​Retaining High Performing Employees

It’s important to take steps to attract top talent into your business, but it’s even more important to nurture and reward top performers in your company. Talent is in high demand and businesses who engage and keep their employees satisfied are less likely to lose their best people to other offers and companies. There are many ways you can retain high performing employees, as we will discuss below.

Pair them with mentors

High performing employees are often driven and hard-working individuals who are always looking for guidance and ways to achieve more within their careers. When a mentor gives this kind of person the time and effort, they will feel seen and will feel like work ethic is recognised. A mentor can help someone in the next stages of their career and act as an interactive and communicative guide for future possibilities.

Communicate transparently

Open and honest communication is an important factor in employee retention. Transparency of company updates, whether on a groupwide level, team or individual level, shows respect to your staff and also provides a sense of trust in the company. Try to address important information as soon as possible to avoid office talk or rumours.

Pay them their worth, with benefits

While not everything is about money, if an employee feels undervalued, they’re going to look for better remuneration elsewhere. Make sure to keep up to date with the average market rates for all your roles and ensure no one is getting paid less than this. It can also help to ensure salary packages include other benefits too that help to make up an employment contract that people won’t want to leave behind.

Create opportunities for them

High performing employees will want challenge and opportunity. They will want to climb the career ladder, not be at a career standstill. If there are no clear career pathways or next steps for these employees, they may look to take those next steps somewhere else. It is wise to sit down and discuss career goals with these employees and if there are no available options for them to work towards, you can focus together on creating opportunities for them so they know they can move up within your organisation.

Reward achievements and consistent hard work

Rewarding achievements is common practice in many businesses and is a great way to show appreciation for employees and their hard work. It’s important to reward consistent hard work and good results, in addition to stand out achievements. A quarterly team lunch, words of affirmation, or a bonus for achieving goals can all go a long way.

Involve them in meaningful and important assignments/projects

A large part of employee retention is ensuring your people feel like they have purpose. High performing employees will thrive in high profile assignments with good visibility, so others can see how much they are contributing to the organisation. They will also appreciate working towards something meaningful, that not only serves the business but the community or other employees such as diversity projects or other important human resource issues. This will keep them feeling valuable and important (which they are!).