If a valued employee came to you with the disturbing news that he or she was thinking about leaving, how would you feel? Most managers would be shocked, because that sort of message is usually delivered when hope is pretty much lost.

When this happens, and the news is a shock, blame the manager instead of the employee. That manager's top job is talent retention, and he or she must be fully engaged with the workforce to keep on top of any simmering disgruntlement in the ranks.

In the above example, if you as the manager have made employee engagement Job 1, you should feel relieved: The employee came directly to you rather than sharing his or her feelings solely in the lunch room with peers. He or she raised a hand before pulling the trigger, which gives you a chance to recover (I did say this employee was valued, as in worth keeping.) You will have some idea what is behind the dissatisfaction, as you would have established trust between the two of you, and have been sharing concerns regularly.

By pursuing truth, establishing unshakable trust and focusing on communication that counts in every interaction you have with the people who work for you, you buy yourself time and latitude to work through tough times with good employees.

Employee engagement is about more than just productivity, isn't it?

Being on top of staff satisfaction and engagement will be critical as the economy improves, because people who have felt stuck and put up with less-than-optimal work environments (in their view) will have the desire and opportunity to move on. Even with the expanded pool of talent available on the job market today, replacing good people remains expensive and a disruptive hit to productivity.

The lesson: Engage now. One-on-one. In person. All the time. Talent retention and development is the most critical task for any manager, regardless of industry or seniority. What other task has a bigger impact on productivity and retention?

Talking is easier when the conversation doesn't start with "I'm leaving!"

In the above example, the engaged employee has indicated ongoing dissatisfaction. What is your next move?
--Go back to your past conversations. Explore the results of those talks. What were the actions steps agreed on?
--Get the employee to reflect on how hard both sides have been working on the relationship.
--Probe specific areas of possible trouble. What are his or her:
----Feelings about the work environment
----Relationships with peers
----Opinion of the quality of support from senior management
----Pride in representing the company in his community
----True opinion of his own efforts to take action, and his "corporate mindset."

Gallup has distilled measurements of engagement down to twelve questions. Those can be a handy outline to run through when a crisis like this hits (leaving question ten aside!)

The two of you have a lot of work to do, but that's OK, because this sort of work is what you as a manager are supposed to be doing every day anyway!

The ideas in this post were pulled from a recent article of mine on eZineArticles: Find it here.

David Tighe has been helping his clients create fully engaged employee teams and more effective leadership skills among executives and middle managers since 1987. He authored Bovo-Tighe's highly effective Foundations of Excellence approach to employee development that has been generating measurable ROI for clients by focusing relentlessly on upfront problem diagnosis and long-term sustainability with every client engagement. Bovo-Tighe also offers a performance guarantee to back up their performance claims, a rarity in the employee development industry.

Find out more about Bovo-Tighe, its Foundations of Excellence approach and its performance guarantee at http://www.bovo-tighe.com.