Did you know that a high performer can deliver 400 % more productivity than the average performer? No, me neither, I knew it was significantly higher, and this figure astounds me.
It does makes me wonder how much in the day to day busy life of senior leaders and managers focus on managing and keeping top performers motivated?
A few years ago, SAP and Oxford Economics conducted a study that showed:
- High performers as compared to low performers were more satisfied with their jobs.
- High performers are less likely to leave their jobs in the next six months. But…
- 1 in 5 top performers were likely to leave their role in the next six months.
- Less than half of high performers were satisfied with their jobs.
Let’s face it, we have all worked with, and no doubt enjoyed managing high performers. At the same time, we’ve scratched our heads wondering how do we keep these talented individuals motivated?
When you think about the Millennial dominated workforce, we have today remember, they are ambitious and less inclined to hang around in a job for too long. If their career and personal aspirations are not being met, they will look elsewhere. Retention then is also a key factor to consider.
In this two-part article we’ll consider the following questions;
How do you identify top performers, what’s the impact of losing them, and how do you keep them motivated. Taking them one by one.
How To Identify Top Performers
Top performers demonstrate certain characteristics, and this is by no means a complete list and here are some examples of behaviours to look out for:
- Insatiable interest
- Trustworthy and reliable
- Excellent communication skills
- Willing to take calculated risks
- Shows well-rounded effort
- Desire for Input
- Self-Directed
- Desire to develop themselves
- Strong decision-making ability
If you are clear what makes a top performer in your company, build these behaviours into your competency based interview process.
Recruiting high performers is the start of the process and before I move onto discuss how to keep them motivated. It’s worth reminding ourselves of the impact of not focusing on this as a manager.
The Impact Of Losing Top Performers
Losing a top performer is about more than the cost of replacing the person in a role. Whatever you estimate as the cost and impact of losing one of your top performers it’s probably too low.
Research by SHRM and other HR organisations suggest the cost of replacing a mid-level employee is typically 150% of their annual salary.
What is built into this figure?
1. Consider the impact of uncompleted work. Projects left hanging and client relationships on hold. It’s possible that you may even lose some customer relationships, as they see their relationship was with your now departed team member and not your company.
2. The impact on your current team members as they pick up the extra work load. If this goes on too long, it will affect their motivation and potentially productivity.
3. Cost of recruiting. Do your internal team handle this or do you use a specialist recruiting company? Whichever, you need to factor in time and the expense of either process.
4. Time to find the right person. It could happen quickly, or it could take months.
5. Onboarding a new team member and supporting them until they are up to speed and operating at a similar level as your previous top performer.
6. Now let’s factor in the potential “mourning” effect on your team and wider colleagues. A team can go into a mourning phase when someone who is popular and a valued member of the team leaves. It’s unsettling as they wonder ‘why’ did their colleague leave and what does it mean for them?
7. Finally, the cost of loss of knowledge, expertise and relationships both internally and externally. It can take significant time to replace this and what happens in the interim?
I am sure we have all at some point experienced some of what I have covered above. It makes sense then to pay attention to these highly valued team members.
Too often, because we know they thrive on empowerment and self-direction, it’s easy to ‘leave them to it’ while you focus on team members who are having performance issues. Add to this the day to day running of a team and the business, and it’s easy to see how our star performers miss out. You do so at your peril as they say.
No doubt you will want to avoid the impact of the above happening at all costs, so let’s look at what you can do.
How Do You Keep Them Motivated
There are many ways you can keep top performers motivated, and I would like to cover 7 specifics strategies. I’ll start with the first 2 and then cover the next 5 in part 2 of this article.
Build A Strong Culture
Culture matters more than ever and is critical in retaining your star performers. This can be about: the wider company culture, the values and how the company operates, the environment that is created for employees to work in, the people management philosophy through to its career and personal development approach as well as its attitude and support for employee wellbeing.
While everyone may not work on a ‘Google campus’ with the many fantastic facilities provided from nursery facilities to a medical centre, gym and dry cleaners and no doubt much more, it is important to have a culture in place that your top performers enjoy working in so that they don’t even think about the grass being greener elsewhere.
Put Your Top Performers In The Driving Seat
The key to motivating your top performers is to give them control.
Yes, I did say that, and I realise for some that may be a touch uncomfortable. That’s about you and you can decide to change this.
Remember top performers want to have a significant influence on outcomes, they want freedom to make decisions, and they are prepared to be accountable for what they do and their own ideas.
Holding on to high-performers is hard to do if you’re not giving them the opportunities they need to thrive. I realise that for large corporate organisations it can sometimes be more challenging to hand over the reins due to the bureaucracy that comes with size.
The more you do this, the more you and your star performer will reap the rewards.
Next time I will be talking about topics such as trust through to mindful managing and via several
other topics in between so make sure you look out for part 2 of 7 Strategies To Keep Top Performers Motivated.
Until next time,
Julia
