Retaining Employees

Retention Through Personality-Typing

Written by Chukwuma Asala for Gaebler Ventures

How can understanding personalities help in retention of employees? This has been a topic of much research and here's what you can do as an employer to accommodate the different types of people.

There is a statement that is often made in company retreats or leadership development workshops that reads "People don't quit companies or organizations; people quit people."

In today's economy it has become increasingly important for managers and supervisors of teams or departments in organizations to develop strong relationships with the people they supervise. The old conventional methods of managing people are obsolete and quite frankly don't work anymore. Employees today are much more skilled, better trained, and understand the value they bring to a company so they will not simply just continue to show up to work for a paycheck. Don't get me wrong; a paycheck is very important to them, but not the only reason they show up to work. Retention today has everything to do with motivation.

It is vital as a manager you understand the different types of personalities and the motivation styles associated with each of them. For the purpose of this article we shall make reference to the DISC model. DISC is the four quadrant behavioral model based on the work of William Moulton Marston PhD (1893–1947) to examine the behavior of people in their environment or within a specific situation.

If you have a high D personality or dominant person in your team, autonomy is the name of the game with them. They are natural leaders and are driven by power and control. They are usually very assertive and overly confident to the point of arrogance. Task-oriented and outgoing would be the perfect description of these types of people. To retain such employees make sure they are always feeling challenged with their work. It should never get too easy or too redundant. As long as you earn their respect you will never have to worry about their ego getting out of whack. They may bully the people that work under them but they will treat you like a King.

High I personalities or inspiring people are usually the life of the party. Very talkative and always looking to have fun in everything they do, these people are driven by the need to be recognized and love being in the spot light. Their need for everyone to have fun can sometimes be too much as they will find humor in absolutely any situation and are always cracking jokes. They are people-oriented and outgoing and gravitate towards people much easier than the D type personality. To retain these people remind yourself that as much as the work you have needs to get done it is okay to do it with a smile, enthusiasm, and in a group. If everyone is having fun, the Inspiring person is happy to work long hours. Drudgery of work however will deflate them very fast.

The High S personality or steady person is the Zen master of the office. They are always calm and tend to be very quiet yet very engaging in a conversation. They are driven by harmony and equanimity. Balance is very important to them and they seek to bring whatever environment they happen to be in down a notch with regards to the stress level. They don't do it by cracking jokes however like the High I personality but by remaining calm and lending a listening ear to anyone who needs to vent. To retain these people be consistent. Being consistent themselves they are very comfortable and can thrive in an environment where everyone is predictable and give respect freely. They are people-oriented but reserved, not introverted.

High C personalities or the calculating or cautious person is the perfectionist. They are all about rules, structure, decorum, and quality. These people are meticulous in everything they do and want to make sure they are always making the right decision and producing quality work. They take correction very well because they hate not doing the right thing. These people are task-oriented and reserved so are also more on the quiet side. To retain these people be fair and consistent with regards to work. They are motivated by perfection so they unfortunately will see the imperfections in everything because they are very critical of themselves as well.

Chukwuma Asala is an international student from Nigeria who is studying to earn an MBA from the State University of New York in Albany. He has analyzed more than 20 industry case studies throughout his education thus far, and hopes to bring some of his business knowledge to Gaebler.com.

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