Small Business - Retaining your customers
How do your stop your employee's from becoming the competition?
You can't.
But, you can do some things that may help retain them and keep their loyalty to you during the interim (because there is nothing you can do if they have decided to leave).
1) Put yourself in their shoes - think like them and see if you can come up with something that would keep you there. Seriously, THINK like them - meaning, put yourself in their shoes, with three kids, with a car payment and mortage, with medical bills - or whatever; you may be surprised with what you come up with.
2) Give them a bonus - unlike large corporations where you can give employee's stock options to keep them around for 3 plus years, you don't have that option (unless you want to give them a piece of the business, and that's not gonna happen). So, give them a bonus at the end of the year, that:
a) Is a percentage of their gross pay for the year;
b) is based on job performance (of course, you must have a performance review system in place);
c) or is based on job accomplishment.
What is c? It is something that a couple of my clients now use to retain talent, keep people around, and keep them working hard (by the way, some of my clients have 40 year old in-home moms, others have 15 year old high school students). Sit down with your employee at the beginning of the year and say "every event you do this year, if we receive no complaints, then you will receive $25; at the end of the year, I will give you a lump sum for the hard work you have done".
The $25 can be any amount - another client gives $250 for every time she accomplishes an event with no complaints or issues, of course being paid at the end of the year.
Be creative - so many times I continue to see companies train and educate their competition, with very little thought being given to the long term consequences.