What Keeps Your Star Employees Engaged?
How to engage top talent is an ongoing conversation among talent management leaders; and it can make or break your talent management strategy.
If you are losing some of your best employees or if you are afraid your top talent is becoming disengaged, then this employee engagement and retention article is for you.
The Cost of Losing Top Talent
It’s bad enough to lose any productive, experienced employee but when you lose your top, difficult-to-replace talent, it’s terrible! Not only do you feel somewhat insulted that they were not satisfied at your organization but now the project they were working on is at risk and performance will suffer.
How to Engage Top Talent So Star Employees Thrive
All along you have tried to treat these high performing employees differently by recognizing their special contributions — but you must have missed something. Here’s a list of what star employees need and want in order to stay engaged and committed to their current job:
Smart employers offer a variety of ways they can increase their professional worth through high stakes projects, stretch assignments, a respected executive mentor, inclusion in high-level strategy sessions, opportunities for formalized professional education, and a clear path forward.
Let your top employees navigate their own path to the goals. They have the intelligence and the drive to get there on their own.
They will appreciate that you care about their well-being and their work-life balance. Don’t punish their efficiency with too many assignments at once.
High performers want to have the big picture of where their team and the company are headed. To keep them engaged, they need to work with a bigger purpose in view.
What they don’t like is when a team (or organization) tolerates sub-standard performance. If you allow below-average workers to stay without a plan for their improvement and proof that they are making progress, your top talent will leave a culture that does not hold workers accountable.
The Bottom Line
Your star employees are in a class of their own. They need special treatment if you want to keep them on board and fully engaged. Review your employee engagement and retention strategies against this list. If anything’s missing, act fast or another star may fall from your sky.
Want to learn more about how to engage top talent? Download The Only 16-Step Employee Retention Strategy for Top Talent You Need
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