Give them a reason to stay
Dilts is not a big believer in providing incentives to employees simply for taking part in training and development courses.
“It’s the wrong message,” Dilts says. “What they have to do is seek out training to improve in their jobs so that they can get better. It’s an expectation, not something where we would put a bonus to go to training.”
Still, there needs to be some tangible benefit for being an active participant in job training courses.
“If you are attending your training and you are improving, then if you want, you are getting more responsibility,” Dilts says. “That’s the way it works out. We do have people that go above and beyond that we absolutely do recognize. Those who take the initiative to train absolutely get recognized, both in their own jobs but even outside their jobs, for going the extra mile for the company, and we have rewards around that. What that helps us do is create teams of experts.”
This scenario results in employees who want to pass on their knowledge to others. They feel valuable and feel like they matter at your company. When that happens, the chances they will stick with your company become a lot better.
“We create both a peer network and mentoring built around our teams of experts,” Dilts says. “There’s permanency in each one of those areas. We’ve even set our office up where there’s collaboration and a lot of peer interaction. … It’s a place where you feel like the more you give, the more you get out of it. We’re very clear in our path to success for a person. They understand, ‘If I do this, I can be an engineer. If I do this, I can be a project manager. I can take on more and more responsibilities.’ The path is very clear.”
You need to show your employees how what they are doing helps people or provides a product or service to them.
“Our industry, you can go out and touch it,” Dilts says. “You can go out and watch kids going in and out of the children’s museum you just built. … It’s important for the president or CEO to connect the dots for people so they know that by the research I’m doing or whatever their role is, I’m going to change someone’s life in some way, shape or form to make it better.”
In the simplest terms, your goal should be to make your company a place your employees want to be.
“You give them a lot of responsibility and they have to see there is a place for them to grow,” Dilts says. “That is retaining. They have to look here and say, ‘You know, they are growing this place. There is a place for me, and I can take on as much responsibility as I can handle.”
How to reach: Shiel Sexton Co. Inc. (317) 423-6000 or www.shielsexton.com