Maintaining Great Talent

Making sure that the very best talent in your company stays on can be a difficult balance. You want to have people grow with the company but also invest in the person's individual career trajectory. We came up with a few top tips to help you navigate this tricky subject:

• Career success translates to organisational loyalty. Giving people opportunities to do things they are passionate about and grow throughout their career will ensure individuals are well connected to the organisation.

• Be honest about pay and promotional structures. This goes a long way in clearly communicating to your people that there is a direct pathway within your organisation for them to grow.

• Put people next to inspirational people. This helps create a culture of employees helping each other, forging stronger bonds and a community in the workplace.

• Help employees take care of themselves and their wellbeing. Creating a culture in which people feel cared for is critical to having low churn in a company.

• Give individuals agency and flexibility. Committed people with talent are deeply passionate about their work and will work hard regardless of where they are. Giving them flexibility such as remote working and unlimited holiday signals trust, which is an important motivator.

• Go beyond the salary. Individual interest, purpose, and challenge is identified as equally, if not more, important to high performing employees so ensure that you are able to offer all of these as a package.

While talent retention is important, you have to be wise about which cases this applies to. There are regrettable and non-regrettable employee exits - you have to learn to appreciate that individuals will have other opportunities for growth. Your organisation has a duty of care to prepare people for their next opportunity, which will positively impact you in the longer term. Remember, some churn is also good for the organisation, it breathes in fresh talent and new perspectives!