The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention [Paperback]

Mark Murphy (Author), Andrea Burgio-Murphy (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1419623257 | ISBN-13: 978-1419623257 | Publication Date: January 17, 2006 | Edition: 1

A Leadership IQ study found that 47% of high performers are actively seeking other jobs while an additional 44% are passively looking. Every organization wants to retain their employees, especially their best employees. But most leaders are making mistakes. We studied more than 100,000 leaders to identify the Deadly Sins of Employee Retention. These are the five mistakes that can destroy the retention efforts of organizations and their leaders. This book will challenge some of the most entrenched and misguided beliefs about employee retention. We'll show you how to avoid the Deadly Sins of Employee Retention and teach you five cutting-edge strategies for keeping your best people. Individual leaders and entire organizations can transform their retention efforts immediately.

Product Details

• Paperback: 102 pages
• Publisher: BookSurge Publishing; 1 edition (January 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419623257
• ISBN-13: 978-1419623257
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mark Murphy is the founder and CEO of Leadership IQ, and he remains the driving influence behind the research and training arms of the organization.

Mark's groundbreaking research has been featured in Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Post and hundreds more periodicals. Mark has been a featured guest on CBS News, ABC's 20/20 and Fox Business News. Mark has lectured at the Harvard Business School, Yale University, the University of Rochester, the University of Florida and dozens of other academic arenas and organizations.

Mark is also a best-selling author. His book HARD Goals: The Secret to Getting From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be launched in 2010 and received widespread praise for his revolutionary rethinking of the goal-setting process. Mark's previous book is Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your People to Give It Their All and They'll Give You Even More, which hit #1 in the United States, China and India. Mark also authored The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention, and Generation Y and the New Rules of Management.

Among his many awards, Mark is a three-time nominee for Modern Healthcare's "Most Powerful People in Healthcare Award," joining a list of 300 luminaries including Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush. Only 15 consultants had ever been nominated to this list. He was also awarded the prestigious Healthcare Financial Management Association's "Helen Yerger Award for Best Research" for being the first person to discover the link between patient mortality rates and hospital finances. Some of his other well-known research studies include "Are SMART Goals Dumb?," "Why CEO's Get Fired," "Why New Hires Fail" and "Don't Expect Layoff Survivors to Be Grateful."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most exceptional book on employee retention, February 6, 2006

By 

Paul Woods (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention (Paperback)

This book is helping us win the war for talent. I'm CEO of a company with 3,000 employees and I make every one of our leaders read this book. In the first month of our leaders implementing the techniques in this book, we've seen a 60% reduction in our turnover rates. We've saved over $1 million in turnover costs by reading a book that costs $12.99. Truly amazing.

Their concept of "Shoves and Tugs" is absolutely brilliant and the most innovative thinking I've seen on the topic of employee retention. By distinguishing between the reasons why people leave and why they stay, we've uncovered the root-cause problems that were causing people to quit. And no employee survey we ever conducted got us even 5% of the information we uncovered with this simple "Shoves and Tugs" script.

And I'm so grateful that they give the exact script that every manager needs to use with their employees. We have many managers that don't have much experience with advanced employee retention efforts, and this book makes it so easy to implement.

They also give the exact process and exact script to use when someone quits but you don't want them to leave. Last week we used this script with 3 people who wanted to quit and we got every one of them to stay.

This is an exceptional book. It's an easy and entertaining read, and it's loaded with hands-on practical tools that leaders can implement immediately. It's also got the most innovative thinking I've ever seen on employee retention, and I've seen everything out there. Whether you're a CEO or a first-time supervisor, this book is a must-read.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just opinion. This represents credible research we can learn from., February 6, 2006

By 

D. Stuart "Researcher at Kudos" (Auckland NZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention (Paperback)

Too many business books are opinionated - and use loose magpie collections of evidence to support the writers' sexy headlines and simple main arguments.

Here, by contrast, Murphy and partner Burgio-Murphy work from the ground up, using a vast survey of 100,000 business leaders (mid-level up to senior) to build a picture of what employment and HR strategies help minimise the risk of a good employee moving on. (The people they interviewed were responsible for 20,000 hires during the survey period - and the success of these was tracked over time.) The authors highlight five top reasons why organisations have a demonstrably poor retention rate of new employees. In order the reasons for 'moving on' are;

- Coachability (26%): The ability to accept and implement feedback from bosses, colleagues, customers and others.

- Emotional Intelligence (23%): The ability to understand and manage one's own emotions, and accurately assess others' emotions.

- Motivation (17%): Sufficient drive to achieve one's full potential and excel in the job.

- Temperament (15%): Attitude and personality suited to the particular job and work environment.

- Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the job.

In hindsight, many interviewers look back and realise that they saw the signs back at the interview stage, but were perhaps distracted by other issues - the technical competencies, the need to fill the gap quickly - and this volume encourages managers and supervisors to help employees operate more functionally within the organisation. The inherent argument in this book is that employees are often "left to their own devices" once they're hired, and yet with some simple interventions, (a little shoving and tugging) in the form of coaching, mentoring and discussion in the above skills, the outcome can be happy for all parties.

Great advice, just 102 pages (you want longer?) and a negligible entry price. Recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful management tool, February 15, 2006

By 

Joanne Hovis - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Deadly Sins of Employee Retention (Paperback)

I found this book not only helpful, but also readable, useful and manageable -- in a way that most wordy, lengthy business books are not. It offers concrete, helpful, immediately-applicable advice for dealing with the biggest headache of management--keeping and motivating good employees. I plan to use it as a constant reference tool. Mark Murphy's work has been very helpful to me overall--he's a fresh-thinking guru on management issues.