The retention dimension

First, an example from the world of sports (hardcore softball mom here).

Now and then you’ll read about a baseball team that decides to spend a huge chunk of change on free agent superstars, right? Record-setting contracts for a new pitcher or two, a new infielder or outfielder – they’ve plugged last year’s holes by spending big bucks in the offseason. Management, players, fans (ME), the press – everyone’s excited for Opening Day.

Then the new season arrives – and so does the letdown. Day after day, week after week, this new lineup fails to click. They’re performing at a rate that’s worse than last year’s team. Something’s missing – but what?

Chemistry. In another word, synergy. Sometimes the whole is less than the sum of the parts – sometimes the pieces simply don’t fit together.

Building an organization’s workforce is really no different than building a baseball team’s lineup. Every organization wants to “win,” even if winning in the workplace is perhaps a little different than winning on the ballfield. But success is success – and, as in baseball, in other industries building a winning workplace is art as well as science. Finding the winning combination is a daunting challenge.

So, what was missing from that baseball team? Well, one of the obvious factors is the loss of continuity. Sometimes it takes time for a group of players to gel – time for chemistry and synergy to develop in ways that lead to success.

In the baseball example, this implies two things: first, maybe the team should have given the old lineup more time to gel; second, maybe now they need to give the new lineup more time to gel.

Time to gel – that seems to be the key, right? So how do you get that time? Well, you get that time by keeping your people happy – by retaining your workers, whether they’re superstar ballplayers or employees who meet expectations. In order to practice the art of building a successful workforce, you want to ensure that your employees stay with you until you as a manager/company conclude that it’s time for a change. By retaining employees, you give the “whole” time to gel – you give “ordinary” employees the chance to prove that they are actually the foundation of an extraordinary team.

And achieving a high rate of employee retention has its own benefits – not just the indirect benefit of increasing management’s flexibility on workforce composition, but direct benefits. Things like lower training costs (because you’re not constantly training replacements), lower recruitment costs (because positions remain filled), increased levels of customer comfort (because customers like dealing with the same people over time), and higher productivity (as tenured employees master their workplace tasks and responsibilities). And these tangible benefits manifest even while you’re cultivating the intangibles like cohesion, culture, and chemistry.

Okay, so retention is a big positive – it saves money and fosters morale and synergy – but how do you get your employees to stick around? Well, you do it by emphasizing the same factors that I mentioned in my blog post on “employer branding.” In particular, you want to showcase a team atmosphere, fair compensation, the diversity that flows out of unprejudiced decision-making, opportunities for advancement that establish enticing career paths, and your recognition that a well-rounded life includes time for friends and family and fun outside the job. In short, demonstrating that your organization offers not just a “job and a paycheck” but rather an environment in which employees can excel, reaching their potential in both their careers and their lives.

Bottom line – retention of employees is one of your organization’s fundamental pillars. So have patience with your workforce as you wait for continuity to breed chemistry and synergy and treat your employees with respect and fairness so that they remain on board as you build that winning combination.

And remember: Garnet River can help at every one of those steps. Our game plan (see what I did there) as a partner is to help your organization with retention, providing people (staffing) and products (Hindsight365) that will contribute to your success. Give us a call and let’s chat.