Employee Retention

After reading the New York Times article about Amazon’s culture, I was left with the impression that the working experience there would be somewhere between Lord Of The Flies and Oliver Twist.

Who wouldn’t?  How great to be in the company of the likes of Google, Twitter, Southwest, Proctor & Gamble and 21 others who seem to make the list every year in Glassdoor's annual survey.  So what do these companies have in common that make their employees love to come to work?

1.    Core values.  Values that permeate every fiber of the company and not just a mission statement or a list that’s put in the annual personnel handbook.

I believe, “people quit bosses, not jobs”, So when I recently posted a Career Bliss Infographic on the traits of a disengaged employee, I got some push back with this comment,” if someone is that disgruntled, it’s usually the manager's fault”.  Fair point.  So what are the characteristics of the kind of boss that will have you

It depends.  I know that sounds very lawyer-like, but the reality is that bonuses can and should be used for both reward and retaining top talent.  The difference lies in how well the company is performing and what expectations have been set.

So many managers pride themselves on being great delegators.  They think because they’re handing off all the lousy work they don’t want to do, they’re empowering their employees. Wrong! Empowerment, as the word implies, makes people feel they have some power over their work and their destiny.

That’s right, according to a recent survey by CareerBuilders, one in five workers plan to change jobs in 2014.  You might want to rationalize that new post recession opportunities are spurring their hunt, but you’d be wrong. The real reason your employees are looking is they just aren’t happy. I can almost hear “duh” in the background.  The survey indicated that less than 60% of workers are satisfied with their jobs.