BUILDING TRUST AS A MANAGER:

1. Be reliable. Follow through on things. Keep your promises.

2. Have ethics. Telling your people the truth and don't reveal their confidences. Being fair and honest with employees.

3. Show respect for your employees. Treat them as adults and show appreciation for their ideas and for the work they do.

BUILDING MORE TRUST:

1. Know and care about your employees and their families. Be sure they feel you see them as people as well as employees.

2. Involve employees in planning and problem-solving. Ask for and use their contributions.

3. Delegate work. Give employees important tasks and the support they need to carry them out well.

CREATING HELPING RELATIONSHIPS:

When have you received help from a supervisor/coach/peer that made you feel good about yourself? When has a supervisor/coach/peer helped you grow and develop? Under certain conditions both the coach and the employee can grow and develop in a helping relationship. Group members can also coach each other.

GUIDLINES FOR CREATING HELPING RELATIONSHIPS:

1. Create a dependence — create a project in which people need each other to succeed and are aware of that. Determine goals together, with input from each person involved.

2. Practice quality communication.

3. Build reciprocal trust by being open, accepting, and cooperative.

4. A supervisor can support and assist in creating helping relationships within their departments by acting as a model by using orientations that help and by supporting, and encouraging, these skills in their employees as they interact with each other.

- DeTimes

You know the old adage, “You only have one opportunity to make a good first impression?” Well, never have truer words been spoken as it relates to retaining new talent! Even though the competitive scramble for talent may have eased off in the last 12-18 months, according to a survey by Management Recruiters, there is still a demand for mid-to-upper level management, high-level executives and professionals in most organizations today.

Companies spend weeks, perhaps even months, courting key talent to their organizations, all the while espousing the many cultural assets that make their workplaces great places to be. But living up to that hype or risk losing a new employee (with all the associated costs that go along with that loss) can be very challenging. And many organizations fail miserably.
Research shows that positively engaging new employees early in the new hire process can make a marked difference in keeping retention to a minimum. That first 90 days of a new employee’s engagement is key to his or her success.

But, many companies miss the mark with new employees simply because of a lack of preparation and planning. Even fairly sophisticated companies lack a consistent, systematic and strategically focused approach to “on-boarding” new employees and assimilating them successfully into the organization. And by the time most company leaders realize something has gone amiss, they are already six or nine months down the road. In order to “fix” the problem, they now must go back and do what they should have done in the beginning!

Many organizations today are missing the opportunity to successfully engage that new hire from day one. This is usually because there is no clear process for assisting the individual in becoming successful.

Giving an employee a leg up in prioritising key actions and activities that can contribute to his or her success can make a huge difference in increasing productivity and job satisfaction. And it’s not just a matter of having clear performance goals and objectives that align with company needs and expectations. Nor is it a matter of knowing to whom the new employee can go with questions and requests for help to avoid derailment.

Critical to the individual’s success, is knowing which key relationships in the organization need to be forged. Certain relationships will help accelerate the newcomer’s time to full productivity and engagement.

Organizations that successfully orient and assimilate new hires effectively share some common practices:

- They hire an external “on-boarding” coach or assign an internal mentor to help guide the new employee through the critical early stages of his or her new assignment.

- They have in-depth orientation training designed to help new employees learn techniques that enable them to “connect” with their new team members and build an environment of trust and open communication.

- They commit to and demonstrate the right actions and behaviours to ensure mutual success.

- They make controlling turnover everybody’s responsibility by encouraging team members working with the new hire to recognize signs that he or she, or any other team member, might be “at risk.” They then arm them with techniques they can use to offer support and help turn the situation around.

- And, they survey at 30-, 60- and 90-day intervals to see how things are going and address issues they uncover before they become bigger problems.

These companies have found that by being focused and intentional in assimilating new hires can significantly reduce absenteeism, job abandonment and turnover.

So, ask yourself, what mechanisms does your company have in place to ensure that the first 90 days of a new employee’s career gets off on the right footing? Do a little research among recent new hires to your organization to gauge their experiences. By doing so, I am willing to bet you’ll end up with more than enough new opportunities to enhance the new-hire experience. In return, you can create the right first impression that can lead to many great career experiences going forward.

- DeTimes

One of the most pressing challenges facing today’s executives is keeping their best people. In today’s knowledge and service based economy, companies differentiate themselves by their talent—the people with specialized skills and knowledge who walk through their doors every morning, and walk out every night. Given that new products and innovative strategies can be quickly copied by competitors, an organization’s only source of sustainable competitive advantage is its human capital.

Many factors are making employee retention more important than ever. For instance, much is being written about the “graying of the workforce”, with many Baby Boomers now entering their sixties and thinking about possible career transitions. The generation following on the Boomers’ heels is widely acknowledged to be both smaller in size and often less skilled. Given the increasing technological complexity of most jobs, and the importance of specialized skills and deep industry knowledge, this “skills gap” is expected to widen in the future.

A New Psychological Contract

These demographic and industry-based issues are exacerbated by a significant, overarching factor: a fundamental change in the relationship between employers and employees, what organizational psychologists often refer to as the “psychological contract.” Professionals across generations understand that in today’s ultra-competitive and global business environment, employees have many choices. Though companies still value loyalty, individual performance is where the “rubber meets the road”—and even top performers are subject to unexpected layoffs. The resultant shift in the “psychological contract” affects a change in workers’ emotions, expectations and attitudes surrounding the world of work, especially among younger generations, that makes it all the harder for companies to hold onto their best talent. So what can companies do to retain their key people?

1. Hire the Right People in the First Place

It sounds obvious, but in reality, many companies neglect this crucial first step. One way to cut turnover is to hire the right people the first time around. Start with a thorough and realistic analysis of what the different roles in your organization truly require with regard to knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s). After completing the job analysis, rigorously assess your prospective employees to find out whether the job, team and corporate culture you are offering are likely to meet their needs and tap into their strengths.

2. Focus on the Individual
Recent research in the area of transformational leadership indicates that effective leaders provide their employees with “individualized consideration”, eschewing a “one-size-fits-all” approach to employee motivation and instead providing each employee with unique guidance. Schedule frequent check-ins with each employee, keep the lines of communication open, give plenty of personal feedback, and make sure that their original positions are still energizing them. Behavioural assessments that yield insights into an employee’s natural strengths, needs and drives can be very valuable tools. For example, if your top sales rep highly values autonomy and independence, can you reduce the number of times per month that she needs to meet with her sales manager? Top performers are less likely to flee if they feel that they are truly valued as individuals.

3. Work the Data
Get into the habit of reviewing turnover rates on a quarterly basis. If the numbers are high or creeping up, dig deeper, putting to use all of the data that modern organizations typically track. Examine both “internal” and “external” drivers of turnover. Internal drivers refer to characteristics of employees themselves, such as their personality, intelligence, educational background, experience, job performance and promotion history. External drivers refer to conditions that reside outside of the person, such as the job market in a given city or the quality of one’s immediate manager. Mining your company’s data may reveal that what you thought was driving turnover actually isn’t—and that you can quickly intervene in “high-leverage” areas, often without significant financial expenditures.
A new relationship between employers and employees requires a different approach to employee retention. Bring in individuals who will thrive in the environment you offer, check in with them often, work with them individually, and use targeted metrics regularly to evaluate your success.

- DeTimes

A Sample Listing of BENEFITS advantages published by the Fortune Magazine from their "100 Best Companies to work for - 2007"

Unusual Perks

From Time-off to Tip-off, here are some of the perks employees enjoyed last year.

Company	Best Co. Rank	Perk
Methodist Hospital System	9	Need Fuel? Every employee got a US$ 250 gas card in '06.
Quicken Loans	17	LeBron James fans, rejoice! Workers in Michigan can hop on company-sponsored buses to see the Cavaliers play ball (CEO Dan Gilbert owns the team).
Arnold & Porter	26	Know any whiz kids? The law firm offers a referral fee of US$ 15,000 if you recommend an employee they end up hiring.
Goldman Sachs	36	Who says bankers work all the time? Employees who get married or register a domestic partnership get an extra week of vacation.
Microsoft	50	The tech giant piles on perks like free grocery delivery, valet parking, and a dollar-to-dollar match of employee charitable contribution up to US$ 12,000.
AstraZeneca	71	Working here might actually be good for your health. All prescription drugs made by the company are free to employees.

From January 22, 2007 issue.

Work-life balance rank #3 for Best Benefits

Best Benefits

Type of Benefit	Description
Health Care	Sixteen companies on this year's list pay 100% of their employees' health-care premiums.
Child Care	Almost one-third of the best companies (32) offer an onsite child-care centre.
Work-life Balance	The top 10 best companies where employees feel "encouraged to balance their work and personal life".
Telecommuting	Of the 82 best companies that allow employees to telecommute or work from home at least 20% of the time, these 10 have the highest percentage of telecommuters.
Sabbaticals	22 Companies on this year's list offer fully paid sabbaticals.
Unusual perks	These companies found unusual ways to keep their employees happy. Is everyone else Jealous? Yes.

So what's in your employee benefits package?

- DeTimes

 

It is such an interesting question. I am sorry to write some truth here.

Lets understand the purpose of work first. We work to earn a living, basically. We don't live to work. However, so easily we forget our basis. And that has made each lunch a privilege. Somehow we shove food down the throat to be back at our desks. And at nights we don't dine peacefully, because its too late for a dinner.

In the race to make money, we do such things that are completely against our own existence. We work hard, so hard that we don't get time to have a proper meal. Our health is compromised and ultimately our life and our fun both become a privilege that we can't enjoy peacefully.

Companies are becoming insane in the race to reach the top spot or sometimes to even survive. Ethics are compromised and only a few take pride of ethical practices. But are they, in the real sense?
The HR Manager comes and tells you that taking a break is important so that you become more efficient when you come back. Isn't this a terrible motive? Instead the motive should be more human. We are not machines, that we take a shut down for maintenance and then restart with better efficacies.
By far, almost every act is leading to self destruction. We make robots to make our life easier. But is our life easy in the never ending race to make them? It can lead to a never ending debate.

These days, corporate life is so demanding, that we fight with our wives because we can't give time to our families. We even thrash our children. We can't give time for their upbringing. We need governesses to take care of them. Isn't that our responsibility? A governess can become a mother or a father! Can she? She is doing the job for money and not for our children. This leads to frustration in them. We even compromise their well being for work (Money!).

We have all become so negative, that we have so easily forgotten our own life. Which is why, it is so true that "Life is something that is happening to you, when you are busy with other things."

FUN is an important word in our corporate dictionary, but it is only with the motive to make us more efficient so that we can make some more money for the company. Is work-life balance a question under consideration at all, in real? I have my own doubts. The importance that we have given to FUN would make sense only if it given the right perspective. Else it becomes, just another BUZZ WORD. As of now, it is only a feel-good factor which is so superficial in practice.

As far as HR Dept. is concerned, are they leading a balanced life? No, not at all. They are under the worst pressures today. Thanks to attrition, and thanks to our greedy demands. Eventually, we are on the way to destroy our own existence. Work-life balance? We plan to take our kids out. We plan for a dinner with our wife. We plan so many things for the family. Instead, they are the most important to live life. Not money. Money comes and goes. We might proudly argue, we work for them. But are we really? I don't deny that work is important. It is important but not at the cost of living. Because we work to live. You may want to argue - Life is ease is a difficult pursuit. But only because we have made it like that. Because we need more and more. Is anyone content with what they have? It is NO for most of them.
Companies boast about employee satisfaction. Are companies satisfied with their employees? You can check it for real. They are not! Employees Satisfaction is conveniently used for marketing an employer brand and for retention purposes. I had a case with one of my previous organizations.

Having fun to improve efficiency, is a cruel motive. If this motive (in its real sense) changes to become more human, we will lead to happiness and eventually win the race. Else we will always remain a part of this terrible RAT RACE. We must cry "WAKE UP TO HUMANITY!"

-  DeTimes

For several years now, 'employee engagement' has been a hot topic in corporate circles. It's a buzz phrase that has captured the attention of workplace observers and HR managers, as well as the executive suite. And it's a topic that employers and employees alike think they understand, yet can't articulate very easily.
No wonder. It turns out that all that employee engagement research undertaken over the past few years has defined the term differently, and as a result, came up with different key drivers and implications.
Employee engagement is a very big deal. There is clear and mounting evidence that high levels of employee engagement keenly correlates to individual, group and corporate performance in areas such as retention, turnover, productivity, customer service and loyalty.
The Definition:
Many dictionaries define the word ‘engaged’ as the condition of being ‘in gear’. The ideal state for any employer is to have employees who are ‘fully in gear’. An employee is fully in gear when certain elements about his/her work, manager and the work environment are in alignment with the employment situation.
These are the key drivers of effective employee engagement:
- Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.
- Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
- Line of sight between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
- Career Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?
- Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
- Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement
- Employee development – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
- Relationship with one's manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?
As companies continue to grow, it is this population of employees that can service to build a bench for leadership positions. As solid management practices become embedded in the organization, it becomes the true fabric of how the organization operates and employees will remain more ‘fully in gear'.

-  DeTimes

Retention is the biggest challenge with the new age companies. It is about creating loyalty. Let’s understand the word “loyalty” first. It is the consequence of a trust based committed relationship.

Employee relations are most critical for any retention drive to succeed. These days it has become so critical to answer "What’s in it for ME?" It is only because; a wider choice is available to good talent.

1. Hiring decision is very critical. Hire the right talent and not always the best talent on the market. Develop a niche for the employees, right from day one. The word RIGHT has a lot of meaning. Don't show a pseudo pictures. Show reality. Commit less and deliver more. A wrong hiring decision is known to be more expensive than re-hiring due to attrition, simply because it dents the organization terribly. It also hurts the wrong hire. This becomes even more tumultuous, especially, if such a decision goes wrong for a senior level mandate.

2. Provide empowerment on the job along with continuous training. A right balance of accountability and autonomy can be created to make the work environment conducive. Expose them to new skill sets. Like having an informal quality circle which gives them added skills and responsibility, both. Or a mentoring program.

3. Recognition more than just reward makes a big difference. This is a leadership decision. If possible, have a recognition scale for every quarter. And let the CEO do the thanks giving at a luncheon (Like the famous HP Banana Award). Recognize individual and team success very strongly.
4. Commit yourself to developing leaders for tomorrow. Rather than just managers. This should be conveyed by the employer branding in open.

5. Provide them with ample internal opportunities to grow vertically as well as laterally. (Like sending your mid manager on an international assignment for a short term, which will add value to him/her as well as the company)

6. Higher education for upgrading relevant skill sets. Provide for a well established career development program.

7. Offer practical and genuine benefits (I mean tangible fringe benefits). At the same time, offer compensation on par with industry standards. You don't have to pay millions to retain them.

8. Follow a strong value system which is human and based on respect for all. Employee satisfaction is measurable. Just doing surveys won't make any sense. Go a step beyond that. Have good listeners in the grievance cell.

9. Have a very fluid communication system so that anyone at any level in the organization is easily accessible and approachable. Also implement an honest 360 degree feedback system. It could also include providing clearly articulated KRAs.

10. Remove all negative factors from the system. It could also mean unfit people even if they are most skilled. Attitudes go a long way into achieving success.

11. Most often I have seen organization default on being realistic. It's a good thing to be aggressive on goals. However, if they are not realistic, they can prove detrimental to organizational success.
12. Rather than just focusing on cost cutting, profit making, top line, bottom line etc., it is worthy enough if the leaders follow a wealth sharing practice.

13. Add more value to employee relations. Doing small things can go a long way. Simply, sending a small gift for an employee's birthday/anniversary/etc. can mean a lot. It's only human to do that. I think it is a part of organization's responsibility to create an extended family.

14. This suggestion can go a long way if honestly implemented. Support employees through their crisis times. It could just mean an emotional chat or a small financial help, if that is required.

This was outlined by me, to the Diversity Program Manager - Microsoft, US. It has been rated as the best outline.

-  DeTimes

Aspiring Entrepreneurs!

Sometimes, a great asset to a company and sometimes, the reason for high attrition.

The question of retention of such talent is very subjective. Let's look at two situations.

1. Mid Size companies: Where there is a lot of flexibility but not enough power for incubation. At such companies, retention strategies have to be different from the larger organizations.

- Offer practical and genuine benefits (I mean tangible fringe benefits). At the same time offer compensation on par with industry standards. You don't have to pay any extra to retain them.
- Provide empowerment on the job with autonomy on decision making.
- Provide them with ample internal opportunities to grow vertically as well as laterally. (Like sending your mid manager on an international assignment for a short term, which will add value to him/her as well as the company)
- Obviously, a good remunerations package which is better than average.
- A great environment, where is he feels the job ownership and where he sees himself as a critical person for the company's well being. This will instill responsibility at a different level.
- Be realistic on Goals. It's good to be aggressive, but being realistic is important.
- Offer ownership of the company by way of ESOPs or by way of variable compensation that is designed in line with ESOPs.

2. Large Organization: Where there is less flexibility, but have the power of incubation. Many companies have today started such facilitation for retaining key talent. Companies can do an equity participation for genuine projects. If this is done rightly, retention is will not be a problem. Being genuine and reasonable is important.

However, all ideas can not be incubated through this route. In such cases, look at this talent to be a medium term asset and later on as an extension to your organization. May be you can establish some partnership or sorts where he does play a role in helping your company with his services. However, this is also very subjective. That is, if at all, it reaches that stage.

If the employee cannot reach such a stage, treat him as a normal asset and follow regular retention practices.

- Consider good compensation
- Great work-life balance
- Great environment and culture based on respect (a strong value system)
- Good recognition practices
- Help them honestly, when they need you the most (Don't ever miss out on such opportunities, it will go a long way)
- Offer practical benefits
- Commit yourself to Creating Leaders for tomorrow and make them an integral part of this program, which means you can convert their entrepreneurial aspirations in to aspirations of becoming the next high flying CEO.
- A fast track career option can prove useful too.

There are many other points which you can refer to in my other answers on Employee Retention. Finally, this is most critical. Understand the meaning of Loyalty, in its TRUE sense. It is a consequence of a trust based relationship.

So Employee Relationship and Effective Internal Communication (which is committed) are really critical. - DeTimes

This is one of those interesting questions I am answering.

Lets divide this answer in parts:

1. Human Capital itself is a big challenge. Consider shortage, attrition, bouncing. The biggest is the talent crisis.

2. One of the other big challenges is the inappropriate mix of people. There are too many misfits in any organization today. This may be due to an aggressive drive to hire the best talent. Sometimes when you are trying to do that, selection becomes very individualistic. Hence, misfitting occurs. You may hire the best but not the RIGHT talent.

3. Employee turnover. Attrition is one of the biggest challenges. Retention has become very expensive. And re-hiring the same set of talent pools can cost a fortune. This challenge will continue to prevail. Getting more out of employee relationships is becoming more and more critical each passing day. Retaining the right people has become difficult. A truly converged wealth sharing platform is essential to resolve this epidemic.

4. You don't have motivated task force. Commitment is low with such people and they can never deliver success at its true potential. Motivation is important for operational excellence.

5. The informal and political culture inside the organization. This is a major obstacle on the way to success. So having an articulated value system is important.

6. Employees will give only as much as they get from the top. Top managements' commitment to business goals and all stakeholders must be visible only by example. This is purely a will issue.

7. Having the right processes in place for the people to operation smoothly. It must be a clearly defined one.

8. Accountability on operational efficiency must be clearly defined and enforced. Autonomy is a key factor here.

These are several factors which are key. Books can be written on this.

- DeTimes

It is true that many companies are now hiring agency to manage termination. Termination is undoubtedly a critical business decision but has a lot to do with employee relations as well.

I am sure nobody hires an agency to convey divorce to their partners... It's a strong case of how you communicate the termination across the board. I would never hire an agency for such purpose. It may make sense to hire an agency to carry out administration functions after communicating the decision.

Justification:
Employees are a part of one family, the company. Once they quit, they become part of you extended family. The strongest PR medium is word of mouth. One, you definitely don't want that any person post termination loses respect for your company. Losses can be huge because they know your competitive advantage. Second, there is an after math that many companies don't do too well. There is a certain impact on other employees as well. It does hurt to hear such critical decisions from an outsider.

Lets also consider some situations:
You terminate someone for conduct. It is an immediate unplanned decision for not following your value system. Managers have to do this.

You terminate someone because you are over staffed. In other ways you plan a lay off. To successfully undertake a lay off, communication is the key. And if such communication is done by an agency directly to employees, it hurts the morale even of the other employees who survived. In these times, the demand supply of good talent is imbalanced. You don't want to end facing a hiring crisis, now or never.

Using an agency, can also have detrimental impact on your employer branding. This can mean, that when you need most critically need good talent, it is not available because no one wants to join your company.

So such activity is a complete no-no, because this way you can usher out unwanted people but you will lose some most required people on the way which can prove to be fatal for your company.

The organization which hires an agency for terminating its own employees, looks like a careless and irresponsible organization that doesn't care for its own people. Competitors can also use this very well to their own advantage. Lets remember, today the bigger competition is about hiring the best teams and not just about your product or service. Attracting best talent to your company is another factor where you can get comprehensively beaten by your nearest competitor.

Suggestion: Communicate such a decision through your leadership and with care and responsibility. Convey the reasons in a well articulated way that doesn't hurt anyone's respect. And then bring the agency in picture to carry out administration activities. This makes more business sense.

No one wants to "HEAR" such things from an outsider. Most definitely not.

- DeTimes

What are some strategies for retaining employees of an acquired company?

Current Position:
Recently acquired company, 10% of staff given notice due to business synergies, 50% of remaining staff left due to poor morale, increased workload, lack of management confidence, and/or lack of strategic vision after integration.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly, I feel sad to hear this happen again. This is because acquisitions and merger happen on a strong strategic vision and a reason. However, success depends on how well it is executed. Else its the doom's day in the making. If remains to be seen, what the reason was.

In any acquisition process, there are a few barriers. Simply because a lot changes post integration. New vision, new policies, new people, everything is almost new and changed. And thats where there is so much resistance.

Key areas to ponder:
1. Most important is the communication system that you follow to convey acquisition, and all new changes along with a clear purpose attached with everything that is being done. Honesty is the best policy here.

2. Employee relationships must be considered as a critical factor. Communicating notices is easy but conveying them well is difficult.

3. Every persons attitude must be considered while serving those notices. Because if they dont find a genuine reasons, they create grapevines which are totally destructive. This must be avoided.

4. A fluid system must be implemented to listen to employee concerns and grievances and thats where you will find key facts for a resurrection.

5. Leadership must stand solid and must get involved in minute things during the process of integrations, however, in your case it is not possible any more. So they must get involved with commitment to changing difficult times into sweeter ones. A critical role must be played by them here. They must communicate the plans realistically, clearly and must ensure that everyone understands the same.

6. Ask clear objective based questions and listen carefully for fact finding and work on them for the good.

7. If people are leaving even now, conduct comprehensive exit interviews and again find facts and key concern areas. This will give you enough food for thought and come up with out of the box solutions for these key concern areas.

8. Lack of management confidence? This is a key concern area. Senior management, probably doesn't know the fate and they are more busy finding a new job? Because they are the ones who can do the trick. However, this where you must begin. I am sure the parent company's management also is concerned now on the fate of the company. Get them involved only if they are not perceived as enemies. Else, ask senior management to get more autonomy into things and strategic decision making.

9. Communication is the key. Now since 50% of people have already left. Try best to retain the remain 40%. Else you actually see the doom's day. Remember, it again becomes a start up company. And trust factor will tend to zero. Because no customer will live with such a situation.

10. Involve some key customers and ask them to communicate their positive views through proper channels on this acquisition and what value they see in it. This will surely help in getting some confidence.

Internal communication is the key. Do it well and you will see the results. Start building an employer brand through right channels. Partner with the right search firm which understand these concerns deeply and act honesty with them. They can do the trick by getting right new people into the system.

All in all, communicate wisely.

Retention strategies one can follow:

Retention is the biggest challenge with the new age companies. It is about creating loyalty. Lets understand the word loyalty first. It is the consequence of a trust based committed relationship.

Employee relations are most critical for any retention drive to succeed. These days it has become so critical to answer "Whats in it for ME?" It is only because, a wider choice is available to good talent.

1. Hiring decision is very critical. Hire the right talent and not always the best talent on the market. Develop a niche for the employees right from day one. The word RIGHT has a lot of meaning. Don't show a pseudo pictures. Show reality. Commit less and deliver more. A wrong hiring decision is known to be more expensive than re-hiring due to attrition, simply because it dents the organization terribly. Especially, if such a decision goes wrong for a senior level mandate.

2. Provide empowerment on the job along with continuous training. A right balance of accountability and autonomy can be created to make the work environment conducive. Expose them to new skill sets. Like having an informal quality circle which gives them added skills and responsibility, both. Or a mentoring program.

3. Recognition more than just reward makes a big difference. This is a leadership decision. If possible, have a recognition scale for every quarter. And let the CEO do the thanks giving at a luncheon. (Like the famous HP Banana Award) Recognize individual and team success very strongly.

4. Commit yourself to developing leaders for tomorrow. Rather than just managers. This should be conveyed by the employer branding in open.

5. Provide them with ample internal opportunities to grow vertically as well as laterally. (Like sending your mid manager on an international assignment for a short term, which will add value to him/her as well as the company)

6. Higher education for upgrading relevant skill sets. Provide for a well established career development program.

7. Offer practical and genuine benefits (I mean tangible fringe benefits). At the same time offer compensation on par with industry standards. You don't have to pay any extra to retain them.

8. Follow a strong value system which is human and based on respect for all. Employee satisfaction is measurable. Just doing surveys won't make any sense. Go a step beyond that. Have a good listeners in the grievance cell.

9. Have a very fluid communication system so that anyone at any level in the organization is easily accessible and approachable. Also implement an honest 360 degree feedback system. It could also include providing clearly articulated KRAs.

10. remove all negative factors from the system. It could also mean unfit people even if they are most skilled. Attitudes go a long way into achieving success.

11. Most often I have seen organization default on being realistic. It's a good thing to be aggressive on goals. However, if they are not realistic, they can prove detrimental to organizational success.

12. Rather than just focusing on cost cutting, profit making, top line, bottom line etc., it is worthy enough if the leaders follow a wealth sharing practice.

13. Add more value to employee relations. Doing small things can go a long way. Simply, sending a small gift for an employee's birthday/anniversary/etc. can mean a lot. It's only human to do that. I think it is a part of organization's responsibility to create an extended family.

14. This suggestion can go a long way if honestly implemented. Support employees in their crisis. It could just mean an emotional chat or a small financial help, if that is required. In one of my earlier companies, we had such a case. A colleague had to undertake an open heart surgery but didn't have enough financial aid for that. The company didn't do anything about it. And the consequence was hard hitting. The whole team put in a mass resignation.

- DeTimes