It’s easy to become complacent when you’ve got good people. They’re self-motivated, driven to achieve and you don’t have to keep telling them what to do. They’re your ideal employee. But there’s the danger. You can easily assume that everything is going well.

And then it happens they tell you they’ve been offered another job and immediately you’re on the back foot. With strong growth in employment especially in Victoria and employee engagement the key to retention you need to be aware of your key people and how to keep them.

Here are 5 things to avoid:

Lack of feedback. It’s wrong to assume good people know that they’re doing well and they are valued. It needs to be communicated. Don’t wait until the annual performance review to give this feedback. Make a regular time at least once a month to sit down and discuss with them how they are going. And make it a two-way conversation. What you learn from them will be valuable in understanding what motivates them.

Not sharing the big picture. You may think this is not important but good people need to know where you are going with your business. This enables them to be pro-active, to be able to think ahead on your behalf and to take the initiative in helping you foresee roadblocks. Good people are motivated by purpose and vision. They want to know how their job contributes to the big picture and what they can do to make a difference.

Giving all the difficult jobs. It easy to pass all the difficult jobs to the high achievers because they will get them done. Good people will also put their hands up when help is needed. But are they the right ones for the task? Rather than give them the difficult jobs that no one else wants, give them the challenging ones, the jobs that will make a difference to the future of the business. This will motivate them and you get the rewards.

Lack of development. They’re pretty self-sufficient and appear to have all the skills they need to do the job but don’t be fooled by this. Good people have got that way because of their commitment to learning and they thrive on challenge. Talk to them about their future goals and aspirations and think about ways to develop them. Consider expanding their role, providing external mentoring or coaching or short courses they can attend. All of which should be documented in a Development Plan.

Not rewarding fairly. Chances are your good people will be making a better contribution to your business than others. They will also be taking on more responsibility and increasing their skills and knowledge to perform better. But has your reward structure kept pace with their growth? While they may not be looking around, good people are aware of their worth and what the market is offering. Regularly check market rates to ensure that you are on par and consider bonuses and rewards based on achievement to add further incentive.

Wrapping it up, keeping good people is really all about good management. People leave their managers, not the business and it costs a lot to hire good people. But it is more costly if you lose them. Invest time and effort into employee retention especially for your good people and you will reap the benefits in the long term.