Rating: 
Summary: This book provides a direct approach to employee retention
Review: Excellent book, that can be easily implimented to assist in employee retention. After years of recruitment experience, I found myself saying yes, to so many of the points brought out in this very concise, easy to read book. If more employers could impliment these simple principles the quality of work would be improved for so many.The need to be appreciated and acknowledged for one's efforts and contribution are overlooked in the workplace. Books like this provide exceptional tools that assist employers in increasing productivity, morale and retention. I think it should be a must read for all that manage people.
Rating: 
Summary: I've always wondered what might change the workplace.
Review: For over two decades I've wondered (especially as a consultant to dozens of organizations) --- what will change them into kinder, gentler places to be? The economy has answered the question. Only the kinder, gentler workplaces and the leaders who manage at all levels in those workplaces will ultimately thrive and survive in our emerging economy.Why? Because we are facing a shortage of people like one we've never seen before. A shortage of brilliant,educated minds and dedicated workers. The race is on to somehow recruit and then hang on to the best and the brightest -- at all levels in all kinds of organizations. This reality inspired the writing of our book, "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em". Beverly Kaye, my co-author and I decided to tell it like we've seen it ---- and lived it. Managers truly have the greatest power and influence to hang on to their talent. The problem is, many of them don't know that (or don't believe it). Others need a reminder or a "tune-up" or sorts. So --- we've provided that -- in a user-friendly format of strategies, listed A to Z. We hope you will enjoy it and learn from it. If you manage even one person, we hope you'll try a strategy or two --- see what happens, and then try another. If you're an employee --- check out how your boss is doing. Learn what you can and should expect from the new millenium manager! And managers --- remember to Love 'Em --- care about your employees and demonstrate that caring ---- and you'll be much more likely to keep those talented people on your team and producing for you. Best of luck ---
Rating:
Summary: A straightforward, easy cure for stress from staff turnover
Review: Here it is - everything you need to know about maintaining an environment where your star staff want to come back to work every morning! And best of all, it DOESN'T depend on money! It's all in this book, and in a format and style to let you easily read and digest it all during your average business trip. The authors present actions so beneficial and yet so deceptively simple - their recommendations are grounded in the reality of their exhaustive research on what makes people stay with an organization. With continuing unbelievable low levels of unemployment and every manager praying he or she doesn't loose the ones they love, the authors' timing is perfect!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book In People Relationship at the Workplace
Review: I bought this book and read about two years ago. I revisited it recently as a refresher in people skills. Fantastic book with some great ideas. The best thing about this book is its got topics in alphabetical order. More importantly, reading the book is not heavy. It is well sprinkled with enlightening examples and illustrations, it makes reading the book plain sailing! It has a little for everyone & can even be read by non-human resources practitioners - well worth a read by anyone! If you are a new people leader - get a copy!
Rating:
Summary: Love 'Em or Lose 'Em keeps it simple, pithy and fun to read.
Review: I loved this book. I've worked at more than 35 jobs and while reading Kaye's and Jordan Evans' compilation of great ideas, kept thinking: Clueless companies and corporations, listen up! Anyone who works for a living should read Love 'Em or Lose 'Em.
Rating:
Summary: As an X'er, this book has it right!
Review: I picked up this book to learn more about how to motivate and retain the good people working for me in a very stressful environment. Not only did I pick up a lot of useful information that I could employ, I was able to relate to much of the information and identify for myself what kind of an employer I wanted to work with. Beyond work, I picked up some good information that is helpful in my friendships and relationships with others my age (29) in terms of understanding what they need from me in those personal relationships. This is a great book that I would recommend to anyone dealing with X'ers. It is great as a management tool as well as in personal life.
Rating:
Summary: As an X'er, this book has it right!
Review: I picked up this book to learn more about how to motivate and retain the good people working for me in a very stressful environment. Not only did I pick up a lot of useful information that I could employ, I was able to relate to much of the information and identify for myself what kind of an employer I wanted to work with. Beyond work, I picked up some good information that is helpful in my friendships and relationships with others my age (29) in terms of understanding what they need from me in those personal relationships. This is a great book that I would recommend to anyone dealing with X'ers. It is great as a management tool as well as in personal life.
Rating:
Summary: A down to earth retention guide for all mangers.
Review: I've been consulting with Fortune 500 companies for about 25years. All that time I've specialized in one niche....the niche ofcareer development. I have always believed that the career issue is close to the heart of every employee who joins any organization at any level. I always believed that American corporations have never given sufficient time and attention to this area. I've devoted my own career to raising the bar for organizations and convincing them to take this seriously. My two previous books, Up Is Not the Only Way and Designing Career Development Systems are directed at the HR professional. They both serve as instruction guides for implementing systemic career development. I wanted this book to be different, yet to carry part of that same message. My co-author and I wrote this book for anyone who has hired talent and wants that talent to stay! If you've been a manager for any amount of time, and you care about people, none of the strategies suggested in this book will be new to you. Yet, no matter how well we know them, we just don't seem to DO them. So, Sharon and I tried to point out what our research and our guts have told us all along: Employees want to be noticed, recognized, challenged. They want to learn. They want to know that their managers care - about their careers, about them as people. My co author, Sharon Jordan-Evans, and I literally wrote this book twice before we got the idea of reorganizing it around the alphabet. The first two times it was too wordy, to academic, two stuffy. We knew we wanted to be clear and straight to the point. We know that the managers we've worked with over the years have very little time. The book presents our findings according to letters of the alphabet. I can remember the day we tried out the alphabet as an organizer. We were working in a hotel room and we literally re-wallpapered the room with the alphabet and all the issues that we thought would fit with a particular letter At the end of the day, we looked at each other and said..."by George, we've got it." The chapter topics changed quite a bit as we developed the book, but the A-Z format served us well and kept us "on point." To this day, as we lecture and present workshops on the book, the alphabet seems to work for readers and audience members as well. Not a day goes by that we both don't code our new learnings into these ABC's. We'd love to hear the "retention" or "Alas" stories (star employees who left) that you've uncovered or discovered for any of the 26 letters! We'd love great quotes that speak to the topics as well.
Rating:
Summary: Engage, Motivate, Retain
Review: 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]
Rating:
Summary: Best Retention Resource I've Read
Review: Kaye and Jordan-Evans have done an incredible job of preparing a concise, readable, enjoyable book about retaining your star employees. It contains anecdotes, recommendations, To Do lists to help organize ideas, brainstorm lists, and "What If" stories which illustrate what could have been done to keep someone who ultimately left. This book provides concrete, practicable suggestions on how to keep your best talent and why the talent that leaves does leave. Another reviewer complained that this bookw as self-referencing. I don't find that a problem at all. The worrisome modern trend in referencing everything you can find does nothing but turn scholarly work into a glorified literature review. Authors like Kaye and Jordan-Evans have something worthwhile to say and there is no reason to belittle them for not referencing everyone else. They do, however, provide a number of useful references at the appropriate points.
| 
