It's tough to hold on to good employees, but it shouldn't be. Most of the mistakes that companies make are easily avoided. When you do make mistakes, your best employees are the first to go, because they have the most options.
留住好員工看似困難，實則非然，因為管理者犯下的大多數錯誤都是可以避免的。但一旦管理者犯下了錯，最出色的員工往往最先離職，因為他們擁有最多選擇。

If you can't keep your best employees engaged, you can't keep your best employees. While this should be common sense, it isn't common enough.
公司如果不能讓好員工全心投入到工作中，就留不住好員工——這理應成為常識，卻仍然有很多人不知道。

When you lose good employees, they don't disengage all at once. Instead, their interest in their jobs slowly dissipates. Michael Kibler, who has spent much of his career studying this phenomenon, refers to it as brownout. Like dying stars, star employees slowly lose their fire for their jobs.
好員工的離去并非突如其來。相反，他們對工作的興趣是逐漸消磨殆盡的。邁克爾·基布雷爾曾花費大量時間來研究這種現象，他稱之為“電力減弱”。出色員工就像瀕死的恒星一樣，他們對工作的激情是慢慢消減的。

“Brownout is different from burnout because workers afflicted by it are not in obvious crisis,”Kibler said. “They seem to be performing fine: putting in massive hours, grinding out work while contributing to teams, and saying all the things in meetings. However, they are operating in a silent state of continual overwhelm, and the predictable consequence is disengagement.”
“‘電力減弱'不同于熄火，因為員工并沒有陷入嚴重的危機中，”基布雷爾說?！八麄兯坪醣憩F不錯：投入大量時間工作，與人高效合作完成任務，會議發言無可挑剔。但與此同時，他們正默默地承受不斷的打擊?？上攵筋^來他們唯有離職?！?/p>

In order to prevent brownout and to retain top talent, companies and managers must understand what they're doing that contributes to this slow fade. The following practices are the worst offenders, and they must be abolished if you're going to hang on to good employees.
為了防止“電力減弱”，留住頂尖人才，公司和管理者必須認識到，自己的哪些做法導致了員工激情的緩慢消退。以下八種做法危害最大，若想留住好員工，必須避免。

1. They make a lot of stupid rules.
制定一堆愚蠢的規則。

Companies need to have rules — that's a given — but they don't have to be shortsighted and lazy attempts at creating order. Whether it's an overzealous attendance policy or taking employees' frequent flier miles, even a couple of unnecessary rules can drive people crazy. When good employees feel like big brother is watching, they'll find someplace else to work.
公司當然需要規章制度，但萬不可制定目光短淺、馬馬虎虎的規章制度，妄圖以此建立秩序。無論是過分嚴格的考勤制度，還是私吞員工的累計飛行里程，甚至只是幾條多余的規定，都可能把人逼瘋。好員工要是感到“老大哥”時時刻刻在看著自己，往往就會跳槽。

2. They treat everyone equally.
無差別對待員工。

While this tactic works with school children, the workplace ought to function differently. Treating everyone equally shows your top performers that no matter how high they perform (and, typically, top performers are work horses), they will be treated the same as the bozo who does nothing more than punch the clock.
一視同仁的方法雖然適用于學校教育，卻不宜用在工作場所。對優秀員工而言，這意味著不管自己表現多么好（而且優秀員工通常都是埋頭苦干的“老黃牛”），待遇都和只會打卡上下班的傻瓜無差。

3. They tolerate poor performance.
容忍員工的不良表現。

It's said that in jazz bands, the band is only as good as the worst player; no matter how great some members may be, everyone hears the worst player. The same goes for a company. When you permit weak links to exist without consequence, they drag everyone else down, especially your top performers. This often happens when managers lack the emotional intelligence to address performance issues head on.
據說，一支爵士樂隊的水平取決于其最差的樂手，無論其他樂手多么優秀，觀眾聽到的都是最差樂手的演奏。公司亦然。若公司絲毫不處罰表現差的員工，他們就會拖累其他員工的表現，尤其是最出色的員工。如果管理者情商不足，不能有效處理不良表現的問題，這類情況就會發生。

4. They don't recognize accomplishments.
對員工的成績沒有肯定。

It's easy to underestimate the power of a pat on the back, especially with top performers who are intrinsically motivated. Everyone likes kudos, none more so than those who work hard and give their all. Rewarding individual accomplishments shows that you're paying attention. Managers need to communicate with their people to find out what makes them feel good (for some, it's a raise; for others, it's public recognition) and then to reward them for a job well done. With top performers, this will happen often if you're doing it.
管理者容易低估表揚的力量，尤其易低估其對于極度需要激勵的優秀員工的作用。人人都愛榮譽，勤勤懇懇、全身心投入工作的員工尤甚。獎勵個人的貢獻，這說明管理者予以了重視。管理者需要與員工溝通，找出他們各自喜好的獎勵方式（有的人希望漲工資，有的人希望得到公開表揚），用以嘉獎他們良好的工作表現。若獎勵制度實施得當，則獎勵對于優秀員工而言是常有之事。

5. They don't care about people.
不關心員工。

More than half the people who leave their jobs do so because of their relationship with their boss. Smart companies make certain that their managers know how to balance being professional with being human (an emotional intelligence test is a good place to start). These are the bosses who celebrate their employees' successes, empathize with those going through hard times, and challenge them, even when it hurts. Bosses who fail to really care will always have high turnover rates. It's impossible to work for someone for eight-plus hours a day when they aren't personally involved and don't care about anything other than your output.
超過半數員工離職的原因是與上司關系不佳。聰明的公司會確保其管理者懂得如何做到既專業又不乏人情味（可以先來個情商測試）。這類管理者會為員工取得的成功感到自豪，理解員工的難處，同時也會讓員工接受各種挑戰，哪怕這個過程會痛苦。如果老板從不真正關心員工，那么其手下的人員流動就會比較高。沒有人愿意將每天的8個多小時奉獻給只知發號施令、只關心業績的老板。

6. They don't show people the big picture.
不為員工描述公司的發展藍圖。

It may seem efficient to simply send employees assignments and move on, but leaving out the big picture is a deal breaker for star performers. Star performers shoulder heavier loads because they genuinely care about their work, so their work must have a purpose. When they don't know what that is, they feel alienated and aimless. When they aren't given a purpose, they find one elsewhere.
不停給員工分配任務，這樣做似乎效率很高。然而，對優秀員工而言，不清楚公司的藍圖，可能成為他們離職的主要原因。優秀員工愿意承擔更大的工作量，是因為真心在意自己的工作，因此這些工作必須有價值。他們如果不知道其價值何在，就會產生疏離感，覺得漫無方向。他們在這家公司感受不到自我價值，就會去別處尋找價值。

7. They don't let people pursue their passions.
員工無法追求自己的愛好。

Google mandates that employees spend at least 20% of their time doing “what they believe will benefit Google most.” While these passion projects make major contributions to marquis Google products, such as Gmail and AdSense, their biggest impact is in creating highly engaged Googlers. Talented employees are passionate. Providing opportunities for them to pursue their passions improves their productivity and job satisfaction, but many managers want people to work within a little box. These managers fear that productivity will decline if they let people expand their focus and pursue their passions. This fear is unfounded. Studies have shown that people who are able to pursue their passions at work experience flow, a euphoric state of mind that is five times more productive than the norm.
谷歌公司規定員工投入至少20%的時間去做“自認為最有益于谷歌的事”。這些興趣愛好的項目催生了優秀的谷歌產品，如谷歌郵箱和廣告聯盟，但其最大的作用是培養了高度專注的谷歌員工。才能出眾的員工往往滿懷熱忱。讓這些員工有機會追求自己的愛好，可以提高他們的工作效率和對工作的滿意度，但很多管理者卻把員工的工作范圍限制在一個小空間里。這類管理者擔憂，如果讓員工擴大注意力范圍，追求自己的興趣愛好，他們的效率就會降低。這種擔憂純屬多余。研究表明，如果員工能夠在工作中追求自己的愛好，其大腦會一直處于興奮狀態，而此時的效率是正常效率的五倍。

8. They don't make things fun.
工作毫無樂趣。

If people aren't having fun at work, then you're doing it wrong. People don't give their all if they aren't having fun, and fun is a major protector against brownout. The best companies to work for know the importance of letting employees loosen up a little. Google, for example, does just about everything it can to make work fun—free meals, bowling allies, and fitness classes, to name a few. The idea is simple: if work is fun, you'll not only perform better, but you'll stick around for longer hours and an even longer career.
如果員工工作得很無聊，這就是管理者的問題。員工不愉快，就無法全身心投入到工作當中。樂趣是抵抗“電力減弱”的主要力量。好公司都會清楚一點：讓員工適當放松很重要。例如，谷歌公司竭盡所能讓工作變得有趣，如免費用餐、保齡球場和健身課程等等。谷歌這樣做的意圖很簡單：如果工作很有趣，員工不僅會表現得更好，而且會愿意工作更長時間，甚至會以此作為長久的事業。

Bringing It All Together: Managers tend to blame their turnover problems on everything under the sun while ignoring the crux of the matter: people don't leave jobs; they leave managers.
總而言之，面對員工流動問題，管理者往往怨天尤人，卻忽略了問題的癥結所在——員工其實并不是離職，而是離開老板。

Vocabulary
disengagement：脫離，分開
overzealous：過分熱心的
work horse：主力；役馬
bozo：家伙；笨蛋

英文來源：赫芬頓郵報
譯者：李藝（中國日報網愛新聞iNews譯者）
編審：杜娟