Email  Print 

more benefits articles

• Firms Adjust to Health-Care Law
• Starting Up: Solo Health Care
• Embrace Greener Commuting
• Tips for Better Returns on Training
• How to Tap Government Grants For Staff Training

SOMETIMES EXITINTERVIEWS don't yield enough information to help solve a retention problem. That's why Columbia MedCom Group, an 80-employee medical-communications firm, decided to instead ask employees why they stay.

Stay interviews require trust, so they may be a more effective tool for small firms where a human-resources manager may be a familiar co-worker, compared with larger companies where the appearance of HR can arouse alarm.

Columbia recently increased its hiring from graduate-school programs. It knew people in this age group tend to hop jobs. What it didn't know was what led some employees to choose to stay.

So last year, Helene Jones, director of human resources, began conducting informal interviews with employees who had been with the firm at least three years, excluding senior leadership.

Among her questions: Why did you come to work here? Why have you stayed? What would make you leave? What are your nonnegotiable issues? What about your managers? What would you change or improve?

Most revealing was the importance people placed on the firm's efforts to offer flexibility in scheduling and personal time off. Another key finding was the value placed on opportunities for internal promotion and employee development.

Columbia now highlights what it learned in interviews with potential hires. It creates individual development plans for employees. And it has added positions to better match the aptitudes and interests of some employees. Stay interviews are now conducted yearly.

Read more about Columbia's approach online, at WSJ.com/SmallBusinessLink.

Write to Laura.Lorber@wsj.com

Improving employee retention doesn't always mean spending a lot of money. But to be effective, low-cost efforts often require spending time and attention.
Communispace Corp., a 184-employee company in Watertown, Mass., has an annual turnover rate of about 10%. A fast-growing social-networking company, half of its employees are recent college graduates -- a group known for low job tenures. Diane Hessan, the firm's president and chief executive, recently talked with WSJ.com about getting employees to stay around.

WSJ.COM: Why do you think turnover is so low?

MS. HESSAN: We measure our employee-retention rate weekly. If we can get and keep happy clients, and get and keep happy employees, everything else works out.

WSJ.COM: What else do you measure?

MS. HESSAN: The percentage of new hires from employee referrals. If you worked at a company that was full of your friends, you'd be more likely to stay. Measuring referrals is also an [indicator of] whether somebody feels good enough about the company to want to bring in someone they respect.

WSJ.COM: What do you do if referrals drop?

MS. HESSAN: When you spend a lot of time thinking about [attracting and retaining] people...you're more tuned to how you can get better.

This spring, an employee who was relatively new said to me, "You know, we are working really hard, and I feel like we're not having any fun. Couldn't we do something, like maybe just have pizza for lunch?"

So, we bought pizza for everyone. ...Buying pizza doesn't mean you've fixed every problem. But I was amazed at what an impact it made. You would think that we're a really busy company, so everybody would grab the pizza and go back to their offices. They didn't. People stuck around, talked...and introduced themselves to new employees. All of a sudden, it wasn't just pizza.

The main thing was: Everybody knew the idea came from an employee.

Read more of the interview with Ms. Hessan online, at WSJ.com/SmallBusinessLink.

From Independent Street, The Wall Street Journal's blog about entrepreneurs.

Earlier this year, I debated the merits of team-building exercises on a TV show called "Your Business." The case study was a small Los Angeles restaurant that put staff through Navy Seal-type training exercises.

My bad-cop reaction, watching the bathing-suit clad crew, was: "Do all these people really want their colleagues to see them half-dressed?" I also wondered if the ordeal really improved the joint's $38 grilled king salmon. But the good cop in me saw how the day's comaraderie filtered back to the workplace.

There are pitfalls: Employees may resent pressure to participate in activities that make them physically uncomfortable or require personal time. And getting too creative can backfire.

Here's what some readers say about the merits of team-building exercises:

"Done the right way, team building can really work.... The business of getting lots of employees into a room, and getting them to work and learn together can be beneficial. I agree with learning that benefits the bottom line. Just make sure that your people are getting something good out of the exercise at the end of the day."

"Why not team build during the day job? Keep team stats along with individual performance reviews. A few simple linear equations can show which teams are the most productive."

To see more on this post, go to WSJ.com/SmallBusiness.