Retain Top Talent

Here are some frightening statistics about performance management and accountability from a recent HBR article. This could be one of the greatest issues of the decade for hiring, productivity, and engagement.

Most of my clients when asked why they are not defining success and implementing accountability - respond with "we don't know what to do."

Are any of these telltale signs of disengagement occuring in your organization? I would guess it's all over the place if we're being honest since research indicates that 50-70 percent of your workforce is disengaged. The real question is what are you doing about it?

I rarely touch on the element of when to fire someone. I should probably cover this topic more in-depth. One of the old trite phrases that many of my clients violate is Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly. Most companies do the complete opposite. They fall victim to hiring mistakes because they pull the trigger long before vetting, validating, verifying every claim, accomplishment, achievement, skill, statement by the candidate.

They also let misbehaving, toxic, non-performers overstay their welcome instead of voting them off the island. They usually rationalize this decision with "better the devil I know than the one i don't."

I find that a huge struggle for many managers is the decision making process over when and how to give feedback. I like the summary and checkbox approach of this article to determining the proper course of action when an issue occurs that is feedback worthy.

Do you make performance discussion a two-way street? Interesting article on including an employee self-appraisal as part of your performance management-appraisal process.

Interesting article on performance management - particularly questions around feedback. The author suggests feedback is not as important as it once was since everyone feels that's the standard = unfortunately many companies still suffer from a basic last of effective feedback by managers. Is it time to reassess managerial skills in giving feedback. Many CEOs assume that if their direct reports carry manager level titles, they must understand how to give feedback. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I cannot stress enough the importance of a vibrant employee recognition and reward program. Here are some additional ideas to consider in recognition and rewards. Next to the lack of NOT defining success, a weak or non-existent recognition and rewards program is the secon reason you see a lack of engagement and productivity in your organization.

This article caught my attention. In my executive search practice I focus on interviewing for exceptional talent - those who have a passion for self-improvement, learning, and development. I look for people who have developed a high degree of mental toughness like resilience, focus, effort, overcoming adversity, taking initiative, being proactive, and tenacity. You can develop all these traits - you're not born with them.

Here's my question: If you can teach yourself these core traits of success and a few others - why don't you do it? The payoff to applying yourself at a completely different level is enormous. We don't do it because it's really hard work! Most people are happy being complacent, being average, accepting their lot in life as a given that they cannot change - because they dont want to make the effort to be better.

What's your pain threshold for being ready to change your mindset and your behaviors?

Interesting article on potential failure points of executives and managers. Many times in interviews we except the rationalizations and excuses of why they didn't succeed. Or they blame it one others. Could their failure be linked to their own behavioral flaw - how do we flush this out in the interview?

Good thorough article on performance management and best practices. Are you starting to adopt some of these ideas in your performance management?

Do you celebrate personal milestones of your employees. One milestone not mentioned you should be celebrating are when your employees take part in non-profit, social activities that are not political - like helping at a soup kitchen, food bank, or organizing a dinner drive for local hospital workers.  Are all of your employees tuned into what's going on in the lives of their teammates?

I've seen many companies drop this caring, empathy, and recognition during Covid as if people don't matter anymore. NOW is when we should be emphasizing these personal milestones.

You might consider sharing this aricle with your employees who are working from a home office to improve their productivity.

Obviously the author of this article is biased in thinking there list falls in the top 14. However, there were a couple in this article that are pretty consistent from best practice article to article over the past decade. These become amplified in a hybrid work environment. Some of the best ones include clairty about goals, raising the amount of communication, and starting to get managers to stop focusing on employee weaknesses and start focusing on coaching. Finally, there is a need to inject a little bit of humor into the work environment during this covid crisis - my perspective is that many of us have lost our sense of being playful, having fun, joking around, and enjoying each other as teammates.

Everyone organization is a technolgy company now! Are you using apps and tools to make life more efficient and enjoyble for your employees? Here are some ideas for employee engagement through Slack. If you're using teams - what is the comparable apps/tools?

Most companies are horrible at their on-boarding process. In most companies the imprpvement of their on-boarding process is fake dress up = what my of my midwestern friends would call putting lipstcik on a pig. A great on-boarding process goes a long way to building engagement, encouraging motivation, and ensuring a successful relationship.

I get this question a lot from my clients related to what are we measuring and how are we recognizing it in our people? Is it more about performance or behaviors?

As you probably know, I talk extensively about how rewards, recognition, and appreciation is the next most important element to employee engagement (productivity) after defining success for the role.

Do you have a strong peer to peer recognition as a best practice in rewards and recognition for your organization?

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.

Most companies I come across in my executive search and consulting practice claim they have a great culture - but they lack a core element of appreciation, gratitude, recognition, and thankfulness. How do your managers execute on a daily basis around showing appreciation? Is it time for some remedial training of your management team around this critical element of an outstanding culture.

Always looking for a little managerial humor. Bosses are always getting a bad rap - maybe for good reason after you read this article. I've been preaching over the last few years about how important the boss is in driving engagement/productivity.

We've known this to be an issue for quite some time. Studies are starting to show the effect of stress and anxiety on engagement and productivity. The big question is how your organization is responding to this new trend and potential crisis given the fact that we're going to be in a Covid-related environment probably well into 2022.

Some interesting insights into your workforce - particulary the disengaged who don't care whether they continue working for you  - new study pegs it at 25 percent. I believe it's much higher - particularly if you look at the Gallup research.

Good article by BambooHR on the Dos and Don'ts of employee recognition. As I indicted earlier, many companies have just zoned out on the need to increase employee recognition, rewards, sensitivity, empathy during COVID. My argument is that we should all be doubling down to show how much we appreciate our employees.

This article caught my attention. Do you work in a toxic work environment? Should you be asking yourself these questions? As a key executive, leader, or CEO - you are what you tolerate. If the complaints I hear from my clients are indicative of what's going on in most companies as tolerated behavior - then I am seriously worried about the state of employee engagement and retention.

Many of my clients have been lamenting to me for the past few months about underperforming team members and whether they should fire them and replace with them with someone better.

There are lot of things you can do to improve an employee's performance before you reach for the trap door lever. First, are the expectations and results desired clear, precise, quantifiable, and metric based? Are they written down and have you and your employee agreed to them together? Secondly, how often are you having one-to-ones and improving your coaching of your employees? Finally, are you actively working on employee engagement initiatives such as creating personal development plans and implementing a rigorous employee appreciation and recognition program? Simple steps to dramatically boost performance, effort, initiative, motivation, and proactivity.