What Your Team Members Really Want

It can be a costly blow to lose a key team member in a professional services firm. There’s the possibility of their taking some business with them, of course, but also the cost of sourcing a replacement and the expense to the firm of getting the new person up to full productive speed. Other impacts the firm can feel are a drop in team morale and some unsettled relations with clients.

The Saratoga Institute in California recently conducted a study that showed the average vacant position remains unfilled for seventy-five calendar days, and that it costs something like a year’s salary to source and train the new team member.

Employers are finding that it pays do ask themselves what their team members really want before they find themselves in the situation where they have to replace some key people.

In broad terms, the members of your team want meaningful work that gives them the chance to grow in an enjoyable environment. But general terms aren’t enough when dealing with very different individuals.

While your team members naturally want a good salary and good benefits, there’s not a lot you can really do to influence an employee’s decision to depart once it’s made. A better way of helping ensure retention is to create the situation where they feel cared for, respected, admired, and liked.

But can you just ask your team members to tell you what will encourage them to stay? A study conducted by Dr. David Finegold and Susan Mohrman at USC’s Center for Effective Organizations found a significant discrepancy between what they say they want and what actually drove their behavior.

For example, as many as 86% of employees rate work/life balance as “very important” or “extremely important” in their careers when questioned. Yet the reality is that greater employee satisfaction with work/life balance has absolutely no impact on retention.

Finegold and Mohrman concluded that companies need to personalize their retention efforts, cater to individual needs and tailor the total employment package. Most companies do exactly the opposite when it comes to setting their employment policies. They tend to create a policy framework that tries to accommodate every team member and more often than not actually suits none of them.

The study found that team members will identify more closely with the business if they believe it has a viable and well-communicated strategy for success. Rewards such as stock options or profit-sharing are successful because they increase how much team members identify with the company.

As a motivational tool straightforward salary payments don’t influence the commitment of any group except for men under 30. At the other end of the scale, the only group for whom job security is a driver of retention is the late career group -those over 50.

For those 30 and under who are in the early stages of their career job security had no positive effect on either retention or commitment; their focus is on career advancement. They want to be part of an innovative organization they can influence and move ahead with it. And be well-paid in the process.

For all those in the middle of their careers — ages 31 to 50, their commitment to the company increases if they are able to influence the progress of their own careers. Let them know that they’re valued and that it’s still possible for them to influence their careers through their performance.

If they’re over 50 give them job security so they don’t get scared off when the under 30s start receiving promotions.

So instead of trying for a “one size fits all” treatment of what you offer your team members give their ages some serious consideration. Understand that to keep good people of any age you need to give them confidence in the firm, then give them something that’s related to their stage in life so they’ll be there when you need them.

Copyright 2005, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.