•But beware inequity and jealousy. If, in your efforts to retain senior workers, you do offer one executive a customised perk for continued loyalty to the company, don’t expect that her peers won’t be miffed if they learn of it.
“Anytime you individualize, you can create feelings of inequity,” says Kinicki. “So you need to be very careful about it. But in the end, you have to reward those who deserve it, to get them to stay.”
•Even for upper management, work/life balance is a draw. More and more, executives who have given up a lot on the personal side to excel in business -- and have earned a measure of financial independence in the process -- want to reclaim some balance in their lives.
That’s why “even at the executive level, workplace flexibility has become a key recruitment tool” and a way to retain older workers, says Katie Bouton, president of Koya Leadership Partners in Newburyport, Mass.
•Consider offering sabbaticals. An extended period of paid time off may be the ultimate loyalty-builder for top talent. “Executives who took a sabbatical have told me, 'This is a wonderful perk; the company cares about me as an individual, they want me to have the opportunity to regenerate',” says Frank Faeth, principal at Faeth Consulting in Bronxville, N.Y. “People come back recharged and refocused, and they say they feel more tightly aligned with the company.”
What if the executive uses the time to find a new employer? "If executives who take sabbaticals end up leaving the company, so be it,” says Faeth. “If they believe they'd be happier elsewhere, then it's best for everyone that they move on.”
•Even the toughest execs are seeking meaning. As many senior managers seek more balance in their lives, many will also stay with an employer longer if the company connects to its community or otherwise provides meaning beyond the bottom line.
Private enterprises might borrow a page from the non-profit sector, says Bouton. “Non-profits leverage employee engagement with the meaning that senior executives find in the work. At nonprofits, senior executives believe in what they’re doing.”