Time Warner Cable Kansas City looks beyond the usual suspects for ways to retain and engage customer-facing employees

When too many new hires are leaving after just a few months on the job, despite effective recruitment and on-boarding programs, it is time to look for answers in new places. This company set out to strengthen the relationship between frontline supervisors and their new—mostly Generation Y—customer care specialists, and found it's never too early to start building engagement. Keys to early development of a strong supervisor-employee bond include beginning relationship building during the hiring interview; supervisor participation in new-hire training; learning the individual's personal drivers of engagement; 30-/60-/90-day assessments with coaching and mentoring; and exposing the new hire to positive high-performing peers (while buffering them from negative influencers). © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.