Between national news’ U.S. labor statistics and nonstop national business articles on the importance of a company’s retention rate, who has a Golden Ticket to make them want to work in your Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory? There are so many “how to keep top performers” suggestions in the mix right now; read in its entirety my drone perspective on the topic in my most recent Forbes feature business article at https://bit.ly/36sXjjl

In What CEOs Can Do to Focus Attention on Retention, I cover what is on everyone’s minds.

Just as retaining customers is cheaper than obtaining new ones, the same principle applies to employees. Anything you must invest in or pay to keep your employees will be more reasonable than what you will have to do to attract new employees.

Here are a few ideas to ‘show me the money’ creatively:
• An initial signing bonus for attracting talent is a given today.
• Offer retention bonuses that accrue three months, six months, a year, three years and so on, with amounts getting progressively higher as employees stay longer and continue to meet performance criteria.
• For executive team members, offering phantom stock is a motivating move. According to Brian O’Connell, “phantom stocks are a form of employee compensation that gives employees access to stock ownership without owning the stock.” It helps keep key employees on board and contributes to productivity.
• Employee ownership is also a long-term idea that creates retention, loyalty, equity and opportunity. According to San Diego Workforce Partnership, employees like the idea of working at employee-owned companies — 72% say they prefer it — and 40% of customers say they are more likely to buy from a company that employees own. In addition, workers can build wealth by sharing in the profits generated by their work.

Let Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs serve as a checklist for your progress.
In closing, I suggest using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a checklist for generating new ideas to encourage retention and employee satisfaction. For example, once the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are taken care of through a fair and equitable paycheck, an employer can find ways to address employees’ self-esteem, cognitive, aesthetic and self-actualization needs to increase retention.