Retain and Sustain: Motivating Mid-level Managers

John Sullivan is a working project manager who writes and speaks on project and career issues.

  PM Network  

The universal nature of project management has created a booming market for the profession. But the increasing demand for these skills has shown mid-level project managers that job-hopping may be the best way for them to get ahead.

This trend is bad for business, though, because while some organizational turnover is healthy, high attrition rates can devastate a company financially, says Judith Bardwick, Ph.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego, San Diego, California, USA, and author of One Foot Out the Door: How to Combat the Psychological Recession That’s Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business [Amacom, 2006].

“Replacement costs are huge,” she says. “It behooves organizations to keep the people they have and want.”

But real retention requires more than post-project banquets and completion bonuses. These tactics may work on the “newbies,” but they don’t necessarily increase employee commitment and engagement among the middle ranks.

If a company is truly serious about retaining employees, executives must be honest right from the start and ask themselves: What can we do as an organization to make working here more satisfying or easier for mid-level project managers?

Building a culture of retention

Many organizations operate as if recognition revolves …

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