Even if your employees think the organisation stinks, senior management are incompetent idiots  and the work life balance is all wrong they will stay longer if they feel their line manager values them because people leave managers not organisations. This fact is very relevant when you consider that the biggest challenge facing HR over the next year is employee retention and attrition.

The best way to stabilize your business is to stem the tsunami of attrition and increase your retention. In the frantic need to hire more people, the group we often forget to attend to are the people who stay.

The best places to work according to the Best Workplaces 2021 are those where managers  trust people to do a good job without watching over their shoulder. Managers appreciate people who try new ways of doing things regardless of the outcome. Managers shows a sincere interest in me as a person not just an employee.  Senior managers fully embody the best characteristics of our organisation Managers actions match their words.

Managers offer their employees training to further their professional development Managers create a team spirit. Spot a common theme? It would appear that it’s all down to managers whether or not an organisation is a good place to work

So invest in your managers people skills. And the most effective way of doing that is to introduce a program of  coaching for managers. The basic idea is that a coach /trainer observes an individual manager in a range of work scenarios ( team meetings, one to one supervision, project group meeting, conference call, interaction with support services) provides detailed feedback and homework.

This is all managers not just senior managers. Whilst this is a time consuming and more expensive that the usual send groups of managers on a short tradition improve your people skill training course I have found it increases managers insight into how their behaviour effects others which is the bases of improving managers people skills.

Alternatively you could try,” golden handcuffs”  but you might find that the people who stay for the money are the ones you would be happy to see go. People will go but that is not an end to it , make sure they depart on good/friendly terms and keep the door open for a return, not to their old job but to the organisation. And of course they may leave and still be a very good ambassador for you and your organisation.