Rewards And Recognition Programs

This is the fifth part of a seven-part article on recruiting and retention strategies.

Hiring the right people, many times, is only half the battle. The more difficult part can be holding onto those good hires, and if that’s not successful, getting to the bottom of why they are leaving.

Shedding some light on the psychology of when people are leaving, and why, is one of Klein’s main goals for this year.

“Our objective for 2015 is to figure out when people are quitting, and what is happening between point A and point B that’s causing them to quit,” says Klein. “Are they quitting the first week, the first month, at six months?”

According to CP’s survey, the average employee stays between six months and two years. Another significant percentage stays between three and five years.

Common retention strategies include offering annual or routine raises, flexible scheduling, awards and recognition, bonuses, paid holidays, paid vacations and company events. The most successful, according to the survey, are raises, flexible scheduling, bonuses, and awards and recognition.

Offering myriad incentives, benefits and recognition programs are a huge part of 4M’s team culture, says Murch. Employees are rewarded for doing things correctly, and all accolades the company gets from customers are passed along to the deserving employees with a personal note from Murch.

“It takes time but is very gratifying to recognize and make a really big deal out of the team members who provide world-class service for our customers,” he says.

Compensating employees based on the levels of training they have received has been a successful retention strategy for Cummins Building Maintenance.

“If you show them how to be successful on the job, and they get paid well, then they’ll be happy and feel they are achieving something meaningful,” says Frey. “That’s been very powerful for us.”