Dear Missing the Link:
First, your question contains a lot of good news. The commitment your management team is taking to launch these initiatives is a positive signal they value and appreciate the talented employees you have and those you will be bringing in. Be sure to reinforce their efforts.
Rewards and recognition programs are an important way to engage and motivate employees. People want to feel good about the job they do. Employees who have positive self-esteem work harder and are more committed, and rewards and recognition contribute to building feelings of self-worth.
Be sure to match the types of rewards to your target audience and be aware that some employees respond best to public recognition, while others prefer private, individual reinforcement.
Retention initiatives can be broad in scope, including the onboarding processes you use, the relationship-building skills of your leaders, your internal career development and job posting programs and much more. And rewards and recognition programs should definitely be viewed and developed as part of your overall retention strategies, not as a stand-alone talent management process.
In the past, employee retention was viewed simply as one more HR program. But the cost of recruiting, selecting, training and managing talented (and harder-to-find) employees continues to grow, and research proves that, in general, the longer an employee stays, the more production he or she is. And isn’t it all about productivity and performance?
Progressive-thinking companies view retention as the backbone of their talent management processes, with compensation, benefits, rewards and recognition, job design, leader training and even corporate culture contributing to it.
So, applaud your management for taking positive steps to make your organization a great place to work and stay, but don’t miss this opportunity to use the rewards and recognition you provide to not only engage and motivate but to keep people in your organization longer.
SOURCE: Craig R. Taylor,TalentKeepers, Maitland, Florida, April 30, 2007.
LEARN MORE: Visit our archive to access hundreds of articles and other material pertaining to retention. Also, a sampling of material on recognition and incentives.
The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.