Combining strategic planning with employee retention

I believe in strategic planning, but I also believe on planning to succeed and to keep employees. When I think about strategic planning, I always think about Six Sigma, not because I especially enjoy Six Sigma statistics while discussing Z scores or T scores. I appreciate the practical order and common sense that Six Sigma uses to analyze organizational processes.

Just think about a definition right out of the book The Six Sigma Way from P.S. Pande, “A comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business process.

Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of customer needs, disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving, and reinventing business processes,”.

Considering this definition of Six Sigma, it might be a good idea to consider helping employees plan for their own retention. After all, we plan for vacations, moving our residence, for changing our job, then why shouldn’t an organization specifically design a strategic plan to keep employees rather than loose them? Isn’t the idea to achieve, sustain, and maximize business processes, then what is more specifically important to the bottom line, than keeping employees?

The goal is to have the employee discuss and sign off on a personal action plan to find a way to ensure their future with your company. After you uncover their personal goals, then you might want to ask the following questions from Kay and Jordan-Evan’s book Love’ Em or Lose’ Em,

• “What skills would you need to gain to help you achieve your goals?
• What abilities do you already possess that would help you toward any of your targets?
• What training could we make available to fill the gaps you see and need to get where you want to go with our organizations?
• What kinds of on-the-job development could help you move closer to several of your options?”.

These are the employees’ plans. Remember, your job is to strategically plan to let your employee build their own personal success plan by letting them identify the skills, development opportunities, and knowledge areas required to get where they need to go. Your job is not to build their plans for them, but to help them while supporting them.

David Pollitt is a well-known author in leadership and educational circles. His articles and his books can be viewed on smashwords.com. He is also known for his Christian Science fiction and secular science fiction books.