While many companies might be preoccupied with the problem of finding new superstars to fill their open positions, there’s another problem of which they might not be fully aware.
That problem is this: retaining the superstars they already have—or at the very least, the great employees they already have.
Unfortunately, it can be easy to overlook current employees in the quest for more productivity. However, that’s an oversight that can have far-reaching implications. Below are five ways to keep the superstars you have on staff from burning out, and even worse, leaving.
- Don’t overload your superstars. Yes, they get a lot of work done, and yes, they get it done extremely well. That’s exactly why you keep giving them more and more work to do in a smaller amount of time. From your perspective, it makes sense. From their perspective, it makes their employment considerably less exciting.
- Appreciate your superstars. The only thing worse than overloading them is overloading them without letting them know how much you appreciate their efforts. You might be surprised by how far a few kind words will go.
- Recognize your superstars. Don’t stop with appreciation. Go beyond that to recognition, specifically in a way that lets others within the company know that you value the efforts of these superstars.
- Motivate your superstars. Superstars want to be motivated and they want to be challenged. To a certain extent, they motivate and challenge themselves, but you should do the same. Overloading a superstar without helping to motivate them is a sure path to burnout.
- Engage your superstars. An employer-employee relationship is like any other relationship. If one party isn’t fully engaged (i.e., feel like they’re involved), then it’s only a matter of time before they seek greener pastures. Do everything you can to engage your superstars, preferably on a daily basis.
How do you stack up when it comes to these five pro-active ways for keeping top employees from burning out and leaving? If there’s an area in which you’re lacking, what can be done to remedy the situation?
It makes sense to have a system in place for retaining superstar talent before you go to all the trouble of finding, recruiting, and hiring that talent.