Retain Top Talent

Just a few simple elements can dramatically affect your culture and employee engagement. A big one that most companies are terrible at is showing gratitude. You could pat people on the back, write emails, put them on a pedestal when they do something spectacular, and basically treat them with respect. 

Why do most managers struggle with showing gratitude toward their team members, and continue to be abusive, obnoxious, indifferent, mean, and dripping with sarcasm?

Chris makes a very good point here about the importance of listening and the correlation to engagement or disengagement - whether it be in team meetings, problem-solving sessions, or giving feedback.

My personal experience is that most managers/executives DO NOT know how to listen to employees. It's a learned skill. Many CEOs assume that their management team members must have decent listening skills since they carry a management title. NOTHING could be further from the truth.

If this is an important criterion for engagement, and it's a learned skill - why are we NOT training managers to be outstanding at listening?

Are you still stuck in a 1970s model of performance reviews? Most studies show these are worthless exercises to motivate, engage, and boost outstanding performance. If that's the case, why are you still conducting annual performance reviews?

This is a good article reviewing some of the research, problems, and issues of annual performance reviews, and the challenges of moving to a different model, such as regular monthly coaching one-to-ones between managers and subordinates.

It's bordering on comical when CEOs and executives say "why should I invest in training when I'm just preparing them for a job in another company".

Is this your philosophy about training and development? Or is your organization up on a pedestal for your investments in training and developing people? Have you done any formal survey work to discover why people join your organization or leave? How much is related to developing, training, coaching, and helping people realize their dreams?

I hear this constant debate about managers and leaders. My perspective is that every job at a management level - department head, team leader, director, vice president - has elements of both.

However, where most fail is not around have a strategic vision, and it's not around the inability to technically grasp their job. It's on the people management side of effectively hiring and retaining an outstanding group of people who become a high performing team.

Is that management or leadership?

I came across this article right after I published my LinkedIn Pulse article on Selfless behavior in teams as one of the core interview elements. Here is an article that helps reinforce that idea. If these concepts work with the best performing sports teams, the Seals, and other exceptional teams - why can't they work in a corporate setting?

This is interesting research out of HBS linking gratitude and dishonesty. So many of my clients ask how to measure honesty in the interview. Perhaps, instead of focusing on honesty, we should focus on what people want to feel gratitude and appreciated.

Biggest issue regarding employee voluntary turnover - 

Not knowing how to talk about job satisfaction

Are you training your managers how to have this discussion with their team?

Interesting article on building trust with your team. The article dicusses 3 tactics to build trust - counter-intuitive to most managers regarding understanding team member personal lives.

One of the most important elements of employee engagement and retention is the quality of the manager. An enormous part of that relationship hinges on trust. Are your managers using these tactics to build trust?

There is a strong link between performance management and employee engagement - particularly around the idea of defining clear expectations.

Why do so many companies ignore this fundamental element of both performance management and employee engagement? Is it too hard? Do they not know where to start? Do they not care?

Great infographic around employee engagement, happiness, and satisfaction. The free food one was a surprise - not sure I buy into that being important criteria - but the other items - right ON!

How can you begin an engagement program right now to stop your employees from thinking about "Is the grass greener somewhere else?"

The vast majority of your employees just don't care about their job, the company, or their teams. They are just coping with getting by each day doing the absolute minimum of work that you'll tolerate to allow them to keep their jobs.

This FORTUNE article is consistent with the primary research from Gallup on employee engagement, and most other studies.

What are you doing to combat this apathy, low productivity, and terrible attitude? Do you have a specific written engagement and retention plan to dramatically boost productivity, engagement, and employee satisfaction (remember - there is a direct correlation with employee engagement and productivity/customer satisfaction)?

Is now the time to start moving the bulk of your employees from the category of "I don't care" to "I care deeply?"

The author (whom I follow and respect) infers that this is a Google original idea. It's not! Furthermore, figuring this out in an interview is NOT a five-minute issue as the article headline proclaims. It takes hours to understand a manager/leaders ability to hire and retain a high performing team. There is NO simple solution or answer to get at it.

This is the core of the work that Gallup did and then published in their book "First Break All the Rules" (if you are in management this should be required reading - right after my book on hiring)

Almost all of the work in  HR, employee engagement, and retention stems from this groundbreaking research that Gallup did a number of years ago.

One of the most important elements of that entire research was the idea that employees want to know what is expected of them in measurable terms.

Would you say that every employee in your organization has clear, objective, measurable results, outcomes, metrics, deliverables that are written and agreed to by both the employee and their immediate manager?

I hear this constant debate about managers and leaders. My perspective is that every job at a management level - department head, team leader, director, vice president - has elements of both.
 
However, where most fail is not around have a strategic vision, and it's not around the inability to technically grasp their job. It's on the people management side of effectively hiring and retaining an outstanding group of people who become a high performing team.
 
Is that management or leadership?

Good articulation of the key elements of leadership, a nice review of good/bad traits, and tools to help improve the development of leadership qualities.

Loved the quote from Drucker about Culture Eating Strategy.

Do you have a defined culture? What are the 3-5 key elements of initiatives that reinforce that culture - whether it be praise and gratitude tactics or healthcare/wellness plans?

No culture - or one that your employees make up - is a real problem in being able to attract and keep better people.

71 percent of employees indicating they would leave their current employer for a better job?

The author suggests you need a employee engagement strategy to prevent your best employees from leaving. The vast majority of companies I work with have NO process, structure, plan, or strategy to deal with employee engagement.

The approach of most companies appears to be "if employees show up for work, they must enjoy (be engaged) with their jobs.

What's your strategy?