You help recruit employees, hire employees, onboard, train and develop employees, only to have employees leave the company after a couple of years, forcing you to start the process all over again. For some companies, this cycle is never-ending but it's every HR manager's goal to stop it or slow it down, especially when it's your top employees who are walking out the door.
Top employees leave a company for a number of reasons including being overworked, not being challenged, becoming disengaged, lack of development, lack of appreciation and not being paid enough. The good news is many of these issues can be solved with performance management. Performance management really means implementing a strategy driven by ongoing feedback and communication. With performance management, you'd know about many of your employee's concerns before they leave.
Review Your Employees' Performance
Regular performance reviews not only allow managers to measure their employees' ability to do their job, but they provide an excellent opportunity to keep them engaged which is essential in today's workforce. According to Gallup, 85% of your employees are either not engaged or actively disengaged meaning they are unattached to their work or just plain unhappy and resentful. When you take the time to be invested and encourage growth in your employees, the results are increased retention and lower turnover.
Communicate with Your Employees
Annual reviews are just one part of performance management. Employees need regular feedback on how they're doing, what they're doing well and what needs improvement. This feedback can take the form of informal coffee dates, an open-door policy, online chats or emails. With consistent communication, you'd know if your top employees feel overworked or underpaid. Regular communication is also the perfect time to show employee appreciation; take your employees to lunch, tell them how great they did on a project and just say thanks.
Focus on Development
Employees who don't feel they can grow in your company, will find one where they can. Performance management allows managers to pinpoint how their employees want to develop their skills through education and training or even learn new ones. Not only does development produce a highly-skilled workforce for your company, but providing education opportunities builds loyalty in your employees because they feel you're invested in them.
Have a Succession Plan
Succession plans keep your best employees challenged and on a career path with your company. If an opportunity arises somewhere else, your employees won’t feel like they need to grab it because they have a future with your company. Succession planning also helps to identify skills gaps in your workforce which not only helps your company grow but protects it if a top employee does leave. Employee turnover not only costs companies money (billions per year) but also knowledge. Companies have found more than 40% of the expertise and skills required for a position are only known by the employee that performs it. That means every time someone leaves and another employee has to step into the role, they must learn 42% of the work. This is where succession planning can save the day.
