In today’s highly competitive business environment, attracting and retaining top performers is essential if you want to achieve business success and growth. Top performing employees are part of the foundation of a successful organisation, and losing them can be detrimental to how your business is perceived by current and potential team members.
Understanding what motivates top performers
Before considering strategies for keeping top performers happy and motivated, it is important to understand what a top performing employee is. These individuals consistently exceed expectations, achieve excellent results, and demonstrate exceptional skills, knowledge and abilities. They are also highly motivated, passionate about their work and invested in the success of their employer.
Understanding what motivates and engages such employees involves considering what drives them to thrive in their roles. Some key motivating factors include rewards and recognition, purpose and meaning and growth opportunities. For example, offering competitive benefits packages, providing opportunities for career advancement, and recognising employees for their achievements can help keep top performers engaged and motivated.
Building a culture of engagement
Creating a culture which supports engagement is essential for keeping top performers happy and motivated. An engaged culture means ensuring that employees feel valued, empowered and supported. This is beneficial for businesses because statistics show that organisations with high engagement rates are over 20% more profitable than those with low engagement. Employers who communicate clearly and regularly with their team and value their input are far more likely to retain top performers than those displaying weak leadership. A strong leader is likely to motivate top performers to continue to work hard by displaying a positive attitude themselves.
Top performers need to be assigned interesting and challenging tasks to keep them focused and driven. In addition, a stagnant and uninspiring work environment can drain your talented employees and prevent productivity.
Rewarding and recognising top performers
Rewarding and recognising top performers’ efforts is crucial when aiming to keep them motivated and happy in the workplace. Employees who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to work for their employer for a longer period of time, potentially even referring other top performers they know to work for the business. This is particularly important with research showing that 52% of employees suffer from burnout at some stage of their careers.
Ways of rewarding top performers include offering bonuses if possible, providing opportunities for public recognition, and offering other benefits such as flexible working schedules or additional time off. These practices can help motivate top performers by providing them with tangible incentives and demonstrating how their contributions to the business are valued.
Encouraging career development
High performing employees are driven and goal oriented. Due to this, employers should provide them with constructive feedback and insights into how to reach their goals. This will ensure that they are constantly working towards an outcome, fulfilling their desire for improvement and purpose.
Another effective career development strategy is to provide training opportunities for talented employees who wish to grow their skillset and continue to learn about their current roles. This will encourage growth that not only benefits the individual, but also enhances overall business productivity.
Getting ahead of the competition
By considering and constantly reevaluating how to keep top performers happy and motivated, you can get ahead of the competition by attracting and retaining top talent, improving overall productivity and profitability and building a strong reputation as a considerate employer.