Building Gurus: Top 10 Ways To Develop And Retain The Right Employees

I never set out to be a recruiter, it kind of found me. And, it took me awhile to realize not everyone just “knew” how to find and hire top performers. Since I knew how to do it innately, I thought other people must also figure it out.

I got an eye-opener early on as to how hard hiring the right person can be. I try to educate on better hiring practices and ways to find the best employees. But, finding them is only part of the equation.

One way you can cut back on how much you hire is to keep and grow your current employees. Make them compelling growth opportunities, educate them and treat them exceptionally well. If you do all that, you may find you rarely need to hire.

I probably can’t actually get you to never. Sorry!

When you have a team you love and you never want them to leave, you have to make sure they have reasons to stay. You have to engage and motivate them.

Here are 10 of the best ways to help your employees grow.

Know what the job needs & hire for those talents

When the person and the job fit together, great things happen. Don’t try to fit a squarish peg in a roundish hole. Aim to find the exact right person each time. Why? They’ll be happier and more productive and less likely to wander. How do you do that? Know exactly what they need to have and what will excite them in the role.

Avoid the gray zones

Know exactly what needs to happen with each role and project. When you are crystal clear on what results you expect, you can communicate them effectively. You’ll have precise ways to track & measure success. You can keep your expectations grounded in reality because you have hard data.

Measure and make accountable

Employees like to know exactly what is expected of them. They don’t want to be surprised down the road, so make sure you tell them exactly what you’ll be looking at and exactly what needs to happen. Decide on what is measurable and how you’ll track it.

Differentiate between skills, education, and talent

Everyone has talents – you are born with or develop them. They are unique to each of us. Help employees realize their talents and then guide them to the education and skills that help them refine and grow theirs.

Figure out strengths and weaknesses – for real though

Everyone has things that come easier to them and areas where they struggle. Help figure out the top strengths and weaknesses for your employees. The real ones, not what we all say in interviews! Then, help guide them to things they can pick up quickly and the parts of their jobs that give them more satisfaction. If they react positively to something you have a good indication it might be one of their talents.

Give common ground

When you talk about strengths and areas for improvement, it can be kind of a fluid language. If you can settle on common words to discuss the ways people are different from each other, everyone will be on the same page. So, do you use weak or weakness or do you say an area of improvement? Pick your language and institute it.

Use time wisely – talent vs. weakness

When you have identified an employee’s talent, help them figure out how to gain the knowledge and skills needed to grow it. Give them space to gain the experience they need. Support them and teach them to use time wisely. They should spend 80% of their development time on building up their talents and only 20% managing weakness.

Invest in education, resources, and coaches

If you spend all of this time identifying, nurturing and labeling talents, why not provide everything they need to develop further? If there are coaches, programs or educational tools you can buy that will strengthen your employees and develop them, get it and help them to use it.

Discover other support streams

Aside from education, resources, and coaches, what else is out there? Is it further education away from the workplace? Are there mentor programs or leaders at other companies they can connect with? Do you teach your employees how to effectively network? Can you provide something one-on-one that helps?

Set them free

Teach your employees how to trust their own instincts and gauge their own talents. When they ask themselves if a new opportunity keys into their experience and talents, you know you have made a leap. If they start strategically thinking who on other teams has complimentary talents, stand back and reap the rewards. Teach your employees how to keep striving and to focus on how to continue growing.

If you spend the time to develop your teams’ talents and nurture what they want and need, you will be on the right path to retaining your stars.

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Source: Building Gurus