3 Tips for Retaining Your Superstars
Barry Phegan, Ph.D.

Your best and brightest employees can easily command the same dollar in a competitor's company. Skills are scarce, and employers are willing to pay for them. So while compensation and benefit inducements have historically proven powerful motivators, they are now merely requisites to getting skilled employees through the door. To truly excite and challenge knowledgeable workers, you must learn what makes them eager to go to work in the morning.

How To Keep The Great Ones Working For You

Respect Professional Status

  1. Support peer reinforcement and networking. Skilled employees are typically more motivated by the recognition they receive from peers than from management. Most of this support and reinforcement occurs through informal networking, both within and outside the company. Through these networks, professionals gauge the success of their efforts, and keep abreast of developments in their area of expertise.

  2. Give skilled employees continual, timely access to information. In a rapidly changing environment, knowledge becomes obsolete even faster than equipment. Up-to-date information is critical for continued success.

  3. Provide opportunities for professional recognition. Highly educated, knowledgeable workers are driven by pride in accomplishment. Whenever possible, showcase the contributions of your skilled employees. Seek opportunities for publishing, presenting, and even entering competitions.

Make Work Challenging

  1. Encourage your employees to do more. For true professionals, fulfillment lies in the work itself. Not surprisingly, if forced to choose between challenging work in an average environment, or mundane work in an outstanding environment, most skilled employees will lean towards the challenging work.

  2. Furnish the best tools. Skilled employees live by their tools. When hampered by substandard equipment, knowledgeable workers often become resentful of working longer and harder. Supplying the latest tools available for skilled employees will eliminate resentment and boost productivity.

Relieve Management Burden

  1. Keep hierarchy and red tape under control. Today's skilled professionals are intolerant of bureaucracy. They hate the thought of too many meetings, or bosses who supervise too closely. Control like this violates their sense of independence and professionalism.

  2. Simplify work processes and roles. Perception is reality. When professionals believe the time and energy required to manage work is greater than the time they have for the work itself, productivity plummets and frustration soars.

  3. Frequently review project context. Knowledgeable workers need to know how their contributions fit into the big picture. They also completely engross themselves in their work. When they finally emerge, they will look for confirmation that their current project is still high priority, and they will want to know what's on the horizon.

As a leader, it's up to you to provide skilled employees with the confirmation and project context they need to stay grounded. Frequently remind them how their current work fits into the grand scheme of things, while enticing them with concrete opportunities in the near future. If you can effectively manage this "balancing act," your biggest challenge will be keeping employees focused on the task at hand. But compared to mutiny or defection, it's a great challenge to face.