How to attract, retain, and develop high-achieving workers, Solutions!, Online Exclusives, November 2003

By Kenneth W. Christian, Ph.D.

These simple steps can help managers create the kind of workplace environment that attracts the best and brightest job candidates—and makes them want to stay.

Would you like to gain a permanent edge in the competition for attracting good talent? Would you like to see them stay and develop instead of moving on? Would you like to know how to attract high-achieving workers and be able to retain and develop them so that they make innovative contributions and enhance productivity?

Competition for excellent talent is always intense. No matter the state of the economy, good talent is ceaselessly in demand. What organization has too many talented workers? What organization can afford to see even one high-achieving worker move on?

To attract, retain, and develop talent is not as complicated as it may seem. Organizations that actively support diversity and consistently invest in the development and well-being of their personnel create a climate that feeds high performance—a climate that fosters creativity, innovation, and high achievement. Once established, this climate sets an organization apart as an “employer of choice” to be sought out by the best, brightest, and most innovative candidates.

A company that consistently invests in education, training, and ongoing mentoring far more easily aligns a multifaceted workforce with its goals. Employees in such a workforce develop loyalty to the fundamental cultural values of the organization and in turn actively support adherence to those values. This resulting standard of devotion and engagement creates in employees a willingness to tap into discretionary effort and go the extra mile for the employer that goes the extra mile for them.

The result? Happy, productive workers who work harder, smarter, and when necessary, longer. They do so because they feel included and are aligned with the goals of the organization. They know that their personal development is a fundamental organizational goal.

Daily dozen
The following is a list of things that high-achieving people seek from a career in order to gain a maximum sense of involvement and accomplishment. Incorporate these elements into your corporate culture and you create a climate that fosters the innovation, retention, and productivity that sets your company apart.

Create assignments at every level of your organization that maximize:

1. Intrinsic personal interest: work that involves activities that are personally interesting and worthwhile in their own right.
2. Challenge and stimulation: work that provides problems of sufficient difficulty that solving them requires a satisfying use of mental agility.
3. Personal involvement: work that employees care about for a cause that matters to them.
4. Significance: tasks that make a real contribution and feeling that what the employee does matters.
5. Recognition: having efforts recognized and appreciated; being valued as a contributor. Workers should feel recognized and appreciated for their humanity and diversity, and that their persons and their personal lives are honored and respected.
6. Influence: the ability to have some degree of say regarding one’s job and the overall enterprise. The organization takes into account and values each individual’s input.
7. Creativity: the opportunity to contribute ideas and solutions and to receive support and recognition for such contributions.
8. Independence: the ability to work independently and make decisions autonomously without constant scrutiny.
9. Control: the ability to exercise a degree of choice over work schedule and work activities.
10. Income: a sufficient or comfortable income and benefits.
11. Security: the promise of dependable, ongoing employment.
12. Positive environment: A positive work environment with congenial co-workers.

To include these twelve elements, a company must accurately and thoroughly appraise its current organizational climate, targeting specific structural and cultural changes to be made, and then engage in a well-formulated, well-planned and well-managed change process. Though the effort necessary to implement changes may span one to three years, depending on the current situation, beneficial results of such actions will become evident in as little as a few months.

The business case for doing so is compelling. The results are increased productivity, stronger innovation, better morale and higher employee retention.

About the author: Dr. Kenneth Christian is a licensed psychologist (Ph.D.) with more than 25 years experience, and the author of the book "Your Own Worst Enemy: Breaking the Habit of Adult Underachievement" (Regan Books/ Harper Collins). A speaker and organizational consultant, he is an expert on workplace/organizational achievement. For more information, or to contact Dr. Christian, visit www.maxpotential.com.