Hiring top talent is only the start. Now you have to work hard to keep your very best talent. Most companies stink at structured and systematic retention of their top performers. Discover how to prevent turnover and keep your best people.
I am huge proponent of metrics and KPIs to determine are your initiatives having an impact. Here are some ideas for measuring retention and related scores.
You find out where you sit, where the coffee machine is, and you start a day full of icebreakers. But how can you make your onboarding experience special?...
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Great example of a company going far beyond the typical on-boarding process. How do you make your on-boarding process "special" and unique - so that your new employees RAVE about it??
Supplying employees with the tools they need to be successful will keep them more engaged and satisfied, according to IBM's CIO.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I spend a lot of time teaching my clients how Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is still relevant for success around retention, engagement, and employee motivation.
This article is an interesting adaptation in the IT world for Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Have you considered applying the lessons from Maslow in your own organization, and perhaps creating your own pyramid - perhaps with a focus on the foundation level?
Don't take a sink or swim approach to onboarding. Effective onboarding contributes to employee engagement, increased productivity and higher retention....
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Interesting perspective about viewing onboarding through the lens of the experience vs. the process and steps. Would your recently hired employees give their onboarding experience a "10"?
If you’re committed to helping your managers coach but the actual practice of coaching hasn’t stuck, try these surprising tips.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
73 percent of managers had some form of coaching training, but only 23 percent of people being coached (fewer than one in four!) thought that the coaching had a positive effect on their job. That statistic stinks! Employees want to be coached like a championship team - if you can't provide it - they'll go somewhere else to get it.
There are five keys to cultivating optimal teams, and they all come back to safety, belonging and mattering. Here's how to know where your team is lacking and what to focus on to fix it.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Have you had a chance to review the research Goggle did on the conditions or elements that led to optimal team work. Fascinating stuff to improve how your teams work. Are you focused around any of these issues in improving the results and outcomes your teams generate?
Happy employees = happy customers. It seems obvious, so why do so many companies overlook the employee experience when they set out to improve the customer experience? For one, companies often strugg…
Barry Deutsch's insight:
The author writes from the perspective of improving the customer experience - but talks about how the employee experience has to come first. Interesting trend developing in recent surveys - particularly among the younger generations - is that they want a more flexible work schedule and opportunity to work from home. What does this say about supervision, performance management, and work productivity - particularly for companies that are not prepared to manage flex time and remote working?
Employee engagement and job satisfaction are not as similar as you think. Learn the difference to effectively recruit and retain developers
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Interesting article separating the idea of employee happiness and employee engagement. Which one yields the greatest additional discretionary effort? Although the article is focused around hiring developers - it could apply to any position.
I loved this article on the impact of rudeness in working together - whether it be non-profit teams, executive management groups, or on projects. Rudeness, incivility is one of the killers of motivation and high performing teams. In my own work as a non-profit Board President, I get to improve the civility of how people interact, and continually reinforce group norms around civility. One of the books I am reading right now is titled "Choosing Civility". What do you tolerate with your team?
Learn all about Gusto's latest and greatest HR feature — Employee Happiness Surveys.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Is anyone conducting employee satisfaction or happiness research, surveys, studies in their organization? What tools are using and how effective are these in improving employee happiness? Check out this tool I stumbled across called Gusto - would love to hear your feedback on what looks like a SaaS approach to employee surveys
It's easy to blame employees for lack of engagement, but without a clear, simple, and engaging mission statement and strategy--they won't.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I wanted to slap myself in the forehead after reading this article. Of course, the mission statement is critical to success. It's one of core elements of culture, focusing employees, and gaining alignment around employee motivation and the purpose of your organization.
How strong is your mission statement? Is it a difference maker in hiring and retention?
Building a great team is a challenging job. You should take pride in your team’s success. Take time and efforts to celebrate success with your people.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Very few companies do a great job recognizing and rewarding individual and team performance. I liked this article because it reinforces some very simple ideas about recognition.
If you're recognizing outstanding performance, why would your employees continue to go above and beyond the call of duty for you?
Across the world, employee engagement has flatlined. In many developed countries, productivity is stagnating
Barry Deutsch's insight:
A couple of key points came to me in reading this article. First, are you linking metrics of employee engagement to work results/outputs?
Secondly, are you trashing your annual performance appraisal process to make performance management more relevant by doing it on a structured monthly basis?
Two key points about improving performance management. Most companies are still stuck in a 1970ish model of sadistic annual performance evaluations and no relevance to employee engagement.
Nearly 70% of the American workforce is disengaged in the office, and we're going about the solution completely wrong.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Another reminder that 70% of your workforce is disengaged. Small incremental differences of improving that metric can have a significant impact on organizational success and customer satisfaction.
If we all accept this statement as a given truth through all the studies and research - why then do so few companies work on engaging their employees?
The HBS article talks about the need to develop and nurture relationships inside and outside of work. I would like to focus on the inside element.
In coaching HS girls basketball for the past decade, I've realized one of the elements behind high performing teams is a shared experience of getting to know each other, learning each other's values, sharing stories, and understanding each other at a deeper level.
This doesn't happen naturally - you as the coach/boss need to facilitate this shared team experience or bonding.
How do you create high performing teams, improve retention, and raise engagement among your direct reports?
Learn about the importance of employee engagement, and how investing in it can improve customer experience.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Is there any doubt that there is a strong correlation between employee engagement and customer engagement/quality of experience?
Great infographic demonstrating simply the correlation.
My question is if it's that rock solid of a correlation, why are more companies not investing in employee engagement, and why are more companies not tracking the metrics around employee engagement and customer experience?
A recent article from The Times shined a spotlight on the seemingly perennial problem of low productivity facing UK Plc, and how proper management training can help
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I loved this article headline. Do you have managers in your organization who were great "doers" - thus you promoted them to oversee other "doers"? The problem is that they are "accidental managers" and are draining your productivity, not to mention a number of other terrible ills they inflict upon your organization. What are you doing about fixing the problem of accidental managers - folks you are supervising the bulk of your employees and have no right to be in a managerial role?
There are many benefits of employee engagement, but there’s one benefit that isn’t as well known - employee engagement is contagious!
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Engagement is contagious. However, when so few of your employees are engaged, it's hard to build a momentum of contagious engagement. When you have more engaged employees, their energy, enthusiasm, passion spreads like wildfire.
After almost a decade of coaching high school girls’ basketball, I’ve discovered a few lessons that enable groups of diverse individuals to become a
Barry Deutsch's insight:
I've been coaching HS Girls Basketball for 10 years - and before that another decade around coaching club basketball. Many of my greatest lessons about employee engagement, teamwork, happiness, satisfaction, and discretionary effort (proactivity and initiatve) come from coaching at the HS level. Many of the girls who have played for me don't realize these lessons until long after they've left high school.
Employees across the world have the same core needs —including recognition, feedback, personal growth, and work-life balance— to succeed at work.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
This Office Vibe study is gaining a lot of attention. It's one of the largest studies conducted in recent years and mirrors a lot of the research from the Gallup organization on employee happiness, satisfaction, and engagement. Note the statistic that only slightly over 50% of employees would recommend their company to friends. If your Net Promoter Score was that low, you would fire your Marketing-Customer Success-Sales Executive. How can you allow such a low level of satisfaction to exist in your organization?
Insights from Google's new study could forever change how teams are assembled.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Interesting practical research by Google on team research that extends into why people enjoy working in a company or with a particular team. This article focuses on teams - but could actually be an article about retention. Notice the points about work being meaningful to each person, and that it matters to others. This goes all the way back to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and basic motivation.
Hi, I'm Sheila Kamuda with coaching advice for the office and beyond. playniceadvice.blogspot.com Hope you enjoy, leave comments, subscribe, like, share.
Barry Deutsch's insight:
Shelia Kamuda has a nice blog and great little video series about employee engagement, satisfaction, culture, and workplace behaviors. I recommend reading and watching the content she shares.
To most of us, the phrase Work that Matters infers job satisfaction. Our intended outcome is a workplace culture characterized by lower stress, lower turnover, an
Barry Deutsch's insight:
A large part of employee engagement and satisfaction is work that matters - employees derive a high value from what they do. Do you look closely at these issues for all jobs - particularly those on the front line?
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I am huge proponent of metrics and KPIs to determine are your initiatives having an impact. Here are some ideas for measuring retention and related scores.