Retain Top Talent

What a great story that reflects praise, gratitude, appreciation, and recognition. A letter to the parents. Duh! Why haven't I thought of that as a tactic around motivation? How many of you have written a note to an employee's parents?

I am a huge proponent of inclusiveness - whether it be in a community non-profit, religious institution, or work setting.

Have you done an assessment, survey, self-reflection on whether your work environment or culture is inclusive? It doesn't happen naturally - as the author indicates you have to be purposeful.

For those in the younger generational categories, working in an inclusive culture is important.

When was the last time you tried to measure employee engagement? Are you behind your competitors? Have you tried to calculate the cost of low employee engagement?

There are some very simple fixes. This article mentions a few fixes that mostly focus on thinking about employees differently. How to care, nurture, and develop them. Why do most companies still treat employees like they did in the 1980s and 1990s?

What's holding you back on creating an outstanding work culture?

Interesting list of behaviors centered around initiative, proactivity, an self-motivation. In what ways does this number one trait of success get exhibited? How can you recognize and reward it?

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??

An interesting article published on HBR from Glassdoor data about employee happiness/engagement/satisfaction compared to customer satisfaction.

Although this point has been proven in numerous studies already, it reinforces this basic link between the two.

What are you doing to raise your employee engagement to drive the best customer satisfaction among your competitors?

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?

This article comes at the idea of employee engagement a little differently than most articles - it tackles the idea of creating a sense of purpose - both at the ME and WE levels.

Interesting statistic on how purpose-driven organizations outperform their non-purpose driven competitors.

Would your employees say that you are a purpose-driven organization?

Interesting article reinforcing the idea that people want to have an impact with meaningful work. How do you show your employees that they matter and that they are making progress?

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?

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"?

What a great idea for retention and employee engagement. You've probably noticed that I've been writing a lot about employee engagement, recognition, appreciation, happiness, and retention.

The job market is rapidly shifting from how do I find people to how do I keep my best ones from being poached.

A big part of engagement and retention is showing appreciation, gratitude, empathy, caring, and recognition.

What could be more simple than uploading your company logo to hallmark, using some standard cards and sentiments on the inside, and then writing a short note of appreciation?

You'll change your culture dramatically overnight for a just a few dollars. I use these hallmark cards on a regular basis with employees, consultants, non-profit volunteers, and customers.

What's holding you back from a few minutes to create custom appreciation cards - either online or formal printed cards? It's almost a no-brainer to invest 30-60 minutes to try this tactic.

Interesting article on the concept of "work marytrs" - those who feel the need to broadcast to others their excessive workaholic behavior.

I can appreciate this article having grown up in a few large competitive organizations like Beatrice Foods, Mattel, and Westinghouse where everyone seemed to be in competition for who was the bigger work martyr.

My question is whether there is some hidden agenda/cultural issue that drives some of your employees to feel the need to work excessive hours and then make sure everyone else knows they are doing it.

Do you agree these are some of the most important criteria for a good boss? Are there any others you might add to the list?

Are you stuck in old school feedback?

Your Managers who are not well trained in how to provide on-going positive feedback?

A performance review process that is once a year?

Employees who are not getting enough feedback to become engaged?

Although the article is focused on the restaurant industry, they are a lot of good lessons for all segments. I really liked the author's ability to separate employee happiness from employee engagement. Just because they are happy at work, doesn't mean they are engaged.

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?

Counter-intuitive perspective on financial rewards and motivation. What works best in your organization?

Usually, I'm posting positive articles with tips, tactics, and recommendations. This article takes a different approach by looking at why recognition programs fail. One interesting learning element for me was that recognition is not frequent enough.

Yesterday I published an article on the importance of creating a purpose-driven organization. On the heels of that article, this one pops up on Forbes about giving your employees a "cause" for being part of your organization.

The SEALs get it, Starbucks gets it. Do your Employees understand the purpose and cause behind your organization?  IF NOT, are you at risk of losing good people when they hear this message from your competitors as the job market shifts from advertising to poaching.

I liked how thorough this article approached the idea of teaching the fundamentals of employee recognition. It aligns with our process of making things like hiring and retention a systematic and rigorous process - instead of random events.

Do you have bosses in your organization that create a toxic work culture? Are you at risk of losing some of your top performers as the job market continues to accelerate over the next decade?

How do you know? When was the last time you solicited feedback - formally or informally about your supervisors, managers, and executives?

Good basic ideas on recognition, team work, personal development, learning - all of which leads to increasing engagement and productivity.

Here's the key question - why do so few companies and managers shy away from investing in trying to build employee engagement - when we know the impact on retention and productivity?

Is there not enough published information and studies to justify the investment, is there not enough incentive to change, is it not part of your culture, or is it that you just don't know what to do? 

I've been talking about this idea for years - great leaders show their appreciation, gratitude, and caring toward their teams and employees.

Not having gratitude and appreciation as part of your core values can be one of the reasons your best performers will be poached in the next year or two.

Fixing a culture where there is a lack of gratitude and appreciation is very simple - why don't more CEOs and Executives take action toward building it into the fabric of their organizations?

Alarm bells should be ringing! Can you believe the statement in this article in Inc that a survey showed that 80 percent of the reason to leave a company was a lack of being patted on the back?

I've been talking about this simple idea of one element of employee engagement for years - yet out of 600-700 CEOs and executives that I present to annually - very few are doing anything substantial around employee appreciation and recognition.

As the job market continues to heat up over the next decade, be prepared for the exodus due to a lack of appreciation.