How to Retain Staff When Your Top Talent is Leaving

Your business is only as strong as your staff. We’re here to help you hold on to your talent — and to help you find new employees.

When company leaders retire or change firms, organizations can be left reeling. Of course, these organizations want to hold on to their top performers during periods of change. While many organizations use money to encourage their star staff to stay with the company, financial incentives are not always the way to go to retain your important team members after senior staff departs. Instead of money, try one of these three ways to retain staff through disruptive periods at your company.

Identify your key players.

The people essential to your organization may not be your top earners or even your top performers. Instead, you may not be able to always spot these people essential to your operations from a top-down perspective. Still, these important players have insight, connections, and know-how essential to keeping your firm running smoothly. Working with HR to identify these key employees is important to your firm’s continued operations.

Offer praise and advancement opportunities to your key performers.

Your goal is to energize your employees to stay at your company — and financial incentives are not usually the best method for doing so. Instead, focus on ways to offer more praise to employees. Demonstrate that you understand your key employees’ value to the company. Another important way to engage your staff is to let them know that they’ll have careers — and advancement possibilities  — at your firm in the long-term. Leadership and development opportunities are particularly persuasive, especially to those in competitive environments like finance and accounting.

Don’t offer a single incentive; instead, diversify.

An important factor in retaining staff is letting them know you value them — as individuals. A single incentive — be it financial, congratulatory, or developmental — might not be right for every employee. Instead, get to know what your employees really want. Some might want financial incentives, but others might want more flexible hours. Others might want opportunities to continue their education. Still others might feel appreciated by being offered a mixed incentive plan — financial and nonfinancial.  Getting to know your employees’ needs has two-fold benefits: it connects them to the company and demonstrates your long-term commitment to their futures.

Your business is only as strong as your staff. We’re here to help you hold on to your talent — and to help you find new employees. At Career Moves, LLC, we’ve helped over 75 Connecticut-based companies find the strong accounting and finance professionals they need to succeed. But our relationship with you isn’t confined to a short-term transaction; rather, we build relationships to ensure we can find you the committed and motivated professionals you’ll employ for years to come.