Retain Top Talent

Good article on ideas of working and managing remotely. We're not all McKinsey-type companies, but there may be a few nuggets we can take away from this article - as work evolves toward permanent remote or a hybrid environment.

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.

At first I had to laugh at this article - but then it hit me: Shouldn't your HR person be the individual tasked with ensuring employee happiness - along with employee engagement, employee satisfaction, employee learning and development, employee experience?

Why do we need to hire or contract with someone when that should be our chief people person? The issue is if you're not a big enough organization yet to support a full time senior professional HR person who drive these initiatives, what's your options? You could hire a "fractional" or part-time HR exec that supports you one day a month or one a week to drive these initiatives and set the programs up. Don't let your size or lack of a full time permanent person stop you from moving foward on the critical initiatives that dictate high or low productivity.

I've have been recommending using a messaging app like Teams or Slack in my workshops on Managing Remotely in a Crisis to replace the informal collaboration that naturally occurs when we are all in the office together. Here's an interesting take on Slack given Saleforce's acquisition of the company.

This is exactly what I am seeing over the last 6 months at many of my clients - a decline in employee engagement activities like celebrations, fun, team building, recognition, one-to-ones - all because your team members are out of sight - out of mind.

We should be doing the opposite - and reinvigorating our efforts around engagement, recognition, automony, development, training, coaching, mentoring - all the activities and initiatives that lead your employees to want to lean in and show discretionary effort like proactivity, initiative, doing more than asked, being inquisitive, problem solving VS. just trying to survive and do the minimum so they can stay on your payroll system.

My takeaway from this article about improving employee engagement was that it starts with good management. Unfortunately, in many of the companies I've been invited to help with retention, engagement, hiring, and performance management strategies, the sad truth is that many of your managers have no clue what it means to be a good manager.

No one has ever given them sophisticated training on being a great manager, no one has ever mentored them to improve their game, and most managers lack the proactivity and initiative to go above and beyond to learn on their own.

The result is that a signficant portion of your workforce (50 percent) is disengaged and showing you minimal levels of productivity - just enough so they don't get fired. It's a shame that most organizations don't come close to realizing their potential since their management team is so weak in the skills of managing - most likely along the lines of being unconsciously incompetent.

Is it time to pivot and relook at the process of developing your managers through a new lens of boosting engagement and productivity. How could you afford not to train, develop, and coach?

I usually don't share personal improvement type stories, but I couldn't help myself with this one. This could be one of the greatest development issues for most of my clients, friends, and family members. Many times we are paralyzed by analysis - rumination and overthinking. Just do it as the Nike motto asserts in their ads.

Take action, be innovative, try new things, pivot in a new direction.

I've done a lot of coaching with my clients during the Covid crisis. Most executives have a mindset of protecting what they've created and not wanting to "rock the boat". Unfortunately, drastic changes require drastic pivoting, which requires action. Most of the executives I encounter have put their heads in the hands are praying things eventually return to pre-mid-March levels. You and I both know that's never going to happen. So the big question is: What's your first drastic pivot move?

I've been spending a fair amount of time in my recent consulting with clients talking about non-monetary reward and recogition programs. Next to defining success, this is the second most important issue of driving employee engagement and productivity - showing apprecation.

Do you have a systematic and rigorous process embedding appreciation into the fabric of your culture?

Every organization today is a digital organization. Helping your employees to be successful through the use of apps like Slack, Teams, Basecamp, Bonus.ly, and others can help you rapidly improve process for workflow, performance management, hiring, and employee engagement.

One area getting recent attention are apps that improve the onboarding process. I guess I should first say that most of the companies I consult with have an onboarding process that is still stuck in the 1970s which basically is having new employees watch videos and having them fill out HR paperwork.

Not having a robust app to drive onboarding can result in starting off on the wrong foot - and moving your new employee from excited to disengaged within days.

What's your next step to improve your on-boarding process?

Many of my clients lament about how their recognition and reward programs are not embraced with a high degree of passion from their workforce. In probing deeper, I usually discover that the primary reason is a lack of marketing and promotion. Like any other initiative, taking the attitude of "if we build it they will come" is not a particularly sound strategy. Are you struggling to generate a high level of passion around your employee reward and recognition programs?

I'm in the middle of preparing a one-hour talk for Vistage Groups and companies on Performance Management and Feedback. Here is good article I came across in my research that summarizes a few key points about an effective review-feedback process.

As many of you know, I believe the 1-to-1 is the best tool for managing performane, engaging employees (driving productivity), and creating a culture of empathy/caring. No tool on earth comes as close as a good 1-to-1. Here are some ideas in addition to my postings on what makes for agood 1-to-1.

I frequenty suggest to my clients to do employee surveys to take the pulse of your workforce. Many companies don't do this because the management team is afraid of what they will hear. This article lists some of the good questions to use. I particularly liked the start of the article with "What's your Why?"

Although the article ends with a ptich for their services, I like the list of suggestions that might improve employee engagement. Not sure this is an all encompassing list - and it's mostly centered around performance/feedback/goal setting type issues. However, most companies are not coming close to fulfilling these most basic of employee engagement criteria.

Lots of buzz around this idea of the "employee experience". I liked this article for the recommendation they make about integrating learning and development with performance management - instead of looking at these two elements as completely separate. 

Interesting article in Forbes regarding the annual performance appraisal process. I've been recommending in my workshops on Feedback and Performance Management that companies should kill this sadistic exercise and move toward regular coaching conversations. The problem is that most managers don't know how to coach - so their focus is on highlighting the negatives in the annual performance review. Why don't we teach our managers to coach?

Almost all of my clients have some element of a recognition program in place. This article does a great job pointing out the mistakes and errors many employers make in launching or managing these programs.

Are you guilty of any of the recognition program mistakes or errors listed in the article?

Nice infographic regarding non-monetary rewards and recognition to stimulate employee engagement. Lacking a rigorous process for appreciation, recognition, and gratitude is the number two reason why so few of your employees are engaged, motivated, and productive. The number one reason is a lack of helping your employees understand what's expected of them in clear precise language.

How rigorous is your reward and recognition process. Shoot me a note and I'll send you the matrix we've created that allows you to gain a quick snapshot of where you stand on the spectrum of having an effective process in place.

In my workshops on managing, feedback, and performance management, I advocate the use of a 1-to-1 as the greatest managerial tool ever.

Quick recommendations: Once a week for 30 minutes with 4 elements: 1) 5 minutes of showing empathy through asking questions about family. 2) 10 minutes on reviewing the one page performance expectations, outcomes, deliverables, metrics, and KPIs the employee has committed to deliver. 3) 10 minutes on coaching to focus on their strengths and helping them to be more successful. 4) 5 minutes on LIB discussion on learning, impact, and becoming - what do they stay and what's their dream of what they can accomplish in your organization.

One of the key items I point out in my workshops on hiring, performance management, and employee engagement is that most managers have no clue what they are doing since they've never been appropriately trained, coached, or mentored. We assume because people carry a manager title, they should know the best practices of hiring and managing. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Since 70 percent of engagement and productivity is tied directly to the capability of a manager - shouldn't we invest in training this group to be extraordinary at leading people and building high-performing teams.

What's holding you back from making this investment?

In my workshops and consulting on employee engagement, I spend a lot of time focusing on saying thank you - showing appreciation, gratitude, thankfulness. Most companies suffer greatly from not doing this enough.

The problem is that most individuals in management lack enough empathy and sensitivity to say thank you when appropriate. Is it time for some management/supervisor training on when it's appropriate, what to say, and the vehicle/medium for presenting the thank you?

We usually think more about employee engagement than employee happiness - here are some ideas on the subject of helping your employees to attain happiness in their work from FORBES.

Although the article was a summary of Aon's research and was a little too generic for me - there was an interesting point I wanted to share from this article that mentioned over half of employees feel change initiatives were not well managed. Why - what is it about change, action plans, new initiatives that turn off most employees - there's something deeper here than just the issue of fear of change.

My experience and research into change management shows that over 80 percent of all initiatives fail to achieve their desired outcomes - including hiring, employee engagement, investments, acquisitions, IT systems, and change initiatives. Most of the time the actions are good strategic initiatives but fail miserably because we don't manage the employees who are implementing it and working on it. How can we do better?

Some basic ideas about what causes employees to turn off and give you the absolute lowest level of effort or productivity they think you will tolerate so that they can stay on the payroll system.

I am amazed at how many companies violate these basic ideas - managers who are not well trained in managing/coaching, weak or non-existent reward programs, and the tolerance of abnormal employee behavior that is the opposite of your culture and values.

Are you allowing any of these key principles to prevent our employees from giving you their best effort?

One of the key pitfalls I see in most companies is a lack of a good listening device on employee concerns and issues. The best companies frequently and regularly take the pulse of their workface. Here's some interesting ideas about employee surveys.