Employee Retention: Moving Up the Employee Relationship Chain

Excerpt from RIDING THE TIGER: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times by Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen, published by ASTD Press, May 2010


Employee Retention: Moving Up the Employee Relationship Chain
by Ed Cohen and Arunav Sinha

We believe moving up the “relationship chain” is critical for organizations. A long-lasting relationship that converts to strong retention is the desired results for companies that want to sustain themselves through good times and bad.

We define the employee relationship chain as:

Stage 1: Share of Opportunity - Contract
Stage 2: Share of Mind - Partnership
Stage 3: Share of Heart - Relationship

These stages have been studied and utilized extensively in the world of marketing and branding. We believe it adds equal if not greater value to the world of employee retention.

Stage 1: Share of Opportunity - Contract

When a company makes an offer that is accepted by a future employee, many call it entering a relationship. We beg to differ. It is a mere contract at this point in time, and not a relationship by any measure. What you have just won is ‘share of the opportunity’ for the company and the employee. Your employee has entrusted the company with providing meaningful work in a secure environment. There is a degree of skepticism so employee orientation is conducted to assist with the transition. Every now and then discussion will be around fit, task and measures for success. The focus is on adherence.

The vocabulary of the employee also gives you an indication as to the stage in which you are. Refer to graph, if you are in Opportunity-Contract stage, customer will simply tell say – “Tell me what to do. Tell me how I am going to be measured.”

Stage 2: Share of Mind - Partnership

In this stage, the employee has experienced consistency and decided there is a fit. This stage is achieved only if you have engagement where the company delivers what is promised especially in the way of meaningful work, compensation, and measurement. You have employee’s share of mind where his/her skepticism turns to confidence. At that time s/he starts becoming engaged in areas beyond the scope of the specific work assignments. They may join task teams or participate in employee forums and event. The focus at this stage is on the outcome; with less emphasis on adherence (although no less importance as confidence can be lost faster than gained).

The stage will also witness change in customer vocabulary where “Tell me what to do” will make way for “Let’s explore ways to accomplish this” and “Tell me how I am going to be measured” will make way for “Help me continue to grow my career.”

Stage 3: Share of Heart - Relationship

This is the most desirable state of the employee relationship chain. The employee now views the organization and its leaders as trusted advisors. Now that the company has a share of his/her heart, both are gaining the maximum value and the employee becomes a true brand ambassador for the organization. Employees share and embrace the organization’s vision, core values and direction for the future. The focus on this stage will not be so much about performing but on transformative opportunities and deep sustained impact (still the previous two stages cannot be forgotten as stages are cumulative). It is in this stage where if the employee is uncertain about certain aspect of the business, s/he will trust the company to provide the missing pieces. In this stage everyone has the opportunity to co-create value. At this stage the vocabulary of the employee will be what truly is reflective of a long term, sustainable relationship – “We can do this. Let’s build a plan for the future.”

Why all this effort? Why are having employees move up the relationship chain beneficial to the organization? In our view, organizations could witness systematic geometric progression in retention of top performers by moving up the relationship chain. It means if the initial tenure in the Share of Opportunity – Contact stage was ‘X’, the second stage could result in ‘2X’ tenure and the third stage could result in ‘4X’ tenure.