Happy New Year! Employee Retention Tips from

Con­grat­u­la­tions! You have a puppy! I have arrived in your home safe and sound, a soft, cud­dly gift of love that will keep giv­ing… and giv­ing… and giv­ing… But in order for me to give to you suc­cess­fully and pro­vide you with the kind of love you need, there are things you need to give me first. If I was your new employee and you were a Cus­tomer Expe­ri­ence Man­ager, we could work together under the same terms. Here are some tips from me to you, to help you launch into 2014 with suc­cess, enthu­si­asm and opti­mism to encour­age employee reten­tion:

1) Do your research!
Am I the right type of dog breed for your home? Will I get along with your other pets and kids in the house? Am I capa­ble of stay­ing out­doors all day and being alone or do I need a pal and lots of atten­tion? Same goes for your employ­ees: are they capa­ble of lots of cus­tomer inter­ac­tion? Do they have an entre­pre­neur­ial spirit to take own­er­ship of their posi­tion and make it fit to their goals and with their skills for a suc­cess­ful part­ner­ship? (Big words, I know! I am smart—you just have to know me.

2) Train me!
I can’t learn the basics of your house rules with­out proper train­ing. Con­sis­tency will help. Rein­force­ment is key.

3) Nur­ture me!
I will learn your rules if you pro­vide them with respect, kind­ness and encour­age­ment. If you give demands with neg­a­tiv­ity, I will not know what behav­ior can earn me rewards. If you pro­vide me with incen­tives to do the right thing, I will very eas­ily be moti­vated to con­tinue that behav­ior!

4) Feed me!
I am hun­gry and am capa­ble of grow­ing fast – you just need to feed me proper nutri­tion so I can remain the loyal com­pan­ion you want me to be. And if I were your new employee, if you “feed me” with infor­ma­tion, com­pany com­mu­ni­ca­tions, cus­tomer insight and more, I will learn and grow.

5) Lis­ten to me!
If you give me a chance to show you, I can let you in on what I like, what makes me happy, and what makes me tick to make you happy. If you have one-on-ones with your employ­ees on a con­sis­tent basis, they will be com­fort­able to talk to you and develop a part­ner­ship so you can both be suc­cess­ful in your roles.

6) Mon­i­tor my behav­ior!
Some­times I for­get… I am young and play­ful and fun but if I stray from the house rules and you don’t notice, I might get away with that behav­ior if no one is notic­ing! I might just keep that up! Just like me, you need to keep your eye on your new employ­ees. They may have old habits that weren’t noticed from jobs prior that need dis­ci­pline or skills they haven’t used that could require sharpening.

7) Give me a warm place to sleep!
If I have a warm, cozy envi­ron­ment to sleep, I will wake up rested and ready to play. Your employ­ees need a healthy work envi­ron­ment, too, with the right tech­nol­ogy to com­plete their work. Chaos and dis­or­der, dis­or­ga­ni­za­tion and slop­pi­ness will only con­tribute to bad reac­tion, behav­ior and attitude.

So to wrap up… Take care of me. Feed me. Watch over me. And I will keep wag­ging my tail! I will respect you! And I will thank you, in my many spe­cial ways, for all that you do for me.