Retain & Gain: The Cost of Employee Turnover Ames IA

Companies that build and maintain a superior workforce will have a long-term competitive advantage in their marketplaces. Here are some strategies for doing just that.

By Mark J. Claypool
12/11/2009

Over a year ago, after sending out an e-newsletter with an article I wrote listing the words managers typically use when they criticize employees, I was taken to task by a top manager of a large multi-shop operator (MSO). The premise of my article was that you’re going to get further with employees when you carefully choose your words, but the MSO manager vehemently disagreed. He said he and his organization ruled by fear and intimidation and it worked just fine. But I knew from visiting that shop that fear and intimidation showed on the employees’ faces. You could sense it in their lack of enthusiasm. Most importantly, it showed in the organization’s high turnover rate.

In my article, I reasoned that if you point out positives first and then deliver the criticism, and follow that up with another positive (referred to by social psychologists as the “sandwich technique”), you’re more likely to see the change you desire.

Numerous psychological studies have proven that delivering criticism in this manner will make the recipient of that criticism less likely to take it as a personal attack. Rather, he or she will consider it an attempt to help him or her improve, and he or she will listen rather than be defensive.
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