Retain Top Talent

An overwhelming number of ideas that you could you use to immediately boost employee recognition. Just pick one for an immediate impact.

There are 3 main areas that authors focus on in terms of an employee's experience: employee engagement, employee happiness, and employee satisfaction. All of these can impact customer satisfaction.

Many authors use these terms with overlapping definitions. 

As a summary statement, there is a lot of overlap between the ideas. For example, this author talks about creating a positive work environment - this can affect engagement, happiness, and satisfaction. 

For me, the bigger question is how do we measure the investment in retention or engagement tactics - is it through productivity KPIs, attendence, turnover, structured feedback from employee or customer surveys?

We know we should have a non-monetary reward/recognition system - but how do we determine if it is meeting our needs? What's the metric, measurement process, reporting, and action steps/milestones along the path of making improvements?

You know I'm a huge proponent of praise, recognition, and non=-monetary rewards to stimulate retention, engagement, and employee happiness. This article gives some good examples and shares some of the primary research around this topic.

I love statistics, metrics, scorecards, and surveys, especially around hiring and retention.

Here's some surveys and statistics to think about as you start to see your best talent get poached by your competitors.

Sometimes in the rush and pressure of business, we forget that we're dealing with human beings who require a little praise, empathy, encouragement, interaction, and kindness.

Although the author mentions a number of very simple things, like celebrating birthdays, I still find that many companies show tthat they don't care about their people by ignoring some of these most basic elements. 

Where are you on the spectrum of caring, empathy, and specific tactics? When I help my clients develop compelling advertising, one of the most common phrases they throw back at me is "we're a family oriented environment."

When I ask for a couple of examples of why they say that - all I get is a blank look. Can you back up your statements with examples about your culture, values, and how the company cares about the employees?

Another survey on employee engagement - pretty consistent data.

80% not engaged.

64% considering looking for a job

82% want more recognition

90% want more feedback

What I don't understand is that some of these issues are very simple to fix and are basically low hanging fruit to immediately boost retention and employee engagement.

Why do most employers, especially smaller businesses, feel it's not worth the time to give more feedback, recognition, and learning/development?

My take away here is that employees really want investment in training and development. Do you develop written personal development plans for every plan every year? Are your competitors doing this retention strategy? Have you trained your managers in how to have this career/training/development discussion with their teams?

You probably know from my posts that I am a huge advocate of kindness, grace, appreciation, and gratitude in the workplace. I'm going to suggest that this concept is so far beyond most executives and CEOs that it could be coming from outer space.

The current generation of executives and many managers are indoctrinated from their bosses and mentors with the need to yell, scream, be angry, and show little mercy. They are rude, inconsiderate and don't really care about people in their actions. in most companies, there is very little appreciation, grace, and gratitude.

The challenge for most executives and managers is how to balance the need for execution and attainment of goals with caring about people through appreciation, grace, and gratitude.

Without the appropriate balance, it will be very tough to keep high performers in your organization in the coming years.

How do you do it?

An interesting study and article showing one of the top elements of concern to employees is work/life balance. Unfortunately, the article doesn't provide any greater detail on defining what's an appropriate work/life balance. Does that mean I get time off for Doctor's appointments or you'll not call me at the last minute to work a weekend shift?

I did pick that a couple of the most important factors for younger workers is challenging work and learning opportunities. Duh! Still amazed how many companies don't focus and discuss this issue with their employees.

If you've been following my posts, you know that I am a huge proponent of showing praise, appreciation, gratitude, and recognition. Here is an article that highlights 6 simple and easy to implement tactics for improving retention.

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

This article did a good job separating the ideas of recognition and appreciation. Sometimes, CEOs get confused over which one requires what tactics - or one gets ignored.

Good summary on issues related to culture, including observation of executives and managers in the execution of values. Perhaps, most importantly was the comment  about employees wanting to know what's expected of them - which is now amplified exponentially given that most of the work force is at home "out of sight/out of mind".

Fear and uncertainty will cause your best performers to leave your organization - they'll find jobs instantly no matter what is happening in the economy. You'll be left with average and mediocre employees unless you being to start taking action now on your culture.

Great set of statements that are compliments for co-workers. I frequently find that workers and managers don't know what to say to each other. It's not natural for most people to be sensitive, empathic, kind, gracious, generous, and positive in their feeback.

Imagine what your culture would be like if you trained your employees to use these words with each other? Could you quantify the leap in positive energy?

Interesting article on the importance of relationships at work. Remember one of the key elements of Gallup's engaged employee is someone who has a good friend at work.

The leaders of Faith-based communities figured out long ago that one of the reasons people stay in churches and synagogues is that they have deep relationships with others. 

Is it time to consider extending this model of relationship-building to a business environment?

Good short perspective on employee engagement in Chief Executive Magazine. Bottom line - formalizing communication made a big difference. I assume it was along the lines of communicating vision, mission, purpose, recognition, and feedback.

It could also be along the lines of teaching/training managers to be coaches - how to listen, how to give praise, how to give feeback.

This article borders on the comical and addresses the few simple reasons why engagement tactics and strategies fail all the time to drive substantial improvements.

Number ONE issue - most companies and executives are unwilling to do the hard work.

I draw the comparison to both playing a sport and hiring.

My experience as a high school girls basketball coach is that most players are unwilling to put in the hard work to aspire to something greater - whether it is the ability to move up a team level or just make more free throws in the next game. This is the basic message by Kobe Bryant. Nothing earth-shattering about this message - it's just a continuation of what you did in high school.

The second point - most companies don't make substantial improvements in hiring because they are unwilling to do the hard work of defining success for every job, shaking the bushes for the best candidate, and investing substantial resources and time to improve the interview process.

It's like the wrecking ball is just around the corner when we become complacent, lazy, and unwilling to do hard work.

There was one major point in this article I found most useful.  With younger generational workers you must have frequent career discussions and provide a clear roadmap of promotions, increased responsibility, and how their job will evolve as the company moves forward.

Not having these discussions at least once a quarter leaves you vulnerable to great performers leaving to go to companies that are willing to have these conversations.

How do you as a manager engage in career discussions with members of your team? Have you ever been trained formally in how to have these conversations?

Good summary of the Gallup and Gartner research on employee engagement. Not only does the article present scary stats on the actual percentages of employee engagement, but it also lists a number of areas to focus on to improve employee engagement.

If you're looking to improve employee engagement, retention, happiness, and satisfaction - - this list is also my top list for reading material. the authors are all outstanding  - especially the first one - Patrick Lencioni whose book was originally titled the 3 elements of a miserable job. Great reading.

To this list I would add Gallup's book It's All About the Manager.

Wondering why your top sales folks have 2-3 offers sitting on the table, and why your competitors feel so confident that they can attract your most successful reps - this article dives into the issues that could mean the difference between keeping the Pareto group and being stuck with a team of average people.

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?