Employee Retention

I have a simple policy: When I hear something three times, I pay attention. If three people mention the same movie in a month, I put in my requisite Netflix check and then wait a few years until it becomes available. So here’s something I’ve heard lately from no less than three of my trusted sources in the business world — including a CEO, a company president, and a doctor-turned-administrator in the healthcare industry.

Seems like there’s a new memo going around, and I don’t know who sent it, but companies are finally starting to focus on employee retention. All three of my contacts spoke passionately about the need to kick up the volume on retention and boot out this Gloomy Gus of a culture that everyone else created.

That’s a big change because since the Fall of 2008, the attitude from most companies toward their staff has been, “Cut the whining and bring your A+ attitude into an F atmosphere — and while you’re at it, bring some extra change for our snack jar to offset the gushing costs of free muffins and coffee.”

Now that an upturn is on the horizon, CEOs and their HR teams are scrambling to find ways to keep talented workers from making a beeline out the door to another hipper, happier company that already got The Memo. My mild-mannered top cat trio admitted it’s time to woo a little, get a little bounce back in that tired step, and remind employees what it was like to waste quality time together.

So cheer up and have faith, beleaguered, overworked mules of the workforce. Employees just might be starting to get back a little of what George Costanza called “hand.” As in, “I’ve got so much hand, I’m coming out of my gloves, Jerry!” Well, maybe not that much. But it’s a start.