Retain Top Talent

Here are some excellent ways to reward your employees that is not about money. This could be one of your greatest levers to drive higher levels of motivation, effort, and productivity. How strong and comprehensive is your non-monetary and reward and recognition system?

Interesting article listing various generational issues around engagement and incorporating Gallup's research. 

At the heart of employee satisfaction, productivity, output, success, and retention are goals and KPIs. Why do so many companies leave this as a loose or non-existent process?

Research shows that the majority of employee satisfaction and performance comes as a result of the manager-subordinate relationship. Are you training your managers how to become great managers of people in hiring and retaining teams OR are they just "winging it" based on their life experiences?

I really like the idea of giving gifts as a show of appreciation, gratitude and thankfulness. It appears to be more thoughtful than just cash or a thank you card. Do you have a program that for certain types of appreciation, your company gives thoughtful gifts?

The current work environment is such that very few employees in admin/white collar jobs want to work full time in the office. At the same time, most companies have not changed how they engage or communicate as a large portion of their workforce has gone remote or hybrid.

I see very few companies leveraging the outstanding digital apps and tools available to improve engagement, connectivity, and feeling part of the mother ship. Every company is now a technology company - if you're not leveraging these tools - then your rapidly falling behind in the ability to attract and keep great talent.

Where do you stand on the use of digital/technology tools to improve employee engagement and connectivity?

A lot of good points about engaging your unmotivated employees are raised in this article. My experience is that most companies do a terrible job around these elements - or they focus too much on just one or two of the elements instead of comprehensive plan.

eNPS is down according to this study - they link it directly to employee happiness. Not sure if I would draw that direct correlation - particularly when Gallup is showing a slight increase in employee engagement. Is your engagement scores/eNPS up or down over the last 6-12 months. Are you even measuring it to determine how to proceed?

Interesting article challenging our ideas around being transparent with the workforce. How transparent should we be?  Where does your organization fall on this spectrum of transparency?

Every hiring study I've looked at in 30 years shows that referrals make for better employees - they integrate better, on-board more effectively, contribute at a higher level, and have impressive engagement numbers.

Most companies are horrible at driving referrals. The number ONE reason they are so bad at attracting employees through referrals: they don't ask!

How hard do you want to work to increase your hires from referrals by 10, 20 or 30 percent?

I really liked this blog article on creating a culture of success. As you cycle through the bullet points in this article - does this resemble your culture Or is it more of an aspirational model and vision? When are you going to start implementing initiatives to crate a culture of success?

I am not a believer that your physical space defines your culture. Some of my most successful clients have built virtual/remote organizations. The issue is that you have to work much harder in a virtual organization to sustain a great culture and build employee engagement.

How deeply do you collect feedback from your employees - starting with on-boarding and ending with exit interviews. Most companies are not interested in what their employees think or believe. They don't want to hear this information - they don't want to be forced to change and evolve for the better. The executive "thinks" they know what all the issues are - and employee opinions get deeply discounted.

Does this describe your culture?

Here's another interesting article on employee engagement - or how do you keep that recent hire you worked so hard to acquire? 

The article starts off a little depressing sharing some of the downward trending data from Gallup's recent research - then the author makes the following point:

"But not all companies fell prey to these downward trends. Some companies managed to achieve 70% employee engagement during the most disruptive periods and ended up earning up to 23% more profit on average because of it."

How did they do it?

Do you tolerate a toxic culture or put up with bad behavior from your management team who sets the example for everyone else? Are you actually driving people away instead of attracting them like a magnet?

Number one issue - not clearly defining success!

The quote from the article should scare you: Studies show that about 85% of leaders don't define their team's focus, and employees lack clarity about their goals or KPIs.

I would lend credibility to this study by reflecting on the thousands of Vistage companies I've worked with over the last 20 years. Very few demonstrate any rigor around defining, measuring, and leveraging performance expectations.

Here's the other scary statistic from the article - what a great way to manage - keeping your employees in the dark. "A whopping 93% of employees aren't clear on their organization's objectives."

Gallup's first question on their engagement survey is "Do I know what's expected of me?" I'm shocked by the surveys shared by my clients in how many of their employees answer NO to this question?

What's the implication - poor retention, low productivity, apathy, weak culture, ineffective hiring, and getting left behind by your competitors. When is the right time to start making changes?

Here's an interesting take from Forbes on linking performance management and career development as a method of improving employee performance and improving retention/engagement. How do your managers communicate and interact with their subordinates around linking these two elements together?

Although this article is a little of the author's self-promotion, there are some very good points about culture, engagement, and retention - very similar to the research Gallup publishes. How many of these elements are you currently executing on as an initiative to improve employee morale, passion, retention, engagement and perhaps most importantly, productivity?

This article caught my eye. One of the elements that makes recruiting so easy is that the vast majority of employees are bored in their jobs - stagnant, mundane, non-compelling or interesting roles. They are not growing, learning, or improving their skills and capabilities to gain better opportunities or higher compensation. 

It's so very sad!

Recruiter proofing your company means changing the mental framework about how we define work and expectations.

Are you still stuck in a 1970s command-and-control structure around work?

This is an interesting interview about engaging employees - in this example front line manufacturing employees. The use of technology in showing workers their successes on TV screens and IPADs by presenting and managing KPIs and metrics is an interesting take on the old school style of reporting. They then link their reward/recognition system into the reporting.

I wonder how much this improves employee engagement?

What I can't figure out is why more companies don't put simple initiatives in place that can dramatically improve employee engagement, motivation, productivity, and retention?

The latest Gallup Survey indicates engagement is up a few points. However, managing remote staff is still a struggle. Are you facing any of these problems in your workplace?

 I love the idea of telling employee stories. Case studies, examples, heart warming stories of how your employees matter and how much they care about your customers. This could be one of the most powerful ways you build deep long-term relationships with customers. Who is collecting and writing these stories in your organization?

Has it come to an end? Are your employees shifting from the great resignation to quiet quitting? Gallup shows that most employees are dissatisfied and disengaged in their current role. It's a crying shame how many of your employees are not giving you their full productive effort - and the issue is squarely in your lap as the CEO or key executive.

Great article by HBR on the issue of burn-out. More responsibility, faster expectations, less staff - a recipe for burning out your brightest stars. Are you aware of when burn-out occurs - and do you have specific tactics to prevent overcome this black hole of declining productivity, effort, and impact?