Losing Loyalty, Losing Employees

How Do We Earn Employee Loyalty When More Money Isn't Enough?
	How do we earn our employees' loyalty--and more importantly, preserve it? Our bank has lost a number of key employees to competitors during the past five months. We were prepared to match the departing employees' competing salary offers, to no avail. We want to stem the tide, but we aren't sure if these defections are based in a lack of company loyalty, or if we're losing out because our competitors offer better jobs, better opportunities for advancement or a better working environment. —Hate Losing Them, finance/insurance/real estate, Muscat, Oman
	No. 1: You cannot buy loyalty, so forget matching competing offers. Once an employee has decided to leave, the emotional bond is broken. Your first step is to begin the diagnosis. Are you conducting exit interviews? If not, consider hiring an outside service--professionals, not telemarketers--to ask questions that will yield honest, candid answers about why people are leaving. Step two involves conducting a survey of remaining employees. Again, it's better to hire professionals from outside the firm. Don't try to do this in-house, as employees may not feel the level of trust required to give you meaningful feedback. Although you may be in a highly competitive market, you need to understand how employees perceive the experience of working for your company. Is it something they value? This knowledge should provide a clearer picture of how your work environment is creating conditions that prompt--perhaps even encourage--people to leave for other jobs. Your job: Develop strategies that strengthen your defenses and make deliberate improvements to become a less toxic, more attractive employer. Bonus hint: Employee retention is a management responsibility , not a human resources responsibility. Do your managers understand their retention role? Are they trained and equipped to perform it? You'll need to get at the root of these questions too. SOURCE: Roger E. Herman, the Herman Group , author of Keeping Good People, Greensboro, North Carolina, January 22, 2006.