Rethinking Retention in Good Times and Bad: Breakthrough Ideas for Keeping Your Best Workers
Article Type: Recommended reading From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 9, Issue 5
Richard P. FinneganNicholas Brealey PublishingISBN: 978-0-89106-238-7
The author, Richard Finnegan, is an expert in employee retention. He is president of Finnegan Mackenzie, the retention firm, he set up the Retention Institute and he has successfully worked with clients in a wide range of industries and geographies on employee retention solutions. He was also once a HR director, and it was then that he saw the need for a retention model, giving HR practitioners a research-based process for employee retention.
His subsequent research, combined with his extensive experience in this area,are the key inputs into this book, which gives HR practitioners a practical,realistic and results-driven way of approaching retention. He puts forward the three principles that all retention efforts should reflect, followed by the seven strategies for retention success – backed up with research-based tactics and real examples of how organizations have successfully applied them.
This book urges people to go beyond simply tweaking retention based programs,such as employee appreciation events, newsletters or new rewards and benefits,to taking a deep-rooted approach to implementing a process that addresses retention on many levels. At the heart of the model is the supervisor, a role that is vital in building relationships with employees and impacting on whether they stay or go. As such, supervisors should be accountable for achieving retention goals and the book includes advice and examples of best practice in developing supervisors’ skills in this area.
This is just one of the seven strategies Mackenzie puts forward and the practical and implementable manner in which he addresses the topic, in addition to his jargon-free approach, makes this book a highly accessible read for anyone interested in retention from a management and strategic perspective – HR and non-HR experts alike.
Sara NolanEditor, Strategic HR Review
