How to retain your top talent

Good managers take the time to learn what is important to each team member, and great managers take the time to understand each person’s lived experience, both at work and beyond. In addition, prioritizing employees’ social wellness can result in greater job satisfaction and personal contentment.

It is also important to have Psychological Safety at work. This is the belief that an employee will not be criticized or punished for speaking up with questions, concerns, ideas, or mistakes. Equally, employees must be allowed to express their thoughts and feel confident that they will be heard out.

It is also essential to have clear leadership expectations within the company. Managers should be visible and engage with employees directly, and should act promptly and with decisiveness. Lastly, they should hold themselves accountable for the outcomes.

However, this can also lead to friction that may ultimately cause them to leave the company as it can be frustrating for them to consistently be given extra work simply because their co-workers could not complete it.

According to a 2021 report from CNN, around 745,000 people died in 2016 due to working at least 55 hours a week. It follows, therefore, that most top employees won’t subject themselves to the health risks caused by overworking, especially if they are not being compensated for their extra efforts.

The solution lies in better workload management and clear communication from both sides.

The process of distributing and managing work efficiently within a team, workload management is an essential factor in keeping top-performing employees from leaving your company. Not only does this maximize your employees’ performance and prevent them from burning out, but it also helps you and your team to feel satisfied and content at the end of each day instead of exhausted and overwhelmed.

Your employees must also feel psychologically safe even when expressing negative opinions on their job. Transparency and clear communication are key here: it’s important that employees understand the main reasons behind their workload, while managers should be mindful of each team member’s bandwidth and be careful not to repeatedly overload anyone.

Developmental opportunities signal that the company is interested in not only expanding employees’ skill sets, but also in translating those skills into new opportunities. Top-performing employees may already have standout talents, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t looking for opportunities to grow and learn more—particularly if they have high Progress needs.

Meanwhile, compensation is not just about a big bonus or a salary increase, even for those with a high Financial Needs score. It can also come in the form of added benefits, perks, and even being prioritized in shift changes and scheduling.

At the end of the day, every employee is different, and that includes what motivates them. Being able to understand employees’ intrinsic motivations—and, crucially, how they may differ from a managers’ own—is therefore an invaluable asset.

This is where Attuned is a real game-changer for busy managers. By making each person’s hitherto unseen values visible, Attuned allows leaders to get to know their team on an individual level better and faster, both in terms of what kind of working environment they are most likely to thrive in, and the factors that make work more meaningful for them.

Armed with this knowledge, leaders can tailor their communication and management styles to connect with employees more effectively; quickly identify managerial blindspots and take appropriate action to fix them; and personalize the work experience to foster happier, more productive teams.