How to keep them on board - retention!

How do you go about attracting, getting on board and keeping your employees?

The flash that comes to me is someone trying to catch a train while it is already at full speed - or someone trying to get out by the roof or hidding so that they can get out at the next stop. Isn't stressfull for a manager to not feel in control of his team?  If you were your employees; would you like to feel that everyone is waiting for you, trying to help you to get on the train and making your trip comfortable and fun? Compassion, team work and good conditions are the aspects that will make a difference for your team member. How can you put in place the right conditions?

We certainly can't stop the train but do have the power to offer the right conditions.

In one of my past experience, I unfortunately lost the most important key ingredient of my team! A Program Director working on the most critical program. He had everything we needed with a strong background in Consulting from Anderson with many years of experience. Already within 6 months in his role, he was able to put the project back on track (almost eyes closed for how good he was)! I believe that he did not realize how much value added he created, even if I was telling him all the time. Despite our efforts to keep our program Director, I also respected his decision and strongly believed that I could not make him against his will. I thought I needed to have in this position a leader with strong conviction that he/she could make things happen to achieve the program objectives. It turned out that the next Program Director never performed like the previous one. I was SO WRONG! Then I started to ask the real questions that I should have asked since the beggining:
- Why did the first Program Director was not engaged?
- Why did he get on the train and run away?
- Did I offer the right conditions for him to succeed?

I was finally getting somewhere! I touched the root cause of the problem! I took for granted that our conditions were right for the program director because the conditions were simply fitted for me at the time.

Very few people will stay in the wrong conditions for them even if the final destination is very promising. 

Would you?

Offering the right conditions

Understanding the success factors 
I took the time to meet with each one of my team members. It took couple of weeks but it was important for me to observe, listen and hear what team members had to say. You'll agree with me that they are the ones living with the challenges on a day to day basis. We have to recognize that they are are most precious contributors. They are the ones working very hard to achieve the set objectives. We owe them to ensure that they are as much confortable as possible and have a great stimulating environment. We need to pamper them. I always found that the easiest way to connect with them is to listen. I gathered 100's of ideas from them to make the Program Delivery more smoother and easier! 80% of the best ideas do come from your team. Can you imagine the impact on their work conditions if we make their life easier on a day to day? They are truly amazing!

Culture 
Second point or observation is that the program director was a consultant. In our company, the culture and policies unfortunately do not allow consultants to be decision makers. The assignment was meant to be temporary as we were hoping that this individual would accept a permanent job afterwhile. It was so hard for him to make his place, he was wrongly judged internally by many team members and yet, the clients loved him because he would deliver with the best possible result and client driven approach!!! The reality: he could not manage/control his own workpackages and was constantly challenging the competency center. Not a good condition for a result driven individual! I decided given the culture of the company to hire a permanent resource in this position after he left.

Accountability
When I got into this organization, the teams were organized in a weak matrix structure. There was one competency center and a separate PMO group to manage the delivery of the project. This created a lack of focus on the contract delivery objectives and created distorsion between the priorities on the day to day competency center activities and priorities of project. Since we are a project driven division and since each program is large enough to support dedicated teams, we decided to create teams by Programs where the Programs Managers could have the entire control on their program delivery. We moved from a weak matrix structure to a stong matrix. This was a big quick win and we could observe short term benefits.

Leadership
We ensured that the right leaders were put in the right position. We had so much talent in this team and needed to ensure that our key players could find a way to develop their expertise and be in a leading role (when suited). In the past, we had very few leaders and were appointed to roles that did not suit them perfectly. We promoted leaders within the teams. This created a natural healthy synergy between the functional teams and facilitated the team work.

What are the other conditions you need to put in place? What about team work? Collaboration?

Tips to get someone on board

1) Communicate the conditions you are offering, get feedback, adjust if necessary. Have an open discussion

2) Clearly communicate what is expected from him/her. I prepared a clear roles and responsibility description so that the new program director could relate to what is exactly expected from him. Since this is a large program, I also prepared a RACIE to clarify some specific areas of accountability, especially between the managers. A clear description of roles and resp is key. Make it clear when you are transferring progressively some roles and responsibilities throughout a 30 day period for example. Identify exactly what responsibility is being transferred when. For example, she will start to lead the steering committee week 4, the program committee week 3, the project reviews week 2...

2) Day 1 of her arrival, I had him meet with HR and my leaders. The senior directors booked time in their scehdule to welcome him, to make him meet the employees, to sit down and explain the specific business processes of the company, to get him started on his computer and logistics

3) Day 2, he spent the day with me as I was the one doing the transition with her. I provided him an overview of the project portfolio, of his contract context and history, of his team strength and weaknesses, of the clients team, of the governance structure, of the program strategy, plan and progress, of the program key issues and related action plan, of the program risks and current mitigation measures... I gave him key documents to read

4) Day 3, I pre-scheduled one on one meetings with his employees so that he could make a first contact with them.

5) Then he completely mapped my schedule as I would transfer the knowledge to him specifically as we go.

6) I asked him to produce a 30/60/90 day plan so that he would have the liberty to take over his new role completely with a sense of ownership

What else did you do in similar situations? Please share