June 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 47

(e.g., professional development, process empowerment, flexibility). For
me, the distinction is found in the answers to What am I trying to accomplish?
and Why am I trying to accomplish it?
What's the Point?
That's what you should be asking
yourself. Are you tracking retention
and implementing programs to reduce
turnover because you are focused on a
number - an arbitrary percentage you
are charged to stay below because that
number, in and of itself, is perceived
to equate to top performance organization-wide? Or are you evaluating retention and developing improvement
strategies because turnover is creating a
measurable performance deficit in key
areas? If it's the former, I say, hogwash!
Some turnover is inevitable and some
turnover is beneficial. It's important to
get very clear about the results you are
trying to achieve, why you are trying to
achieve them, what areas are impacted
the most, in what situations can you
actually effect change, and, with limited time and resources, where are your
efforts going to have the greatest impact.
Churchill's Challenge
" However beautiful the strategy, you
should occasionally look at the results. "
This is a great reminder from dear
Winston that you can't be afraid to
walk away from that meticulously developed masterpiece if it's not yielding the needed results.
Now, before you pull your hair out
over the idea of having to rewrite all
those retention practices you labored
over to implement a new " engagement "
strategy, stop! Your most successful retention strategies are probably really
engagement strategies anyway. The
greater caution is that you don't allow
enthusiasm for a new solution to cause
a credible strategy to be implemented

like it's a fad, or it may be received like a
fad and only have the effectiveness of a
fad, no matter how sound.
One Size Does Not Fit All
There's no one right solution that will
work for all employees in all cases.
The best answer for you may be a targeted but blended approach. The key
is, what's working and what's not? As
park and recreation agencies across
the U.S. now enter a peak season
in needing temporary and seasonal
staff support, it will take more than
one approach to create a successful
employment environment for those
traditionally high-turnover positions.
NRPA Members Have Great Ideas
In a recent discussion on the NRPA Connect Open Forum (www.nrpaconnect.
org/viewcommunitydiscussions/view
thread/?GroupId=31&MID=1448),
Meagan Leatherbury, natural resource
program manager for the Howard
County Recreation and Parks Department in Maryland, challenged her fellow park and recreation peers for creative solutions for her colleague in the
aquatics department to " retain his best
workers and prevent him from being in
never-ending interviews. " The responses
were rich with great ideas that were both
retention- and engagement-oriented.
On the retention side, Darren Hoff,
recreation program coordinator for
Brookings Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department in South Dakota, said
that for seasonal/part-time staff, they
offer a $0.25 raise for every 500 hours
worked. " We also pay an additional
$0.25 for every hour worked during the
summer for lifeguards as a bonus for the
end of the summer if they make five or
fewer schedule changes and work until
the end of the summer. "
In Oregon, the City of McMinnville's Parks and Recreation Depart-

ment Aquatic Center Manager Robert
Porter offered the sound advice that
" the most important way to retain staff
is to be a positive and involved supervisor...Give them appropriate and timely praise for good work...They need to
know that their supervisors will give
them 'constructive' criticism and see
them as real people with feelings. "
Ryan Brookes, youth/family director for Virginia's McLean Community Center, offers a success formula for employee engagement that
has resulted in the retention of all 13
part-time employees at his Teen Center for a minimum of three years and
some as long as five years.
Here is a snapshot of Brookes' keys
to success:
1. Praise and recognition. As often
as possible, and publicly when appropriate.
2. Empowerment. Make it more
than just a buzzword. Ask them often
for their ideas...When people (of all
ages) see their ideas taken seriously,
and actually implemented, they feel a
deep sense of satisfaction, and it encourages more.
3. Offer growth. Talk to the staff
about their interests. Recognize their
strengths in the workplace. Give them
tasks [that] build them up. Make leaders out of them.
4. Accountability. This is a big one.
The quickest way to lose great staff is
to allow others to loaf...It's not fair,
it will kill morale, and great staff will
move on, leaving you with a stable full
of slackers.
If you have a management topic
that you would like Managing Management to address, email me with
your suggestions, questions or (even
better) awkward situations that are
just a part of this challenge to lead.
Lauren Yost is NRPA's Vice President of
Operations (lyost@nrpa.org).

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