How-To Retain Great People
Marc Andreessen provides some great advice and insights into retaining great people. The initial focus of his post is on big companies, but he speaks in detail about startups as well, particularly those that launched big, grew fast and have since plateaued.
Marc writes, “Companies that have a retention problem usually have a winning problem. Or rather, a ‘not winning’ problem.”
Straightforward enough. A company that’s no longer succeeding as well as it was before will cause concern amongst employees. The best will shift their attention elsewhere, looking for big growth potential and patterns. They want to play for winners.
“All the raises, perks, and HR-sponsored ‘company values’ drafting sessions in the world won’t help you retain great people if you’re not winning — not even the $6,000 heated Japanese toilets in all the restrooms, the $30,000 Olympic lap pool out back, and the free $4 bottles of organic orange juice in all the snack rooms.”
Part of the importance in retaining great people is being able to attract other great people. It’s not only about keeping who you have, but adding to the team in a positive way. Marc calls these people “magnets”:
If you bear down and focus on retaining the magnets, retaining everyone else … will be much easier.
Extending that point, keeping the magnets gives you a better chance of attracting other top talent, other magnets. And that’s how you build a successful organization.
Marc also makes two other points that I find very important when thinking about recruiting:
- For really critical jobs, go out and recruit the right person yourself.
In a large company this is tough. The CEO has layers of people below her to do recruiting. But in startups and smaller organizations the CEO and Founders need to be on the ground. They should be the best at telling the company’s story, which leads to…
- Stories don’t change by themselves. Change the story.
I’m taking this somewhat out of context, but the key for me is that companies need to do a better job of telling their stories. And this starts with the Founders and needs to go through the entire organization. What makes your company unique? What is your company passionate about? What is your company doing? A company’s story (which is a reflection of each person’s story within the organization) is critical for spreading the “good word”, for having a strong employer brand, and attracting great people.
I would add to this that it is necessary to give work to an employee that matches their skill strength — and enough of it.
Too often, companies will move everyone into different positions as a result of reorganizations — and right out of the work that was their skill strength. Not only does this demotivate the employee, it also drives the overall quality of the work in the company down.
Rampant reorganization will drive good people away because they can’t engage in the work long enough for it to make a difference.