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Managing the Employee Lifecycle
by Jill Griffin
More and more, companies are waking up to the reality that customer loyalty begins with staff loyalty. As I’ve said many times in this column, it’s darn near impossible to build customer loyalty with a staff that is constantly in turnover.
My company recently completed staff loyalty surveys for two corporate clients. We were hired to access the current loyalty level of their employees, how likely they were to depart and improvement opportunities for increasing retention. Our research involves a two part process: In-depth staff interviews with employees in various functions and levels and a web-based survey tailored around issues identified in the in-depth interviews. Fresh from analyzing the mountains of data that this process generates, I am struck by this key finding: employee retention strategies should center around the employee lifecycle.
Mike Lowenstein and I write about the employee lifecycle in our book, Customer Winback: How to Recapture Lost Customers and Keep Them Loyal. Here’s some of our thoughts:
It’s been suggested that companies should apply a marketing perspective to the challenge of attracting and keeping employees. The logic goes like this: You have a product called a ‘job’ that is being sold to a customer called an ‘employee. When you think about employee loyalty as a marketing challenge, the question to ask is what actions should be taken to turn prospective employees into new hires and once that happens, what action are required to turn new hires into longer term employees and ultimately, staunch company advocates? (Remember our discussion of the customer lifecycle in earlier columns? It’s the same concept, only now we’ve applied the progressive loyalty stages to employees.)
With every employee lifecycle comes predictable crisis points when staff defection risks are greatest. The better a company can predict and plan for these likely stress points, the more chance defection can be prevented and the employee can be retained. Three common crisis periods for employees are:
(1) New-hire hysteria. This condition can be brought on by a number of ‘new job’ circumstances including under-whelming assignments, friction with a new boss or an unexpectedly heavy workload. It doesn’t take much for the new employee to call a headhunter or even the old employer and say the four deadly words: “I made a mistake.” Solution: Pair the new recruit with an experienced associate who can help guide the employee through this difficult transition time. In addition, provide a new hire orientation to acclimate the new employee to the company.
(2) Promotion peril. A employee is vulnerable to defection when he or she is ready for a promotion but a slot is unavailable. Ambitious, upwardly-mobile employees ‘waiting’ for promotions are ripe for the picking from competitors who are only too happy to give them that next step up on the ladder. Solution: Buy some extra time by putting the employee in a special project role (2-3 months in duration) that recognizes his or her achievements. In the interim, find that promotion slot!
(3) Boredom blues. The most productive employees typically don’t tolerate boredom well. No promotion on the horizon? No new project to look forward to? New jobs outside your company will look more and more attractive. Solution: Find out what specific areas most interest the employee and find ways to tailor at least some of the bore employee’s assignments around those areas. Here’s where staggered stock options can also help. As a an additional safeguard, schedule a chunk of the options to vest about six months after the period when new employees would be most prone to boredom blues.
Start today to dissect the lifecycle of your employees. What are the predictable crisis points in their relationship with your company? What can be done to help transition an employee through these rough waters? How can you stay close to employees to monitor their morale and take intervention steps as necessary? Just as there are only a limited number of high value customers in every market space, there are only so many A+ employees as well. Make employee retention a key goal in your organization and your customers will stay longer too.
Jill Griffin is co-author of the new book, Customer Win-Back: How to Recapture Lost Customers and Keep Them Loyal and author of the business best seller, Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How To Keep It. Jill is principal of The Griffin Group, Austin,Texas, a customer loyalty research and consulting firm. Reach her at www.loyaltysolutions.com.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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