Your All-Star Employee Just Quit. Were You to Blame?

There are a lot of moving pieces in employee retention. People seek out new opportunities, have family issues, and particularly in Hawaii—people move.

Executive-level management also has a great influence on retaining employees; executives set pay scales and policies that directly impact the culture of a company and the happiness of its employees.

While there are days it might seem like all is beyond your control, a good manager can do a great deal to mitigate these outside forces and retain employees. If you find yourself having difficulties keeping good people, read through the list below to see if there are actionable changes you can make today toward retaining your employees for tomorrow.

1. Devote time and attention to your employees

Taking the time out of a busy schedule to acknowledge individuals is important. Simply handing out open praise isn’t enough and can actually have the opposite desired effect.

Be specific in your praise, and make sure the work you are celebrating is worthy of that praise. This shows you are paying attention and value your employees’ time and contribution to the team. A recent study by an employee motivation firm found that 83 percent of employees reported that their recognition for contributions to the company was more fulfilling than monetary rewards or gifts.

2. Build trust with employees

Building trust is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a long, arduous distance to travel—pace and consistency are the most important attributes for long-term success.

We all know that you shouldn’t stab your employees in the back or scapegoat them for your mistakes. But, the big question is how well are you doing your job? Are you a consistent resource for employees? Are you there when they need you? Simply being a reliable resource for your people is the most powerful act of trust-building a manager can engage in. It sets them up for success and lets them know they can rely on you when you are needed most.

3. Focus on progress, not perfection

Being informed and managing the flow of work is the most critical and potentially riskiest part of keeping a team productive. Use too much control and your top players will feel micromanaged. Stay too far from the action and you won’t have the information you need to make critical strategic decisions. At the same time, staying too focused on “perfect” execution keeps your employees on edge and always looking to you for answers.

Give your team room to perform by communicating expectations and letting them make their own choices. If they make the wrong one, counsel, but don’t control. In the end, you’ll have a team that is able to adjust to sudden emergencies, with the confidence to make decisions under pressure.

4. Know your employees’ career goals

Everyone on your team has a different set of priorities. Depending on what type of organization you are running, you will generally have a mix of personalities. Some will be strivers, always looking to build skills and get promoted (either within or outside your organization), while others will value security and comfortable work environments above anything else. The key is to know who you have and what they are looking for.

You need to create opportunities for all of your employees to balance their needs and the needs of the team. Ensuring that your employees are on a path toward growth regardless of their priorities is a key indicator of good management practice.

While losing an all-star member of your team can be a substantial setback, not learning from employee turnover and perpetually making the same managerial mistakes is a much greater disaster. By scheduling an exit interview and paying close attention to employee concerns, you will be armed with the information required to make meaningful changes in employee retention.

With talented, motivated candidates so difficult to find in Hawaii, no one can afford to continually push good people away. By honestly assessing your strengths and weaknesses as a manager, you will be well on your way toward developing teams of challenged and fulfilled employees whose successes won’t be surprising but instead inevitable.