Top Performing Employees: 6 Strategies to Help Keep Them

Every business leader knows top-performing employees are treasures, and you must do everything you can to keep them. These superstars often do more than just their jobs—they bring new ideas, motivate others to work harder, and help the company generate more money. However, for many top performers, it takes more than just extra pay to keep them around; they want to feel valued and like part of something bigger. In this article, we’ll dive into how you can make your company a place where top performers want to stay and grow.

Building a Great Place to Work

Building a company is like building a sports team. You want a team full of good players, but to do so, you need to attract them, keep them, and ensure they remain happy. For this, company culture is key! To be the championship team, your company needs to become a place where everyone wants to work, everyone talks about, and a place where employees feel valued. To achieve this, you must foster a company culture where everyone feels like part of the team, works well together, and feels comfortable sharing their ideas. This is the type of atmosphere that not only retains top performers but attracts them as well.

Offering Praise and Perks

All employees, including top performers, appreciate positive feedback. And this means doing more than just saying, “Great Job,” you should actually show it too. One way of doing this might be by acknowledging an employee’s exceptional work in a business meeting or sending the entire team an email highlighting the person’s achievement. You could even go a step further by offering perks like gift cards to their favorite store or maybe an extra day off. No matter what you choose, let the employee know you see them and their hard work is appreciated.

Pay, Bonuses, and Incentives That Make People Stay

Of course, money is always great, but for some top performers, it’s not everything. Don’t just pay them a good salary. Give them a great incentive package as well! Health benefits, retirement plans, performance bonuses, commissions, goal-based raises, and even extra vacation days are just a few incentives you can offer. If you are looking to retain and attract top talent, well-structured incentive packages work exceptionally well.

For more on incentives, check out our FREE download: Employee Incentives – Categories and Types, which breaks down the different categories and types of incentives.

Help Your Top Performing Employees Grow

Those who excel are also the type of people who like to grow and constantly get better. Many top performers love the opportunity to learn new skills and advance within the company. Because of this, they should be provided access to workshops, courses, and mentors. Giving top performers access to these items will make them better and even more valuable to the company.

Work and Life Balance

Remember, even your hardest workers need work-life balance and time to relax. So show them you care. Some ways of doing this might be by letting them work from home a few days a week, or if someone is a morning person, allow them to start their day earlier and finish earlier. Basically, allow them to have flexible hours. For others who might have kids, let them adjust their schedule to manage school pickups. Any of these options can make a big difference in their life.

Feeling Valued and Heard

Do you want to retain your top performers? Then, you need to make sure they feel valued and heard. Listen to what they have to say and listen to their ideas and concerns. Chances are they have some valuable insight or ideas to share. If you want them to feel valued, bring them in occasionally to be part of the decision-making process. Everybody likes to be part of the team and contribute to the company’s success.

If you want to retain your top performers, focus on the items mentioned above because when they see how much you value and support them, they will be more excited than ever to stick around and help your business grow.