6 Critical Questions to Ask A High Performing Employee (infographics)

Employee Retention is a critically important role for Human Resources today. The market is struggling for talent and a company cannot afford to lose its high performing employees. However, it must nurture them and provide them with the right conditions to minimize the risk of them leaving. It must clearly demonstrate how it values its key people. And it must ask them six important questions from time to time to keep the risk of leaving under control. Or at least get some clear early warning.

We often have to ask whether an employee has all the tools they need to do their job. By the way, we should ask all employees, but for key employees, this is a very important question. They may decide to leave simply because they do not have the tools they need to do their job well.

We also need to ask if they are using all their skills and competencies. Often we lose a talented employee because we are not using their full potential. And over time, the employee will start to look around for a bigger challenge where they can show their full capabilities.

We also need to ask about possible innovations. The best usually know where the weaknesses in our processes are, but they don’t talk openly about them because they have learned to work around them. But when asked directly, they will usually say what could move the company forward.

High performance cannot be sustained unless the company invests in continuing education. Offering training to help maintain high performance is an important part of nurturing key employees. A company must not only benefit, it must also invest in high performance.

The best employees love it when others know that they are the best, so the company needs to ask what their recognition should look like. It needs to be visible, but it must not make others envious. It has to be a clever combination that gets the job done.

And finally - we have to ask ourselves as a company if their remuneration is fair. That is, whether it gives everyone an equal chance and whether they personally find it fair. Whether they feel they are being rewarded adequately for their performance compared to other people in the team.