PrintSome of my key employees are being poached by a competitor. Should I make counteroffers to them or focus on recruiting and rebuilding teams?
You've described a difficult situation. Before you decide which tactic to take, I suggest that you:
- Look at available salary and benefits data for the types of positions experiencing high turnover. How do your salaries compare with other companies in your industry and area? Be sure to consider the impact any salary adjustments might have on other staff salaries as well as your company's bottom line.
- Conduct exit interviews with the departing employees and listen for reasons other than salary. Review the information from the exit interviews and set a plan for improvements.
- Be careful about using salary increases as a primary retention strategy. It can quickly become an employee's strategy to threaten to leave unless they receive a pay hike. This can subsequently become ingrained in your company's culture. You might want to look into some type of employee ownership or stock option plan to improve employee retention and loyalty. Recruiting and rebuilding teams might also have to figure into your strategy.
Practice preventative management so the issues at hand don't become cyclical. Research has shown that salary is an important but not singular element of a rewarding work environment. Developing a multidimensional approach to rewards might give you the strongest competitive edge.
