“10 ways to retain your best employees” opens with this paragraph.
“If ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,’ then why not imitate the companies in Fortune’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’ competition?”
It’s the kind of article that makes me want to run screaming into the night. Part of it the fatuous advice like “Care about your customers” and “Be a visionary.”
But the big problem with articles like this is that they suggest that all you have to do is create a cheap knock-off of some Google or SAS benefit and all will be well. But putting lipstick on some pig of a workplace just makes it a funny looking pig.
Don’t rush out to copy what some other company is doing. Analyze your own workplace and then make changes. Here are ten questions to help.
Do you provide fair compensation packages?
Is the workplace safe, both physically and psychologically?
Those are company-wide questions. The rest are all dependent on the boss. They’ll vary from team to team.
Do you help people understand how their work fits with others and why it’s important?
Do you give people clear and reasonable expectations for performance?
Do you provide frequent and usable feedback on performance and behavior?
Do you enforce the rules consistently?
Do consequences match up with performance and behavior?
Do you do things that create a team community and provide social support?
Do you help people make progress in their work and career?
Do you give people the maximum control possible over work life?
You won’t create a great place to work, by copying bits of benefits from others. Instead, analyze where you are now. Then change as needed.
