Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business or The Winning Trainer

Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business: Twenty Four Ways to Hang on to Your Most Valuable Talent

Author: Leigh Branham

24 Ways to Hang On to Your Most Valuable Talent

It takes more than money to keep valuable employees—and win the war for talent.

A war rages in today's workplace, pitting company against company in the fight to find and keep good employees. The losses are high, and battle-weary managers are desperate for talented reinforcements. They've learned that bonuses, stock options, and other financial rewards aren't enough. To win this "war for talent," they need more.

Help has arrived in the form of Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business. This compelling new book gives readers a battle-plan for victory, offering 24 strategies for retaining valuable people. The strategies are grouped in four basic "keys": 1) be a company that people want to work for, 2) select the right person in the first place, 3) manage the joining-up process, and 4) coach to maintain commitment. These practices will help readers:

Make their organization an "employer of choice"

Clearly define the talent needed

Make new employees feel welcomed, valued, prepared, and challenged

Facilitate employees' career growth and advancement, and more

Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business is also loaded with specific examples, how-to guidelines, models, and planning aids—proven tools from an expert who knows that money alone won't keep the employees you can't afford to lose.

Library Journal

With the national unemployment rate at its lowest in 30 years, hiring and keeping good employees has become difficult; in a full-employment economy, people find it easy to move to other companies. Branham (Right Management Consultants) nicely organizes his keen insights, learned from his 25 years of experience in career counseling and consulting, into how to hire, retain, and reward the performance of stellar employees. Structured around his four key principles of being a company people want to work for, selecting the right people in the first place, getting them off to a good start, and coaching and rewarding them to sustain commitment, Branham presents 24 strategies that explain managerial responsibilities in such areas as giving realistic job reviews, hiring from within, challenging people with realistic goals, managing a performance agreement, and recognizing results. Strongly grounded in today's New Age principles of leadership and participatory management, the strategies are accompanied by numerous examples of current businesses implementing the ideas. The up-to-date strategies on how to manage various generations of workers make this a nice supplement to Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans's Love'Em or Lose'Em (Berrett-Koehler, 1999) and Suzanne Dibble's Keeping Your Valuable Employees (Wiley, 1999). Highly recommended for all larger public libraries and academic libraries supporting business curriculum.--Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Brantham (a consultant with a private firm) explains what employees want and describes how human factors should affect the type of reward system offered. Brantham offers 24 strategies for retaining employees, profiles companies with excellent employee retention, and provides examples of the techniques they use. Four key principles are emphasized: being a company that people want to work for, hiring the right people, getting them off to a good start, and using rewards to sustain commitment. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Internet Book Watch

In a competitive job world, employers face special challenges in how to hang on to valuable talent, and Keeping The People Who Keep You In Business tells how to keep the best employees. Employees want more than money; they seek autonomy, challenge, and meaningful work - this tells employers how to identify and meet these needs for lasting results.

What People Are Saying

T.J. Rodgers
T.J. Rodgers, President and CEO, Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
My company measures its success in key employees retained. A turnover rate of 15 percent in Silicon Valley is considered a victory. I thought we had done everything possible?until I read Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business.

Joe Bosch
Joe Bosch, Chief People Officer, Pizza Hut, Inc.
A survival manual for the talent wars. If a company implemented just four or five of these practices, they would be significantly better at retaining talent. Keeping The People Who Keep You in Business offers no silver bullets, but instead real solutions and basic tactics that are both doable and proven to drive results.

T. Dallas Kneale
T. Dallas Kneale, Director, Compensation & Benefits, H&R Block
Branham reminds us that focusing on, and making a commitment to, what's important?your people? is what sets premier companies apart from the competition. Companies that want to become employers of choice and succeed in tomorrow's fiercely competitive marketplace would do well to apply his common-sense principles.

Phil Mooney
Phil Mooney, Vice President, Human Resources, Lanier Clothes, An Oxford Industry
A must-read for all leaders in today's competitive business climate. It is a practical, straightforward book that provides excellent suggestions on how to really motivate and keep your best people. I will refer to it often.

Vincent J. Amen
Vincent J. Amen, Vice President, Public Programs, FranklinCovey
At a time when finding and keeping valuable people is a challenge and a priority, Branham's book is a very practical resource for every manager and human resources professional. The checklists, questionnaires, and sample action plans are useful tools that will make every manager's life easier. I will keep this great book in my desk for ready reference.

John B. Aden
John B. Aden, President, MAC Tools
A practical guide to building brand equity and becoming an employer of choice. Anyone accountable for managing and leading human capital will benefit from Branham's 24 initiatives for hanging on to talent.

Liz Mazzotta
Liz Mazzotta, Vice President, Strategic Staffing and Corporate Learning, Mutual of Omaha
Braham brings together the most recent research, practices, and thought on the critical business imperative?retention. His work is beneficial for the CEO, manager, human resources practitioner, and student to better understand the dynamics of keeping valuable talent. Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business provides an organizational perspective, as well as practical and useful tools for managers.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Truths About Turnover
Why Good Performers Leave
Who Are the Right People?
Keys to Keeping the Right People
Retention Practices Pre-Checklist

The First Key--Be a Company People Want to Work For
1. Adopt a "Give-and-Get-Back" Philosophy
2. Measure What Counts and Pay for It
3. Inspire Commitment to a Clear Vision and Definite Objectives

The Second Key--Select the Right People in the First Place
4. Understand Why Some Leave and Why Others Stay
5. Redesign the Job Itself to Make It More Rewarding
6. Define the Results You Expect and the Talent You Need
7. Ask Questions That Require Proof of Talent
8. Give a Realistic Job Preview
9. Use Multiple Interviewers and Reference Checking
10. Reward Employee Referrals of Successful New Hires
11. Hire and Promote Managers Who Have the Talent to Manage People
12. Hire From Within When Possible
13. Creatively Expand Your Candidate Pool

The Third Key--Get Them Off to a Great Start
14. Give New Hires the Red Carpet Treatment
15. Communicate How Their Work Is Vital to the Organization's Success
16. Get Commitment to a Performance Agreement
17. Challenge Early and Often
18. Give Autonomy and Reward Initiative

The Fourth Key--Coach and Reward to Sustain Commitment
19. Proactively Manage the Performance Agreement
20. Recognize Results
21. Train Managers in Career Coaching and Expect Them to Do It
22. Give Employees the Tools for Taking Charge of Their Careers
23. Know When to Keep and When to Let Go
24. Have More Fun!

Planning to Keep the Right People Special Groups and Situations
Retaining All the Generations
Retaining a Diverse Workforce
Retaining Technical and Creative Talent
Retaining Entry-level Workers
Retaining During Downsizings, Mergers & Acquisitions

Interesting book: Market Fresh Mixology or Barbecue Biscuits and Beans

The Winning Trainer: Winning ways to involve people in learning

Author: Julius E Eitington

This book has more ideas on how to add involvement in learning than any one trainer could ever use. Your students and workshop participants will increase their understanding and retention when you design training activities using 'The Winning Trainer'.

This updated and expanded edition is richer than ever before. It provides:
• more than 100 ready-made handouts, learning instruments, and worksheets... all you do is photocopy
• numerous examples, model dialogues, and sample answers
• hundreds of exercises, games, puzzles, role plays, icebreakers, and other group-in-action techniques
• samples of each technique and ways to effectively use them
• advice on subjects such as unwilling participants, use of the outdoors, breaks, program endings, and storytelling

Significant new additions to the book include materials on the following topics:
• new, easier to accomplish approaches to evaluation - ROE (Return on Expectations) and Customer Satisfaction as a business indicator
• a methodology to secure group feedback at the end of the program, concerning the trainer/facilitator's role and participation in the course
• an instrument for the early screening of likely obstacles when transferring training
• added techniques to ensure that training transfers to the job
• a demonstration of how to conduct a quick assessment of needs when under pressure to do so
• keys to successful training in other cultures
• several new instruments including how to assess one's prowess as a facilitator, how to assess trust in a team, and how to measure one's CQ (creativity quotient)

Two new chapters have been added to treat new material on intelligence and learning, principles of adult learning and distance learning. In addition, numerous new group-in-action techniques and conceptual materials have been added to the existing chapters.

This is the one-stop source book every trainer needs.

One of the top-selling resource books for HRD professionals and trainers.

An easy to use guidebook providing tests, tools, and exercises to improve employee education and performance by one of the leaders in the field.