Keeping people associated with your organization is never an accident unless you are the sole large employer in an isolated geographic territory. Barring the only-game-in-town syndrome, if you are successful at keeping people, you are doing something right. By the same token, if you want to improve retention, there are measures you can take to do so.

Satisfaction, Not Happiness

When you ask many people what they want from life, they answer happiness — but that's fuzzy bunk. No one can be happy all the time, and happiness is not some vague but pleasant cloud. When you are happy, it tends to be for a reason. Perhaps you recently achieved a goal or overcame a personal barrier. It could be that you're approaching the world with a positive attitude or you see — at least for a moment — that things can be better than you often perceive them to be. People say they want happiness the way businesses say they want profits, and yet both are results, not causes. To increase retention, you need to find out what causes happiness in your team members and then work toward making them happy.

It's important to go back to the basics of feeling motivated and connected with what you are doing. Hopefully you've had that feeling in your life. If so, you know that the result isn't traipsing about in delirium. Instead, there is a satisfaction in what you are doing because you are doing it in a way that is connected to what you find important. That's what your team members want, and that's what any program designed for retention needs to deliver.

Stupid Retention

Some organizations come up with some interesting ideas for how to improve retention:

• Recipe exchange

• Weekly positive outlook activities

• Come-in-costume days

• Giving employees toys when things are tense

• Organization sports leagues

These programs bear some resemblance to the stupid pet tricks that you might see on late-night television. Some organizations treat a collection of activities as the program itself, like a series of palliatives that people in charge smugly implement as a way of keeping team members complacent. However, such a laundry list won't really work because people simply aren't that dumb. The most common reaction is to mock the effort.

A good type of activity is a celebration, where team members come together in a formal acknowledgement of what they actually accomplish. That could be project milestones, an innovation, a great new idea — anything that's related to the goals and principles of the organization. Whether you do this with a pizza party at lunch, a dinner out, or just a brief gathering and chance to feel good about success depends on your organization's culture and how substantial the achievement was. This is a source of some of the best fun you can have because it's a result of something real happening and not an artificial happy dance.

Smart Retention

On the other hand, some activities generate a sense of fun and bring people together. What makes the difference is atmosphere and intent. When things are generally working well in your team, even if they have been a bit off base, an activity that reminds team members of working together, of creativity, and of playfulness in the service of a goal can be powerful. People don't generally mock the proceedings because they have a positive attitude toward the organization, or at least the group.

A retention program cannot be separate from the operation of your team and organization. If that happens, you are undertaking it in a cynical manner, and it will be obvious to everyone. At the same time, if you focus on creating a meaningful work environment, where you and other leaders share power and everyone has responsibility, then special activities and programs serve to reinforce what you already do.

Be Something

One of the best retention policies is to be expansive. People aren't going to feel enormously attached to someone else's self-interest. But that is what too many organizations actually represent, because people in charge — those who should be leaders — aren't interested in anything greater than what they personally want, whether it's career, money, or power.

If you get the sense that your organization is at all like this, do something different: Operate from the values your organization espouses. For example, ask team members what they would like to do. If you are going to share power, try this basic exercise. Too often, would-be leaders assume they know what's best for people on their team. What a numbingly arrogant attitude! No wonder people so often up and leave; they get tired of being insulted.

A Good Environment

Make sure everyone on the team receives equitable treatment. People generally don't mind limitations and demands if they fall on all equally. You start down the path to trouble when some individuals suspect there is bias toward others.

You know it is illegal to discriminate against classes of people, but beware of the small issues that might make someone feel discriminated against. For example, if you are in a company and let one employee leave early without any challenge, but you then ask a second person a series of questions before granting the same permission, you've created an appearance of discrimination. Say you are in a volunteer group with a friend, and you give that person details of what is going on that you don't share with others on the team. You've just demonstrated that there is an in-crowd.

Be direct and honest with people on the team. If there is a problem, say so, and get their help to resolve it. If someone is doing particularly well, don't be shy in telling the person. Also, keep your word. Don't change the ground rules on people, whether in terms of responsibilities, pay, or opportunities. If you don't know what to expect, particularly when there is no good reason for the suspense, then you're in a stressful situation.