Keeping Your Organization’s Top Performers

After investing significant amounts of resources recruiting and hiring top performers, employers need to understand the importance of having a workplace environment in which top performers can continue to grow and achieve their highest potential. Far too often, employers focus on recruiting ‘the best candidates,’ while completely neglecting the needs of those employees once they arrive to their organizations. Top performers are motivated and self-driven individuals looking to excel and undertake new challenges. If an organization does not have leadership, coaching, and growth mechanisms in place for them to enhance their development, they will have no problem looking for those opportunities elsewhere.   

Leadership is key to any employee retention program. As Eric Herrenkohl points out in his book How To Hire A-Players, “A-players want to work for a leader who has a vision for the business and can tell them where they as top performers fit into it” (Herrenkohl, 2010, p.191). It is not enough to claim to be an organization that values top performers; actions should match spoken words. An organization’s interest in retaining top performers is reflected in promotions, compensation, development opportunities, and other programs designed to reward performance. Top performers will remain motivated and engaged as long as they perceive a genuine commitment form an organization’s leadership.

In addition to leadership’s commitment, a business must have an organizational strategy to retaining top performers. This strategy should focus on investing time in understanding top performers and giving them responsibility opportunities to enhance their growth. An organization that has an effective coaching system will not only retain top performers, but also groom and prepare them for tomorrow’s leadership positions. It’s important to remember that not all employees are top performers. Some employees are salvageable and must be in a personalized development plan to help them scale to their potential and abilities. Some other employees who are unable to perform up to desired standards should be replaced with top performers. Rewarding poor performing employees sends the wrong message and will push top performers out the door. An employer’s goal should be for top performers to be the rule rather than the exception. This organizational strategy will lead to significant improvements within an organization.

Growth opportunities and advancement should be front and center when attempting to retain top performers. Top performers will seek out these opportunities once they start feeling underutilized or they feel they have outgrown their role. Eric Herrenkohl’s thoughts on this subject are that companies “risk losing [top performers] if they don’t see a clear path for advancement at your company” (Herrenkohl, 2010, p.197). This idea should alarm every employer because once a top performer leaves due to this reason, others might just follow suit shortly after.

It should be clear that top performers are valuable assents to an organization. When an organization fails to retain talented employees, competitors are prompt to step up and offer those opportunities they were denied at the initial organization. A Forbes article points to salaries, benefits, flexible schedules, and employee recognition as the top retention boosters (Smith, 2014). However, these benefits might not cut it when attempting to retain top performers. They are ambitious individuals that in addition to all these options, need a greater sense of achievement and fulfillment. In a highly competitive business world, employers need to be willing to go the extra mile to retain those exceptional employees.

References

Herrenkohl, E. (2010). How to hire a-players: finding the top people for your team- even if you don’t have a recruiting department. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Smith, J. (2013). Forbes Site, (2013, January 24). Retrieved September 30, 2018 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/01/24/what-it-takes-to-retain-your-top-talent/#4102ab3e7084