What makes good people stay?

As leaders of organizations/departments, the main resource used to accomplish the organization’s work is its people. Attracting, recruiting and retaining these resources are vital to successful business operations and customer satisfaction. So what makes good people stay? Let’s put it in the perspective of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Physiological Needs: air, water, food, shelter – basically all the elements needed for physical survival. This is the primary motivator of most employees for seeking and staying at any one particular job – the dollars it produces to meet their most basic of needs. Compensation should keep pace with performance and experience levels. One of the biggest issues faced by long time employees is the fact that their pay, based on a decade ago economy and 4% increases year over year, has not kept pace with what the going rate for that level of experience in the open market.

Safety/Security Needs: job security fits into this category. Given current market conditions we are all well aware that the security in any job is minimal and can change at the blink of the Wall Street ticker tape. A leader/manager as part of their charge must communicate regularly with employees to ensure they have a feeling of safety and security at their current positions. An organization run on fear based principles, whether by design or by accident, is draining the workforce of productivity. Knowing individually and as a group that they are meeting or exceeding their goals and objectives makes a big difference in the organizations wellbeing.

Social Needs: getting employees involved and creating a team atmosphere fulfills this need. This is a challenge for many organizations today as they are distributed geographically and do not see each other on a daily basis. So creating the camaraderie and all for one type of feeling requires more effort. Regional meetings can help meet this need as groups get together and discuss the current state of business and plans for the future. Knowing your company, organization and group have future plans is comforting. It says there is sustainable business and growth in new areas, making work more abundant.

Esteem Needs: high self-regard and regard for others accomplishes the esteem need. Self-confidence and sense of value are essential. When the value, importance and contributions of an employee are validated by the manager, that employee is motivated and able to help build esteem in others. High self-esteem is an essential element in any leader and how they promote esteem throughout the organization is a driving factor in job satisfaction for both the leaders and the employees in the group.

Self-Actualization: making a significant contribution and reaching a high level of self-worth. Goals, whether group or individual, need to focus behavior on stretching to achieve the most possible. Achieving goals that push the limits, allows the employee to realize even greater personal potential. Helping to achieve worthwhile objectives validates self-worth. Employees in this top level of Maslow’s Hierarchy require more opportunities to be involved with the forward progress of the group and the organization. And in conjunction, management style, team structures and processes need to remain flexible to maintain motivation.

All of these levels can be met through interaction in the workplace with the critical link being the direct supervisor. Anyone who manages resources must understand and appreciate what those resources want from their work. This allows the manager to adjust the management approach to each individual vs. the one-size-fits all management style of decades past. In summary, here are the things that make good people stay:

• Compensation – compensation plans are a great starting place, but after 5 years, an employee can typically take their experience and knowledge capital, go somewhere else and get a 10% to 15% increase in their base and possible increases in incentive payments. Payment for performance and experience needs to be the goal of any company wanting to retain the best of the best.

• Secure and stable environment – define short and long term goals and objectives for the organization and cascade them down to each individual employee. Otherwise, everyone is trying to do everything, creating chaos and mayhem vs. a clear definition of what is needed to grow a successful and stable business environment.

• Involvement in the decision making process – no business grows on the skills of one person alone. Involving employees in the planning and execution of a strategy garners ownership and pride in the efforts required to execute.

• Validation of worth – offer rewards, incentives and motivation. Knowing you are doing a good job is not enough – others need to know it too and recognize and reward it. Direct supervisors are the first place to start by ensuring when someone does a great job the employee doing it and the rest of the team knows it and celebrates the success.

• An opportunity to make a real difference – when personal goals and measureable results coincide, an employee has a clear picture of how what they do on a daily basis drives the business forward. Feeling like they are an integral part in the success is a great motivator.