clifp
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2006
- Messages
- 7,733
Well, to give them a little credit, 4 years after my 20th anniversary, they did give me a very nice gold watch...cost more than my son's new Honda Fit. Buuuttttt, it was 4 years late. Retention has become a big buzzword at our megacorp over the past few months. Problem is just that...it is a buzzword, a "program", flavor of the day type of thing.
From more than 10 years back, I decided that loyalty and retention should be more a part of the fiber of our business. With as many employees under my responsibility as I have, I obviously cannot do something personally for all of them, but as I travel around my region, I do take a few minutes to talk to the long term loyal employees that we have, thank them for their service, shake their hands, etc. Sometimes if my visit falls on the anniversary date, we'll have a big "to-do" right in the office, or a dinner for a more senior employee. In my case, I recognize that at times my boss (the CEO) may not even have a clue how long I've been around....since I have had 5 of them in the last 8 years (hard to talk about retention when ya can't hold on to your CEO), and since I am employed by our US entity, assigned to Japan, and reporting to a boss in Europe. I am going to let my boss know, however, that if he really wants to focus on retention, that the heartfelt thanks of each manager should be dispensed with a handshake, a meeting, a phone call...whatever, before the "trinket company" sends you an automated email congratulating you on your longevity.
R
This is good Dilbert material, but if you work for the CEO, you are the pointy hair boss.
For many people I think the symbolic gesture matters, although there are plenty of folks who say just give me the money. I vaguely remember hearing about a similar problem when the trinket company started sending emails to employees. The fix was to have the automated 5, 10 etc anniversary notices sent to both HR and the employees boss (that way if either were doing their job the employee got recognition.)
On the positive side, I remember being awfully impressed as a peon that #3 guy at Intel sent me a congratulations note after I finished my nighttime MBA.