Retain Top Talent

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.

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.

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?

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?"

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?