In this introductory chapter, we will: • • • • Look at exactly what “employee retention” is. Explore where the concept first came from. See how it has developed over recent years. Examine three trends that are currently shaping employee retention strategies.

Just What Is “Employee Retention” Anyway?

There is no secret code or formula that precisely defines “employee retention.” Ask 10 managers what they mean by the 1

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Retaining Top Employees

term and you’ll receive 10 (sometimes very) different answers. Answers like these: • “Employee retention? You mean stopping people from leaving this organization?” • “Employee retention is all about keeping good people.” • “Getting our compensation and benefits into line with the marketplace.” • “Stock options, crèche facilities, and other perks.” • “It’s got to do with our culture and how we treat people.” • “Staunching the high employee turnover we have in department x or job function y.” • “Presenting a consistent, effective employer proposition across the entire employee life cycle, thus ensuring we source, hire, manage, and develop employees who partner with us in achieving our organizational goals.” As you can see, managers’ perceptions of the meaning of employee retention can vary from the mechanical (“Reduce this employee turnover figure to an acceptable level”) to the abstract (“It’s about our culture and values”). Definitions can be couched in curt, wholly objective phrases or in flowery, vague “corporate speak.” Some managers view employee retention as a distinct, controllable element of labor management (“It’s a matter of...