Love 'em or Lose 'em: Getting Good People to Stay

Softcover: 300+ pages
Size: 9.2" x 8"
ISBN 1576755576
978-1576755570
Berrett-Koehler
May 2008
(Click button below for very best available and current price for this book)

Because finding the ideal person for every workplace position has become an increasingly difficult task, the retention of top employees has become every manager's concern.

"This charming, clever, practical, and user-friendly book is a great desk-side coach for anyone who manages people." - Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, author of Confidence: How Winning and Losing Streaks Begin and End

Attention Managers & Leaders: This is an excellent book for you to purchase in quantity and, in turn, distribute to managers that report to you. This book has been used by staff development, CEOs, CNOs and human resource professionals to build culture after mergers or downsizings. It's a great reference for all managers concerned about employee retention.

It happens time and time again: the brightest and most talented people leave the company for "better opportunities." Their peers wonder how management could let them go. Their managers feel helpless to make them stay. Bigger salaries, loftier titles, and added perks may work for a while, but what employees really want are meaningful work, opportunities for growth, excellent bosses, and a sense of connectedness to the group. The good news is that, unlike monetary compensation, these benefits are well within the reach of most managers.

Beginning with an exit memo written by the composite employee "A.J.," authors Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans explore the truth behind the dissatisfactions of many of today’s workers and offer 26 strategies—from A to Z—that managers can use to address their concerns and keep them on the team. These strategies are neither difficult nor costly and, through research, tips, and corporate tales drawn from dozens of organizations, the authors provide examples of how these strategies work in some of the best companies in America.

With every employee who walks out the door costing the company up to 200 percent of their annual salary to replace, retention is one of the most important issues facing businesses today. This book gives everyone from the CEO to the front-line supervisor solutions for keeping the employees they simply can’t afford to lose.

"Love "Em or Lose 'Em is a practical hands-on book for managers. It uses proven retention techniques from some of the best companies in North America and real world case studies. The book's structure and easy-to-read style will make it a popular desktop reference book for managers to find ready-to-use strategies that can be implemented immediately." --Bill Smith, Vice President, KPMG

"Companies of all sizes need new strategies to retain quality employees at all levels... Authors Kaye and Jordan-Evans provide some of the best thinking I have seen and do it in a format and style that make this book a must-read for any manager or supervisor." - Steve Bauman, vice president, Management Staffing & Development, Marriott International

Love 'Em or Lose 'Em, by organizational-development specialists Beverly L. Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, proposes that this "race for talent" can be effectively run only by those who adopt programs and policies that truly support their personnel. It then shows how to do so, even in organizations reluctant to participate actively.

Kaye and Jordan-Evans encourage an initial scan of their 26 alphabetically arranged chapters -- such as "Information: Share It," "Mentor: Be One," and "Space: Give It" -- so attention can be fully focused on the most relevant benefits and responsibilities associated with employee retention.

All of the easy-to-read chapters are bolstered with hands-on exercises and stories of others' failures and successes. The section on family-friendly conduct, for example, suggests uncovering specifics by directly asking employees what would make their lives easier. Any manager who dreads losing a top performer would do well to consider this book.

"Love 'Em or Lose 'Em has all the elements managers are telling me they want-practical, real, fast, and easy." Judy Mason, Global Manager of Career Development, Dow Corning

The coming talent shortage demands that companies work overtime to keep their best people engaged and committed. The authors' 26 principles and hands-on action steps cover familiar strategies but sound fresh and urgent - such as, create meaningful and challenging work, provide chances for learning and growth, communicate respect, and initiate honest discussions about work design, satisfaction, and career plans.

Theirs is an empowering invitation that everyone take initiative, even in bureaucratic and dysfunctional companies. They offer vital antidotes to typical corporate practice and a timely reminder that it's less expensive to love star performers than to replace them.

With replacement costs high and start-up time critical, employee retention is more valuable than ever. This best-selling guide provides 26 strategies to keep talented employees happy and productive. Citing research and experience with dozens of organizations, the authors present many examples of how today's companies have applied their retention strategies and increased their retention rates. The chapters are arranged alphabetically, from "Ask" to "Zenith."

Each chapter includes a series of to-do lists, company examples, and an "alas" story drawn from the authors' personal experiences. This edition features new tips and to-do lists, new stories, and additional research from the media and from the authors' own extensive database. There are also three new appendices: a troubleshooting guide, a guide to saying "thank you" in the workplace, and a reading group guide.

The authors are both management consultants, each with over 20 years of experience in the fields of organizational development, leadership development, and career and change management. Their respective companies have teamed with Fortune 500 client organizations to develop innovative approaches to retaining talent.

The authors’ experience, research with dozens of companies, and analysis of published surveys and articles, have led them to their view that the key to retaining employees is not high salaries, great benefits, or even fabulous perks. While those are important retention elements, the authors have discovered that they are almost never enough alone. Although the reasons employees stay at a company vary by demographic group, industry and even job function, Beverly and Sharon cite several common variables that hold talent home. They suggest, based on their research, that talented employees want development opportunities, meaningful work, and good bosses who communicate honestly and provide feedback. It sounds simple, but these and other key elements are missing in many companies today, and they are key retention requisites.

Beverly Kaye, President of Beverly Kaye & Associates, Inc. is an organization consultant with over 20 years of experience in career development, management training, and human resource planning. She is also President of Career Systems International, a career development publishing company. She received her doctorate from UCLA and previously studied organization development at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Beverly is author of Up Is Not the Only Way and coauthor of Designing Career Development Systems. She is featured in two training films, “Up Is Not the Only Way,” and “Growing in Place,” as well as numerous trade journals such as Training & Development, Personnel, Personnel Journal, Personnel Administrator, and HR Magazine. She has appeared, via satellite television, in Executive Communications, Empowerment Vision, and Masters on Managing.

Sharon Jordan-Evans has practiced organization development for over 20 years and specializes in change management, leadership development, and executive coaching. She was a senior vice president for the Change Management Practice at Drake Beam Morin, one of the country’s largest transition firms. As President of the Jordan Evans Group, she currently works with executive teams and coaches senior leaders as they strive to improve morale, commitment, and productivity within their companies. She has a Masters degree in Organization Development with an emphasis on group dynamics, change management and job satisfaction research.

These are the chapters in this book:

Introduction: A.J.'s Exit
Ask What Keeps You?: Do you know what they want?
Buck It Stops Here: Who's in charge of keeping them?
Careers Support Growth: Are you building their future or are you in the way?
Dignity Show Respect: Do they know that you respect them?
Enrich Energize the Job: Do your people have to leave to find growth and challenge?
Family Get Friendly: Avoid making your employees choose between work and family life.
Goals Expand Options: There are five career paths other than up
Hire Fit Is It: Make a match or start from scratch
Information Share It: Do you have it? Do you hoard it?
Jerk Don't Be One: Are you one?
Kicks Get Some: Are we having fun yet?
Link Create Connections: If you build them, they will stay
Mentor Be One: Are they learning from you?
Numbers Run Them: Calculate the cost of loss
Opportunities Mine Them: Will they find them inside or outside?
Passion Encourage It: Help them find the work they love-without leaving
Question Reconsider the Rules: Which will you keep: the rules orthe people?
Reward Provide Recognition: Which matters more: praise or pay?
Space Give It: Are your people on a short leash?
Truth Tell It: The truth hurts-or does it?
Understand Listen Deeper: When you tune out, you lose out-and they move out
Values Define and Align: What matters most?
Wellness Sustain It: Are they sick or tired? 223
X-Ers and Other Generations: Handle with Care, They are different. Can you keep them?
Yield Power Down: Give it up to keep them
Zenith Go for it: Test your Retention Engagement
Top Ten Pushbacks
Got More?

Because finding the ideal person for every workplace position has become an increasingly difficult task, the retention of top employees has become every manager's concern.

(information from the publisher)

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