Its hard enough to find good employees but keeping them is a whole other matter.

Employees leave for various reasons and in today’s job market where demand for talent out paces supply, employers need to spend time thinking about ways to retain their key assets. The first step in this process is to better understand your employees. Since you can’t please everybody, I think the 80/20 rule makes good sense in this scenario.

First of all, place your employees in buckets… be careful about this process and make sure you can justify your reasoning for putting a particular employee in a specific bucket. It would also be wise to discuss the ranking with the employees and see if they agree or give them the chance to convince you otherwise. You can call these buckets A, B, C or Hi-Po (high performers), etc.
Once you have placed employees in the buckets, think about what each set of employee has in common. i.e. why are they working; why are they working at your company; what do they do outside of work; etc. As you learn more about them, try to focus on the things they may like… or better yet, ask them. Conduct a group workshop and solicit their feedback.

At one company I ran, we had a patio just outisde our office and we would BBQ lunch every Friday. This really helped to build strong relationships internally and give the employees a fun place to work. At another company we were treated to McDonalds every Wednesday. All the staff gathered together, broke bread and caught up with each other.
Some employees look for more money; some want room for advancement; some want the ability to travel; others just want to coast.

You will soon begin to realize that your employees can be put in to different categories, such as climbers, and campers. Obviously the climbers are the achievers who want to get somewhere and the campers are the ones that are just fine, thank you very much.

Statistically, the campers will not move, or it would take a lot to get them to move… they are too comfortable and don’t really have any ambition. But the climbers are always looking for opportunities and these are the ones you need to focus on.

They may not be interested in just financial incentives (although this does help). Some want to k now what their career growth looks like; others want to receive interesting and challenging projects; while others like recognition and maybe some cool prizes.

Either way, approach your employees with an open mind and discuss their needs with them, then develop a plan jointly that makes sense for everybody. If you can’t afford everything, they will understand. After all, they will have similar problems in their personal lives. Also, this joint process will bring you and your team closer and that will give you tremendous return on your investment.
Remember, your employees are also customers and they should be treated accordingly. Also, the employee you fire may be your next prospect/customer so be careful how you treat them!