Retain Top Talent

Let's shatter some myths that managers have about their remote/hybrid work team - for example - I was very surprised about the "tone it down" on communication myth.

Have you considered gamification around some of your employee engagement initiatives, such as supporting teammates, exhibiting core values, going above and beyond for a customer or teammate, coming up with a recommendation/suggestion for improvement, making referrals - the list is endless. This article does a good job walking through gamifying activities to drive behavior or action. It's all the time in the sales function - why not everywhere else in the organization?

I especially liked the paragraph in this article on getting creative around engaging, motivating, involving, stimulating, building team cohesion. The problem is that most companies can't even begin to explore these creative ideas because they haven't yet implemented the basic fundamentals of employee engagement like defining success for the role, having a great recognition process, and doing frequent discussions (one to ones) around subjects of learning, impact, and becoming - stay interviews.

In my complimentary workshops for Vistage Groups on Managing Remotely in a Crisis we've been talking about the need for leveraging technology to improve communications. Many companies are still stuck ina 1970s model of old-school communication even with a hybrid model of some staff in the office and some remote. EVERYONE is now a technology company. Are you helping your employees to be successful or do they feel like mushrooms in the dark.

Some really good tips for communicating with employees in a Crisis by HBR. How do relieve some of the fear, anxiety, apprehension, separation loss, and sense of divorce from the culture? How do you help move folks out of Maslow's level of Safety and Security concerns - hard to be productive when I'm worried about whether I'll have a job.

Here from Forbes some key points reinforcing those I've been making in my Vistage Managing Remotely in a Crisis workshop on Zoom: set expectations and manage them, do face to face meetings on video, over communicate, create a communications plan and stick to it,

How well is your leadership doing leading across these elements?

I agree with this recommendation by the author 100 percent.  Are you staying in touch with your terminated or furloughed employees? How are you maintaining a strong relationship with the folks you might want to hire back?

As you may be aware from some of my previous posts, I've been urging my clients to move to a chat-based tool for communication like the yammer tool on teams or slack. Interesting article about taking the pulse of your employees through such a tool on a continuous basis throughout the year.

Here's my key take away from the article (there was some other good information about communication and the cadence of check-ins):

“Most people are probably worried about where they stand from a job standpoint. HR departments should definitely be open to having people talk to them about anxieties related to their job security, that’s a huge one. You may even want your leadership to pre-empt some of those worries by getting in front of that question. I took the time to actually let people know I’m available if you are worried about job security: ‘Come and talk to me.’ I’m going to tell you all the things that we’re going to do before they even have to worry about that.’”

Are you or your management team members having these conversations? Do your front line employees feel reassured?

If you're not a member of the top executive team, has your manager taken the time to give you comfort the future of your job?

Loved the various ideas in this article to stimulate team - culture interaction, learning about each other, and building strong relationships.

In my workshops for Vistage Groups on Managing Remotely in a Crisis, many members complain of Zoom Fatigue. Here is an article on how to overcome this issue in your organization - since it appears it's going to be awhile before we're all back together in person.

One element of conducting an effective one-to-on I suggest in my workshops on Engaging Employees - You're the Person We Want to Keep, and in my workshop Managing Remotely in a Crisis is the idea of conducting a LIB Discussion (Learning, Impact, and Becoming). In HR terminology this is called a Stay Interview. It's a powerful way to re-engage your employees. I recommend spending 15-20 minutes on this LIB dialogue at least once a quarter. See my LinkedIn article on what questions to ask and how to stimulate this conversation.

I spent a lot of time today with one vistage group focusing on employee recognition. My research indicates that it's the next most important element in employee engagement/productivity - after defining clear expectations for everyone.

Some good tips on managing performance - particularly when performance falls below your expectations. NOTE the importance of setting clear and specific goals/outcomes.

How do you have difficult conversations and messaging with your employees when the future is uncertain? How do you give them hope, reassurance, comfort - without false or misleading information? This article provides some good ideas around overcoming the fear that is gripping many of your employees about their future job status.

Teach your managers these six simple phrases to say to their teams and you'll see a dramatic improvement in happiness, engagement, and job satisfaction.