Customer Reviews

Love 'em or Lose 'em: Getting Good People to Stay (4th edition)

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LOVE 'EM or LOSE `EM contains 26 steps for improving employee retention organized in an A-Z fashion. Although written during the recent boom times when retention was a challenge, information presented is quite valuable now for managers who wish to stay employed. The suggestions will promote a happier and more productive workforce. Many of the concepts can be applied to all interpersonal relationships - between co-workers, family and friends.

The book's presentation is visually appealing - section headings and key passages are in a complimentary blue font. There are various other eye-catching features that make the book interesting and exciting. Each chapter starts with a short statement from a fictitious employee referred to as A.J some key excerpts follow

Introduction:
I quit.
I'm giving you my notice.
I found another opportunity.
I've accepted another offer.
Can we talk?

Chapter 1 Ask - What Keeps You
They never asked.

Chapter 2 Buck - It Stops Here
I think my manager actually could have kept me. But I don't think he ever saw it as his job.

Chapter 5 Enrich - Energize the Job
The job just became ho-hum. I mean, I was good at it, my customers were pleased, but I was just plain bored.

Chapter 13 Mentor - Be One
I wish I'd had someone to warn me about some of the political ins and outs that were never written in any policy manual.

Chapter 18 Reward - Provide Recognition
It wasn't about the money, really. Oh, sure, a bonus would have been nice when I brought that new client in or when I finished those specs ahead of schedule. But a "thank you-I noticed" would really have been appreciated.

Generously distributed throughout are "Alas" sections - short, as the authors state, "the-fish-that-got-away" stories that actually happened. There are numerous "Business Examples" - things that really worked in large and small organizations. As references to other parts of the book there are "Go To" Icons to augment the information being presented.

If you're wondering how effective your management skills are in retaining employees, go to Chapter 26 - Zenith and take the assessment of your "Retention Probability Index".

At the end of the book is a Quick Start Guide - you might want to go there first and get an overview of the entire book.

Employee retention as well as productivity is not just about the money and the other "hygiene" factors (work space, hours, etc.), it's about listening to and respecting others. In these difficult times, it's more important than ever.

This book is clearly for everyone.

Based on focus group research, the authors provide extensive guidelines for managers to retain employees. The authors present 26 specific actions managers can take, using a chapter to discuss each one. Each chapter contains a 'to do' list, brief illustrative stories, examples of retention work done by the authors' for clients, excerpts from an exit interview, as well as some linkages between chapters.

The book down-plays the role of money. This is okay to the extent that too many firms think money is the 'be all and end all' of retention. Money is not, but the danger is that too many firms lull themselves into thinking that since money is not the number one factor driving turnover according to surveys, they can cut corners with compensation ( often, however, with the exception of pay packages at executive levels-consider the implicit contradiction in that). Long-term, firms that pay below competitive rates reap what they sow...marginal organizational performance. In our consulting experience we find reward systems and retention are powerfully linked. The role of compensation can work in strange and mysterious ways-and sometimes not so mysterious. People are complex.

We wished that the authors gave a bit more attention to the economics of retaining people. They do make the point of paying fairly and competitively in chapter18, but the message is muted. But since this book is addressed to managers, and most managers have little-to-no meaningful influence on compensation decision-making (despite all the empowerment talk), the treatment of pay is understandable.

This is a super book that focuses on the many highly important non-cash elements of retaining people. In doing so, it succeeds admirably. In short, this is a neatly organized, clearly written, how-to book. By way of recommendation, we will use it as a resource in our own organization/management development consulting work. This book should be read by anyone who manages people. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, Co-Founding Partner, Stern & Associates, Editor of Stern's Management Review, Stern's SourceFinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Information and Resources, and Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder.

In working with literally thousands of managers a year, I find very few complaining about employee turn-over. Or its more positively stated corollary, retention of great people.

That doesn't mean that attrition of great associates isn't a problem---just one that most managers overlook or choose to ignore for its embarrassing implications.

What most managers do complain about (ad nauseum) can be summed up in two words: employee motivation. Which, of course, has everything to do with causing the very costly problem of human leakage from the company payroll (as well as most of the frustrations that deny managers restful nights and peaceful days).

And so, it is such a shame that the title of this superbly helpful guide is misleading. Or at least inadequate. Instead of "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em," it should declare, more appropriately: "Keep 'Em: Engaged, Motivated to Produce, and on YOUR Payroll!" Clunkier for sure. But much more accurate. If not compelling.

This book by veteran consultants Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans is a handy advisor for pressured, task-based (and, yes, even gruff) managers who are too consumed to always remember---but who know down deep---that people, the engaged and motivated variety, really do make the difference in producing great results.

POINTS OF DISTINCTION
Unlike so many other collections of myriad motivational techniques, this book is:

* Grounded in research (current and original by the authors, as well as contemporary and classic studies by others)

* Flush with very real world examples---many of them likely will seem hauntingly familiar and hit frighteningly close to home (perhaps striking dead-on in your very own solar plexus)

* Aimed squarely at managers who ordinarily reject, refute, and yeah-but all the trite touchy-feely, overly saccharine, and unrealistically techniquey advice about motivating people. (You know, the kind spewed by the legions of naive-to-clueless consultants who manage nothing more than to pen ridiculously over-idealized management books.)

* Packed with rich, diverse, immediately actionable tactics that are practical, low-or-no-cost, and doable. No matter how uninvolved or inept your own boss or HR department, you'll find lots and lots of choices and material from which even the most casual, or cynical, skimming reader can easily draw. (As the authors note in their Preface: "'Love 'Em or Lose 'Em' does not offer a single technique or a large, complex program for keeping good people. Instead, it provides 26 strategies, each of which includes dozens of small, easy-to-implement ideas." True enough.)

Unlike far too many "management cookbooks" (some unreasonably popular), this work distinguishes itself by helping a manager to:
* Assess his or her own management style---not against the standard of an imaginary "perfect leader" but rather in specific dimensions that truly affect employee performance; and
* Accept responsibility for affecting employees' engagement, productivity, and retention. (As the Gallup Organization and others have been harping on lately, it's the individual manager, not the CEO or mythical corporate culture, who really affects the day-to-day work of individual employees.)

This book by Kaye and Jordan-Evans encourages its readers to ask themselves important questions about their OWN needs and assumptions (critical to understanding why one does what one does). And it provides a remarkable treasure trove of questions that a manager can ask employees, in comfortable conversations, to gently unveil their personal interests, wants, and needs impacting their on-the-job motivation and performance. Moreover, it provides plenty of options for managers to deploy tactics that leverage those vital insights into productivity-changing actions.

PICKING NITS
A hidden gem in the book is its Quick-Start Guide. It provides a valuable overview of the book, and is itself full of practical tactics. But it is unnecessarily and inexplicably inconspicuous. Hidden really. Buried between the last chapter and the Notes and other end matter.

Likewise, a useful self-assessment that guides the reader to the themes most helpful to a specific reader resides in the LAST chapter.

Despite these curious editorial decisions, my advice is to buy two copies of this book. One for you and one for the least people-oriented boss you know. Then, read the book. Backwards and selectively. Begin with the Quick-Start Guide on page 243, and then take the "Retention Probability Index" assessment on pages 237 & 238.

Oh, be sure to take (with a deep breath and earnest commitment to brutal honesty) the Jerk Boss self-assessment on pages 91-93. To get full value from this uniquely helpful book, it's good to know what you're really up against.

-- Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute, [website]

Love 'Em or Lose 'Em is a wonderful resource for any manager looking to retain valuable talent. Because the book is organized into topic areas that span an array of pertinent retention issues, one can easily jump around to those topics that are most relevant to them. Each chapter contains constructive and concrete suggestions, along with insightful quotes from employees who have dealt with decisions to stay or leave an organization. Also, the many opportunities for self-assessment are extremely helpful. It would be impossible to walk away from this book without any new ideas for retaining employees that are vital to your organization. The authors have successfully translated a compendium of research into practical, how-to explanations of what motivates people to stay in a job and what managers can do to influence this outcome. This combination of knowledge and advice create an experience of worthwhile reading and exploration.

Love 'Em or Lose 'Em is one of those books you want to give to every manager, supervisor, executive who has ever let a talented employee walk out the door, in turn causing them thousands of dollars to replace. Dr. Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans have made this book full of easy to use activities and useful To-do lists that are critical tools for ANYONE who has employees that they would hate to lose. I found the book extremely easy to read, and the 26 chapters fun to go through. The book is designed so that you can take and apply one chapter (or retention strategy) at a time, instead of being overwhelmed by trying to apply them all at once. A lot of the strategies in the book are common sense, but I know that managers still don't apply them when an employee is about to walk out the door. I would hope that ALL managers, supervisors, executives, etc. would apply just ONE strategy. I think they would be amazed and surprised at the effectiveness this one attempt would have on changing the employee's mind to stay. I highly recommend this book for all organizations, and for all levels within the organization. It truly is the best book I have read on retention strategies, and the authors make the book so applicable to the challenges faced in today's tight labor market!

Kaye and Jordan-Evans have hit a real home run with this book. At a time when retention is the number one human resource problem facing many firms, they have come up with a comprehensive treatment of the problem--and one that people will enjoy reading. It is a perfect book to purchase in quantity to hand out to the managers in an organization. It is written squarely for managers, with helpful "to do's" and plenty of anecdotes that ring true. There is humor to keep the reader's interest and to sweeten the medicine, but the authors don't mince words when the truth about retention is at stake. This book will help you rethink the issue of retention and give you lots of tools to take action--and you'll like absorbing its lessons.

Times have certainly changed. A recent survey indicated only 1 in 100 new college hires can envision any circumstance where they will stay with a major company for 20+ years. At 53 I don't even look like the new employees father any more. I keep the Love ' Em or Lose' em book at hand, and when I occasionally revert to, "You kids are a bunch of whiners." I give my self a reading re-assignment and try to infuse some fun, participation, adventure, and challenge into our training.If retention is an issue I suggest you start with this book to understand the problem and consider remedies. I agree with the other 25 reviews. It's a useful book.

Star Bright, Star Flight

What more is there to say about retention? The facts are as familiar as they are stark. Barring a sudden financial cataclysm, the U.S. is rapidly approaching an era of full employment, likely to last through much of the next decade. At the same time, a drop in the birth rate a generation ago means there are fewer workers to go around; indeed, the pool of available 35- to 44-year-olds - the people usually selected for middle-manager and emerging-leader jobs - will plummet by 15 percent between now and the year 2015. Unswerving company loyalty, whether motivated by fealty or fear, has evaporated in the pressure cooker of 1980s downsizing and 1990s employee expectations. Whatever you call the competition for talent - war, race, prizefight, gymkhana - there's little question that good people will grow increasingly scarce and harder to keep as the next century takes hold.

Amid all the retention studies and doom-and-gloom prophecies, managers should remember three crucial dicta.

- It's not the money.

- It could be your fault.

- You can do something about it.

For many employers these assertions will be lost in a flurry of knee-jerk denials: they don't apply to my company; my employees are as loyal as St. Bernards; I'm perfect, so it's not my problem; it's the economy, stupid. But for those employers who keep their blinders off and their minds open, there's now an outstanding resource and vade mecum. Love 'Em or Lose 'Em is insightful, straightforward, clever, charming, everything you'd want in a companion. Kaye and Jordan-Evans have created a combination between a reference work and a course participant guide, and like a good training course, it's designed to maximize impact through multiple formats. The book is chock-a-block with case studies, to-do ideas, quotations from managers and employees, quizzes, and fictionalized examples. It even features "Alas stories," brief tales of what went wrong to make an employee leave. (There's a certain guilty pleasure in thumbing through to these first.)

"Make an employee leave" is the key phrase here. Although there are some people who are peripatetic or impossible to satisfy, Kaye and Jordan-Evans contend that most employees leave either because no one tried to keep them or because something or someone in the company made it too unpleasant to stay. Happy employees - those who have found opportunities, career growth, teamwork, enrichment, kicks, and more - don't jump ship even when someone waves a larger paycheck under their noses. And by taking inspiration from this book, managers can be sure they provide precisely the attractions their employees need to stay and succeed.

For readers accustomed to grave and earnest tomes, Love 'Em or Lose 'Em will seem too informal, too friendly, too approachable. And it's true that there are occasional recommendations that seem silly, repetitive, or a tad self-promotional. But for the most part the book is a genuine pleasure to read. What more is there to say about retention? Turn to Kaye and Jordan-Evans and find out.

Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans have written a clever, candid, thorough guidebook for managers who would like to keep good people in their employ. With no filler, and plenty of insightful stories, this well-organized book is divided into 26 chapters - each one named for a strategy that begins with a sequential letter of the alphabet. Illustrated with color graphics that carry the eye to sidebars and other informative tidbits, the book offers advice ranging from professional to personal. It makes plenty of sense. We [...] recommend this book to anyone who manages or supervises employees, and for employees themselves.

A lot of "updated/revised" business books don't always reflect changes in the marketplace accurately, but this new version really has practical real-world relevance. Much has changed in the world in the last year with the economy and 9/11 and it's had a major impact on all aspects of retention...the authors have really taken this into account. The original version was right on for "then"...this edition is totally appropriate for "now."