Mike Clark's Business Bites: How to attract and retain top performers

When people feel safe you open their creativity and allow them to focus their energy on the job at hand without having to be precariously looking over their shoulder. Photo / Unsplash

Opinion

OPINION:

There is a lot of hype in the news about the fluid labour market and how people are wanting jobs with a lot more flexibility. The pressure on companies to attract and retain high-performing team members is growing.

What are you doing to attract and retain your key performers?

I thought I would explore teams from a different angle with this in mind:

T - Train your team! Any organisation can only grow to the level of the people within it. Training is an excellent growth strategy as well as a key attraction factor for potential candidates. I have an obvious bias being a trainer, but I thought back to when I resigned from my job and how I stayed on when offered an incredible training opportunity. A-grade team players want to improve and grow - facilitate this.

E - Engage with your team. The dance to attract highly skilled team members is much like the dance to attract high-value clients and even your life partner. Often there is a lot of effort and energy put in upfront and then the moment the contract is signed the energy can often be redirected elsewhere. This is not good for your team, your clients, and definitely not good for your marriage! Gallup's famous 12 questions survey culminates in an engagement score. The more engaged your team is, the higher levels of productivity, job satisfaction and staff retention. Stay engaged with your team - do surveys, create personal and professional development plans, give feedback regularly, have one-on-ones.

A - Attack problems not people. People need to feel psychologically safe in any environment and this particularly applies to workplaces. When we feel safe it allows us to have conflicts because people know their personhood will be respected and valued, but anything that does not conform or is not meeting an agreed standard is open to robust discussion to find a resolution. When people feel safe you open their creativity and allow them to focus their energy on the job at hand without having to be precariously looking over their shoulder or walking on eggshells.

M - Measure and feed back regularly. I have often alluded to the passion and enthusiasm people show when watching sport. We rarely see this energy transferred to the workplace. The difference? People clearly understand the rules in their sport of choice - they know when they're winning and losing (and what needs to happen to be winning again). Unfortunately the same clarity is often lacking in organisations. If you want your team to perform to the highest levels, put in place dashboards that clearly show the team when they are winning and losing and how their efforts help the team to get ahead and stay ahead.

There are many ways to look at your team - the above four will hopefully give a perspective on how you can attract and retain people who are prepared to operate at their highest potential towards the organisational goals.

• Mike Clark is director and lead trainer and facilitator at Think Right business training company.