Retain Top Talent

Some key points to think about regarding employee engagement with referencing some major studies and statistics.

Is there any reason why we would not want to work on raising employee engagement? How about increased profits, higher  customer retention, greater productivity?

Is there any reason why we would not want to invest time and effort in growing employee engagement?

How do you have difficult conversations and messaging with your employees when the future is uncertain? How do you give them hope, reassurance, comfort - without false or misleading information? This article provides some good ideas around overcoming the fear that is gripping many of your employees about their future job status.

As you may be aware from some of my previous posts, I've been urging my clients to move to a chat-based tool for communication like the yammer tool on teams or slack. Interesting article about taking the pulse of your employees through such a tool on a continuous basis throughout the year.

My experience with CEOs in the entrepreneurial sector is that communication during this crisis is woefully inadequate. Many CEOs are allowing the same cadence of communication to occur that went on when everyone was in the office.

Huge Mistake!

If that's your culture, I'm sure you're seeing employee engagement and satisfaction crash through the floor and productivity decline to levels of distress.

When we return to a regular pace and start hiring again - hopefully June/July, here are some ideas on how to improve the effectiveness of your on-boarding. Ensuring an employee gets off on the right foot and feels engaged from day 1 is a function of having an effective onboarding program. Is it time to take  a hard look at whether you're effective in this department?

eNPS is becoming all the rage to measure as a metric your employee satisfaction, happiness, and willingness to refer other employees. Are you effectively measuring this metric and using it to improve your culture?

Teach your managers these six simple phrases to say to their teams and you'll see a dramatic improvement in happiness, engagement, and job satisfaction.

Nice reminder of some of the key points in leading online meetings through Zoom and other tools. Most Zone out. My favorite quote:

From the America in Meetings study of over 2,000 American adults, 38% say they zone out and daydream when they’re not speaking.

How do you keep teammates from zoning out is critical to effective meetings and productivity.

Thoughtful article summarizing Gallup Employee Engagement Findings and some specific recommendations on improving employee engagement centered around listening/feedback, defining expectations, and recognition.

Pretty simple stuff! Why then are so few companies practicing it? Why do so many managers/executives seem not to care about making changes to raise employee engagement - as in "it's good enough."

As you start to contemplate the idea of some of your employees wanting to return to the office, what about those who still want some flexibility to work from home?

Do you still have a bias against your team working part-time or full time from home? Flexibility to work from home and flexibility around work schedule is a powerful employee engagement tactic.

On-boarding is the first step in ensuring a great employee experience starting on Day 1. Unfortunately, many companies are stuck in a 1970s model of onboarding. Are you prepared to start outstanding employee engagement with the first day of work?

You can now take your job ad on LinkedIn and from your company page send a notification to all your employees - what a great way for them to then take that notification/job ad - and share it with their network to boost your referrals.

Although this article is pointed at the PR sector, it could be extended to any business. Productivity is down. How do we still get stuff done? What are the right tools, tactics, and methodologies to ensure you can still hit your business goals, outcomes, deliverables, expectations, and KPIs?

Incredible retention rates when employees feel their employer cares about them. These rates fall to dismal levels when an employee feels that they don't matter, there is no transparency in communication, and caring/empathy is not part of the culture.

What are you doing to fix it before it's too late?

I've found the research and insights from the Gartner group to be outstanding. They've published a series of podcasts on managing remotely during this Corona Virus Crisis. Might be worth a listen.

You've probably heard me say over and over that one-to-ones are the most important managerial tool you have for coaching and retaining high performers. This article shares some specifics around creating a culture of doing one-to-ones. It's especially important if you're now managing remotely.

I thought this was a good breakdown of different elements of the language of appreciation. Most employees don't feel appreciated enough and most managers don't know how to appreciate their employees.

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

Here's my key take away from the article (there was some other good information about communication and the cadence of check-ins):

“Most people are probably worried about where they stand from a job standpoint. HR departments should definitely be open to having people talk to them about anxieties related to their job security, that’s a huge one. You may even want your leadership to pre-empt some of those worries by getting in front of that question. I took the time to actually let people know I’m available if you are worried about job security: ‘Come and talk to me.’ I’m going to tell you all the things that we’re going to do before they even have to worry about that.’”

Are you or your management team members having these conversations? Do your front line employees feel reassured?

If you're not a member of the top executive team, has your manager taken the time to give you comfort the future of your job?