Retain Top Talent
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Retain Top Talent
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.
Curated by Barry Deutsch
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No one wants to be a middle manager anymore

No one wants to be a middle manager anymore | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Have pity on these poor souls. Corporate life has changed irrevocably—and the person at the center of it is the mid-level manager....
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Great two presentations at the end of last week with Dick Singer's Vistage Groups.  We had outstanding discussions about moving beyond posting generic job descriptions on generic job boards, using a definintion of success to drive where we find great employees and using it as a focal point in interviewing, and putting on a marketing hat to build a compelling messaging platformto attract the best.

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The Recognition We All Want at Work

The Recognition We All Want at Work | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Best practices for making employees feel appreciated in an authentic, meaningful way.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

A growing number of workers describe themselves as actively disengaged in their jobs. Some 81% of leaders surveyed said employee recognition isn’t a company priority, and roughly two-thirds said they have no budget dedicated to it. Just 23% of employees strongly agreed that they were satisfied with the amount of recognition they receive.

 

Next to not defining success/outcomes/expectations in clear precise language, the number two reason for employee disengagement (low productivity) is a culture that is not rooted in appreciated, gratitude, and thankfulness for the effort of your employees. Fixing it is quite easy.

 

The head-scratching moment for me is why companies prefer to endure low productivity, poor customer satisfaction, and below average financial returns - because they are unwilling to invest in creating initiatives around non-monetary employee recognition and rewards. So stupid not to implement of rigorous set of best practices.

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Why strong manager-employee relationships are critical for your business

Why strong manager-employee relationships are critical for your business | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
When you think back to the best job you’ve ever had, you’ll likely be thinking about the people around you. Inspiring teams, thoughtful and engaging managers and feeling connected to others. But is that how your people feel?
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Here's another good article on the subject of how important someone's manager is to their level of engagement and retention.

 

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"line managers aren’t promoted for their people skills. Most people find themselves managing a team because they were high-performers in their former roles – not because they had exceptional people skills. Chucking new managers into the deep end with limited resources and training can result in conflict, micro-management, unrealistic expectations and poor communication."

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How to Listen to Your Employees

How to Listen to Your Employees | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Creating an environment where your employees feel heard is crucial to the success of your business....
Barry Deutsch's insight:

This is a little different take on what I'm usually sharing or publishing. My experience, as I've mentioned before, is that most managers and executives are not good at managing and leading people - they've never been trained in effective best practices. This is one of the great benefits of belonging to a executive/CEO roundtable like Vistage to learn these skills and abilities as you build your team.

 

One of the core skills of success as a manager/leader is listening and most of us do a terrible job of listening without judging the speaker. Perhaps, it's time to teach our managers and leaders how to be better listeners?

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Employee Happiness | 8 Tips

Employee Happiness | 8 Tips | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Employee happiness is essential. A few small changes can do wonders to help contribute to or increase employee happiness in the workplace.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

There are a number of good ideas here in this article. The one that resonated with me was the first - get to know your employees.

 

Your employees want to know you care about them as people - not just items on the payroll register. In my workshops to CEOs/Presidents, I ask how many know the names and ages of the children of their direct reports. Less than 50% can answer that question. It makes me sad that executives don't care about the people who work for them by not asking questions of what goes on outside of work. Do you really care? When your team doesn't thinkyou care, they are already seeking greener pastures elsewhere.

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Belonging: The bedrock of your company culture

Belonging: The bedrock of your company culture | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Find out why belonging is the most important aspect of company culture, what it means for employees and what steps employers can take to create a culture of belonging.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Another element of the employee experience or engagement to consider: do your employees feel like the belong? How would this get manifested in day-to-day interactions?

 

1. How teams work together and whether everyone on the team feels valued.

 

2. Do your employees feel like they matter - do you reinforce this by teaching your managers how to show people they matter to each other, to the boss, the organization, and your customers?

 

3. Do you force opportunities for relationship development and collaboration so that it's not left up to chance or random events?

 

Barry

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The Importance of Work Flexibility

The Importance of Work Flexibility | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
The pandemic has given work-life balance new meaning...
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Are you rethinking the traditional approach to requiring people to work standard hours because "if I can't see them, I don't trust them." Get out of this 1970s approach to managing people. Employees have different expectations today about work, especially the younger generations. If you want to hire and retain a great team, maybe it's time to rethink your traditional attendence policies.

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4 Employee Onboarding Mistakes to Avoid | Robert Half

4 Employee Onboarding Mistakes to Avoid | Robert Half | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
An effective onboarding plan can make all the difference in a new hire’s success. See this post for insights on missteps to avoid so that you’re onboarding efforts don’t fall short.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

I'm getting more and more questions from my clients regarding effective on-boarding programs. Most companies are still stuck in a 1970s framework of on-boarding. Here are some good ideas to think about as you design your on-boarding strategy. Remember - the key is to help people realize they've had made the best decision of their career by joining your organization.

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11 Best Employee Engagement Metrics & KPIs to Track

11 Best Employee Engagement Metrics & KPIs to Track | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
These 11 employee engagement metrics will help track and improve your company’s engagement for a strong, aligned team.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

I am a huge proponent of tracking metrics and KPIs to measure success around initiatives aimed at employee engagement, the employee experience, and retention. Here are some ideas on beginning the path of determining whether HR is effective in engagement, retention, and employee productivity.

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Hybrid work makes employees much less likely to quit

Hybrid work makes employees much less likely to quit | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Working from home a few days a week makes employees happier and can improve company performance, study finds.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Interesting article in Fortune about the capability of hybrid work flexibility to reduce turnover rates. A lot of my clients are struggling right now in trying to determine whether to bring everyone back or continue in a hybrid model.

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Encourage Workplace Friendships To Make Your Staff More Productive

Encourage Workplace Friendships To Make Your Staff More Productive | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Encourage workplace friendships by creating an atmosphere that encourages employees to get involved in company events and social gatherings.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Encouraging workplace friendships might seem to contradict what we've been taught historically  that we should keep work and outside work separate - sterile - a sharp dividing line.

 

The reality is that a hallmark of a high performing team is that all the team members know each other very well, they consider some of their teammates to be personal friends, they appreciate the differences and different motivations.

 

The big question is what's the employer's role in helping to build these relationships beyond "leaving it up to the employees?" Do you hold team building exercises, lunch and learns together, conversations around activities that are not work related, celebrating each other. Just working together is not enough to develop these relationships that are a critical component of employee engagement.

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The Psychology of Employee Recognition: Why it Matters

The Psychology of Employee Recognition: Why it Matters | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
When the management thinks about employee recognition, the first thing that comes to mind is not the psychology behind employee recognition. You might be tempted to think about the mechanics of employee recognition, like how often, the reason for recognition, and the rewards that should be offered.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Good understanding of what drives employee motivation is at the heart of leadership and management. I like the description of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the connection to employee recognition. Most of my clients have minimal or almost non-existent employee non-monetary reward and recognition systems.

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How to Describe Your Company Culture

How to Describe Your Company Culture | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Can you describe your company’s culture to investors, job applicants, and potential partners? If not, here’s how....
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Beyond mission and value statements, many of my clients struggle to describe accurately their culture - what it is like to work in their unique environment. Here is one of the few articles I've come across that begins to offer a framework and words to describe your culture. The goal should be to have a one page document that accurately describes how employee work and interact with each other and customers.

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We need a learning culture shift to win at hybrid work

We need a learning culture shift to win at hybrid work | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
We already know that digital learning, in all its forms, is growing.The Covid-19 pandemic forced many organisations to t...
Barry Deutsch's insight:

A good reminder on the importance of learning and development. Next to not defining success for each role, and secondly not having a rigorous reward and recognition program, learning and development is the 3rd major element of why so many employees are disengaged (50-70 percent). The really sad news is that those disengaged employees are giving you the minimum level of productivity they belive you will  tolerate to allow them to continue to receive a paycheck.

 

In a world where the new normal is a hybrid work environment, why are we not embracing the multitude of digital tools to deliver training, knowledge, skill improvement, and coaching?

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The real costs of losing an employee

The real costs of losing an employee | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Wondering what the costs of losing an employee are? Read our insightful guide for all the answers....
Barry Deutsch's insight:

One of the reasons most companies don't pay much attention to upgrading, refining, and conducting process improvement against their hiring./recruiting process and their engagement/retention process is that they've not taken the time to understand the costs of errors and mistakes, and there are no metrics/KPIs being used to measure progress or set targets.

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What's pushing your employees to switch jobs? | HRD Australia

What's pushing your employees to switch jobs? | HRD Australia | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
The real reason your people are leaving might come as quite the surprise...
Barry Deutsch's insight:

I've published numerous times on the key theme of this article - the managers who supervise the bulk of your employees are one of the primary keys in engagement and retention.

 

MOST managers/executives are terrible at leading people. They are outstanding individuals - however they have never been trained or coached in best practices of managing people. Is it time for some remedial training to help your management team? An especially important element since Gallup identifies managers as 70% of the reason employees either lean in and give you full productive effort or lean back and give you the minimum they think you'll tolerate to allow them to remain on the payroll system.

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What Exactly is Employee Engagement?

What Exactly is Employee Engagement? | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Employee engagement is a concept that emerged in the 1990s and has continued to evolve. It has become an essential part of HR strategy and includes other key concepts such as employee motivation, investment and satisfaction.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Good fundamental article on the foundation of employee engagement. The point that caught my interest at the beginning was "quality management is necessary for the relationship between an employee and employer to be at its best."

 

The core problem in most companies is that the vast majority of managers are horrible at managing, supervision, and leadership. They are wonderful individuals, but they've never been trained in best practices for measuring success, motivating team members, giving feedback, showing their team members that they care about them, and are capable of showing their gratitude.

 

Is it time to conduct some remedial training of your mangement team to begin to put quality management in place? Just because someone carries a manager, director, or VP title - doesn't correlate that they are a good manager.

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How Team Morale Affects Employee Performance •

How Team Morale Affects Employee Performance • | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Build team morale to help your team achieve their full potential. In this article, learn how to ensure team members are supported and engaged at work.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Here is a decent article on employee morale and the importance for teams. Are your team leaders and managers well trained in how to drive high levels of morale and do you have a series of action steps, initiatives, programs to bring this generic concept down to the reality of day-to-day work in teams?

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Looking For A More Compassionate Work Culture? Ask These Questions At Your Next Interview.

Looking For A More Compassionate Work Culture? Ask These Questions At Your Next Interview. | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Are you looking to work for an organization with compassionate leadership? Here's how to assess whether the organization has a Compassion Mindset.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

This is a reverse angle on interviewing - questions a potential candidate might ask of you. How would you respond to these questions? Everyone talks about their culture is family oriented and cares deeply about their people - is that really true? Could you offer specific examples to illustrate how your values get reflected day-to-day with employees?

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Less than half of your people are receiving regular feedback – and it's forcing them to quit | HRD Asia

Less than half of your people are receiving regular feedback – and it's forcing them to quit | HRD Asia | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
HR leaders are seriously underestimating the power of a good performance review...
Barry Deutsch's insight:

One of the most important elements of employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention is continuous and regular feedback. KILL the traditional performance management process with it's once a year review cycle. Not only is it woefully inadequate, but it borders on a sadistic approach to feedback.

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15 Awesome Employee Recognition Ideas Your Staff Will Love

15 Awesome Employee Recognition Ideas Your Staff Will Love | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Employee recognition increases employees' performance and spurs them to work harder. Check out these 15 excellent employee recognition examples to try.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

When of the struggles I hear from my clients is what is appreciation vs. recognition - how do know it when we see it? We don't want to reinforce just showing up to work - but going above and beyond. What would that look like at an observable level?

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Reframing the employee experience

Reframing the employee experience | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Everyone is talking about managing the employee experience - but what is that? How does it affect specific initiatives? Not managing it well puts you on the wrong end of the metrics around the "great resignation."

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Encourage Workplace Friendships To Make Your Staff More Productive

Encourage Workplace Friendships To Make Your Staff More Productive | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Encourage workplace friendships by creating an atmosphere that encourages employees to get involved in company events and social gatherings.
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Whose responsiblity is it to foster or create  a framework for developing work related relationshps/friendships? It's not enough to just work together and hope it works.

 

A hallmark of high performing teams is that the team members really like working with each other. This is done through team-buildling exercises, outside events, sharing meals together, lunch and learns. Are you doing enough to allow people on your team to develop strong personal relationships?

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Employee recognition: You're probably doing it wrong

Employee recognition: You're probably doing it wrong | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Human Resources and Workforce Management News...
Barry Deutsch's insight:

Some good ideas around designing a non-monetary reward and recognition process. NOT having a great recognition and reward process is the number two reason (behind not defining success in clear and precise language of KPIs and Metrics) why employees disengage and start looking for a new job.

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Effective leadership the key to staff retention and attraction | Accountants Daily

Effective leadership the key to staff retention and attraction | Accountants Daily | Retain Top Talent | Scoop.it
Employee satisfaction hinges on the quality of management, says Evolution of Leadership Report 2022....
Barry Deutsch's insight:

This article pretty much sums up my entire workshop on retention and engagement - "Employee satisfaction hinges on the quality of management".

 

In most organizations, the managers who are leading the bulk of your employees have no clue what they are doing! They're good people, they've just never been trained, coached, had their hand held, taught, sent to class, and measured around best practices of leading teams.

 

This is not a new revelation - almost every major business author in the last 2 decades has talked about the importance of managing and leading. Gallup came out with an excellent book on the subject titled "It's the Manager".

 

Let's think through this logically. If 70-75% of the reason an employee is engaged is based on their manager - meaning they give a 100 percent effort, and love being part of your organization - then should we not help managers know how to engage (defining success, open and transparent communication, developing people, giving great feedback, motivating their team, helping employees understand how they matter, and showing tremendous appreciation and gratitude for what they do).

 

Most managers have no clue how to execute on these critical engagement activities with their teams. Is it time for some remedial training of your core mangement team?

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