It’s tough to hold on to good employees, but it shouldn’t be. Most of the mistakes that companies make are easily avoided. When you do make mistakes, your best employees are the first to go, because they have the most options.
留住好员工不容易，但不应该让它成为困难。大多数的公司所犯的错误都是很容易避免的。如果你真的犯错了，你的优秀员工们肯定是第一个离开的，因为他们有最多的出路。

If you can’t keep your best employees engaged, you can’t keep your best employees. While this should be common sense, it isn’t common enough. A survey by CEB found that one-third of star employees feel disengaged from their employer and are already looking for a new job.
如果你无法让最好的员工们专心工作，你就不能留住他们。虽然这应该是常识，但是也没有那么常见。CEB公司进行的一项调查显示，1/3的星级员工感到不受雇主重视，并且早已开始找新的工作了。

When you lose good employees, they don’t disengage all at once. Instead, their interest in their jobs slowly dissipates. Michael Kibler, who has spent much of his career studying this phenomenon, refers to it as brownout. Like dying stars, star employees slowly lose their fire for their jobs.
当你失去了优秀的员工，他们不会全部立即离开。反之，他们对于工作的兴趣会缓慢地消散。Michael Kible利用了他的职业生涯大部分时间来研究这种现象，并称之为工作动力减退。就像正在熄灭的星星一样，星级员工会慢慢地失去工作上的火花。

“Brownout is different from burnout because workers afflicted by it are not in obvious crisis,” Kibler said. “They seem to be performing fine: putting in massive hours, grinding out work while contributing to teams, and saying all the right things in meetings. However, they are operating in a silent state of continual overwhelm, and the predictable consequence is disengagement.”
“动力减退有别于职业倦怠，因为受其折磨的员工们并非处于一个明显的危机之中。”Kibler表示。“他们看起来表现得很不错：投入大量时间，在工作上不断打磨的同时为团队做贡献，还在会议期间说正确的话。然而，他们正在静音状态下持续大量地工作，你可预测到的后果就是离职。”

In order to prevent brownout and to retain top talent, companies and managers must understand what they’re doing that contributes to this slow fade. The following practices are the worst offenders, and they must be abolished if you’re going to hang on to good employees.
为了避免动力减退的情况，留在优秀人才，许多公司和管理者都必须了解到他们的哪些行为会导致这种缓慢的退步。下面的做法是最糟糕的，如果你想要留住好员工就必须摒弃它们。

1. They make a lot of stupid rules.
1. 设定种种愚蠢的规则。

Companies need to have rules—that’s a given—but they don’t have to be shortsighted and lazy attempts at creating order. Whether it’s an overzealous attendance policy or taking employees’ frequent flier miles, even a couple of unnecessary rules can drive people crazy. When good employees feel like big brother is watching, they’ll find someplace else to work.
公司都需要规则——是必须的——但不能是目光短浅的，懒得保持秩序的。不管这是一份过度热心的考勤政策还是记录员工的里程数，即使是几条无关要紧的规则都会让人发疯。当员工们感到被管理层盯着工作，他们就会找别的工作。

2. They treat everyone equally.
2. 一视同仁。

While this tactic works with school children, the workplace ought to function differently. Treating everyone equally shows your top performers that no matter how high they perform (and, typically, top performers are work horses), they will be treated the same as the bozo who does nothing more than punch the clock.
虽然这个策略对学校的孩子们很有效，但是职场里就应该差别对待。一视同仁只会显示不管你的优秀员工们表现有多么出色（以及通常来说，优秀员工们都是驴子），他们就会视为敲钟的笨蛋。

3. They tolerate poor performance.
3. 容忍差劲的工作表现。

It’s said that in jazz bands, the band is only as good as the worst player; no matter how great some members may be, everyone hears the worst player. The same goes for a company. When you permit weak links to exist without consequence, they drag everyone else down, especially your top performers.
据说，在爵士乐队里，乐队的好坏取决于最差劲的乐手，不管有的成员多么出色，人们只会留意最差劲的那个。同样的道理适用于公司机构。当你允许毫无成果的薄弱底线，他们就会拖别人的后腿，特别是你的优秀员工们。

4. They don’t recognize accomplishments.
4. 不懂得认可他人的成绩。

It’s easy to underestimate the power of a pat on the back, especially with top performers who are intrinsically motivated. Everyone likes kudos, none more so than those who work hard and give their all. Rewarding individual accomplishments shows that you’re paying attention. Managers need to communicate with their people to find out what makes them feel good (for some, it’s a raise; for others, it’s public recognition) and then to reward them for a job well done. With top performers, this will happen often if you’re doing it right.
管理者很容易低估表扬的力量，尤其是低估那些很需要激励的优秀员工的作用。每个人都喜欢奖章，没有比那些辛苦工作，倾其所有的人更需要了。奖励个人成就意味着你留意到了他们。管理者需要与员工们沟通，找出让他们感觉良好的因素（对于一些人来说，就是加薪；对于另一些人来说，就是公开的认可）然后褒奖他们的出色工作。对于优秀的员工们来说，如果你处理得当，这件事情会常常发生。

5. They don’t care about people.
5. 他们不在乎人的感受。

More than half the people who leave their jobs do so because of their relationship with their boss. Smart companies make certain that their managers know how to balance being professional with being human. These are the bosses who celebrate their employees’ successes, empathize with those going through hard times, and challenge them, even when it hurts. Bosses who fail to really care will always have high turnover rates. It’s impossible to work for someone for eight-plus hours a day when they aren’t personally involved and don’t care about anything other than your output.
超过一半的人离职是因为他们与老板的关系不好。明智的公司会确定他们的管理层懂得如何平衡专业性与人性化。这些就是老板懂得为员工成就庆祝的做法，在困难的时期懂得同情员工，甚至在伤心的时期懂得挑战他们。不在乎他人的老板总有很高的员工离职率。对于工作8小时以上的人们来说，无法跟那些不懂关照他人，只在乎产出的老板长期工作。

6. They don’t show people the big picture.
6. 不给员工展示宏观状况。

It may seem efficient to simply send employees assignments and move on, but leaving out the big picture is a deal breaker for star performers. Star performers shoulder heavier loads because they genuinely care about their work, so their work must have a purpose. When they don’t know what that is, they feel alienated and aimless. When they aren’t given a purpose, they find one elsewhere.
似乎仅仅给员工们分配任务并继续运作是很有效率的事情，但是给优秀员工展示宏观状况是影响大局的事情。星级员工肩负重担因为他们真心在乎自己的工作，所以他们的工作必须有一个明确的目标。如果他们不知道这个目标是什么，他们会感到不受重视，漫无目的。当他们的目标不明确，他们就会从别处寻找。

7. They don’t let people pursue their passions.
7. 不让人们追求自己的理想。

Google mandates that employees spend at least 20% of their time doing “what they believe will benefit Google most.” While these passion projects make major contributions to marquis Google products, such as Gmail and AdSense, their biggest impact is in creating highly engaged Googlers. Talented employees are passionate. Providing opportunities for them to pursue their passions improves their productivity and job satisfaction, but many managers want people to work within a little box. These managers fear that productivity will decline if they let people expand their focus and pursue their passions. This fear is unfounded. Studies have shown that people who are able to pursue their passions at work experience flow, a euphoric state of mind that is five times more productive than the norm.
谷歌要求员工至少花20%的时间做着“他们认为对谷歌最有益的事情”。虽然这些理想项目对于谷歌的经典产品做出了关键的贡献，例如Gmail和AdSense，但是他们最大的影响力在于培养高度投入的谷歌人。人才都是激情满满的。为他们提供追求理想的机会能够提高工作效率和职业满意度，但是许多管理者希望人们在一个小框子里工作。如果让员工拓展自己的工作重心和追求理想的话，这些管理者会害怕工作效率下降。这种恐惧是站不住脚的。有许多研究表明，在累积工作经验的过程中能够追求自己理想的员工，他们凭着愉悦的精神状态能够比按照惯例工作的员工高出5倍的工作效率。

8. They don’t make things fun.
8. 不懂得制造趣味。

If people aren’t having fun at work, then you’re doing it wrong. People don’t give their all if they aren’t having fun, and fun is a major protector against brownout. The best companies to work for know the importance of letting employees loosen up a little. Google, for example, does just about everything it can to make work fun—free meals, bowling allies, and fitness classes, to name a few. The idea is simple: if work is fun, you’ll not only perform better, but you’ll stick around for longer hours and an even longer career.
如果人们在工作上没有趣味，那么你们的方法就是错误的了。人们如果感到乏味，就不会倾其所有，趣味性是对抗动力倒退的重要守护者。最值得员工去工作的公司了解到让员工稍稍放松的重要性。举例来说，谷歌公司，尽其所能让一切变得有趣——免费的餐饮，保龄球队，还有健身课程，这里这是其中一些。这个概念很简单：如果工作是有趣的，你不仅表现得更好，还会停留更长的时间，甚至是更长久的职业生涯。

Bringing It All Together
总结

Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don’t leave jobs; they leave managers. Want to make your organization a better place to work? Consider attending an emotional intelligence certification where you’ll learn how to create a high-EQ workplace.
管理者们倾向于把他们的员工流失问题归罪于天下间所有的事情，却忽略了问题的关键：人们不会离工作而去，他们只会离管理者而去。想要让你的公司变得更适宜工作吗？考虑参与一次情商资格证的课程，你就会学习如果营造高情商的职场环境了。

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