Retain Top Talent

Although this article is written from the perspective of a Software/app company and how to limit churn - customers quitting, not paying, going to competitors. 

Let's move the discussion away from just software companies to all companies - product and service (especially is you have a recurring revenue model).

What are some creative approaches you could take over the next 3-6 months to ensure you retain a significant number of your clients as the economy restarts and everyone scrambles after those same clients/customers?

This is the forward planning part of my workshop/webinar on Managing Remotely in a Crisis - how do we emerge stronger and more capable rather than simply picking up where we left off? How do we take the next 3-6 months to work on those back-burner projects that might allow us to gain a competitive advantage?

Self-Evaluations by employees of their performance should be one of the pillars of your performance management process. Here are some ideas from a recent article on how to build self-evaluations into the process. Even if this is already part of your process, it might serve as a great review/assessment.

Some good ideas about working remotely and understanding the different personality type styles so that managers can be more effective in managing vs. applying a "one approach" fits everyone mentality.

Is now the time to improve the sensitivity and awareness of your management team to how people want to manage and what they need in terms of feedback and communication?

Good article in HBR. One of the key points I'm stressing in my workshop on Managing Remotely in a Crisis is that now is great time to be working on elements of your culture and aligning your purpose with who each employee matters.

Sometimes we overlook simple things in managing people - especially remotely. This article references numerous studies that show employees want information from the CEO and direct manager. I'm finding in my workshops on managing remotely for Vistage groups and member companies that the number one element is weak communication.

I really liked the recommendation in this article about front line managers building other rituals and structures with their teams to improve the sharing of information, fun and team building, and overall interaction.

Most people feel alone, isolated, and separated at home - how can you help them feel like they are part of the organization and that they matter?

Would you rate your organization as being "feedback-rich?" If not, are you running the risk of losing good people, low engagement scores, a lack of productivity, and difficulty in attracting rockstars?

One of the biggest issues surfacing in my webinars on how to manage employees remotely is communication = how much, when, what channels. Here are some ideas/thoughts around improving communication with your team working from home.

A few core thoughts on how to structure an effective employee recognition program and some of the pitfalls to avoid to prevent failure. It's particularly important in working with remote workers to have a good recognition/reward program.

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.

Struggling to think of ways to recognize your employees? Here are 20 great ideas. Pick one to start changing your culture and showing your employees how much you appreciate them.

If 81% of unhappy employees fake happiness and 50-70% are not engaged/unhappy at work - that's a big problem. When mainstream publications like Forbes start to highlight this as an issue - executives should sit up and take notice before it's too late.

In my retention workshop, one of the biggest frustrations executives mention is a concern of a lack of working hard, productivity, and effort. Duh - you're not seeing it because so many of your employees are not engaged and are unhappy.

The big question is: what's your action plan to fix it?

Here are some good tips for employees about how to work at home - especially for those for which this is a new experience. I'm finding most of my clients are NOT providing coaching and resources to help their employees be more effective as a remote worker. The assumption is just work the same as you did in the office - nothing could be further from the truth. Your employees desperately crave your guidance, coaching , and support in how to be productive and successful while working from home.

Here's a contrarian view of why self-run internal employee recognition programs fail. Granted, the authors are biased since they are recommending their software SaaS model. However, I've see an extraordinary explosion in some very good SaaS apps for companies to more effectively manage employee engagement - apps for tracking success factors, projects, recognition programs, employee satisfaction, and many others.

Is now a good time to look at some of these app-based tools as many of your team members are remote?

In this interesting article on the new normal of working from home, the author talks about a few elements of improving that process.

I particularly liked "if individuals and teams are clear on the results, then they can choose the most effective and efficient means to achieve measurable outcomes. Let your employees know what is needed and when so they can work efficiently and effectively."

As you know, this idea of defining success through the organization - whether it's the business objectives for key executives of a key executive or the KPIs for a field tech - this is something that gets amplified in a work at home environment.

I'm recommending as the NUMBER ONE best practice in having people work from home in my Managing Remotely in a Crisis Webinar that companies focus on defining and communicating expectations clearly and precisely (in written form), and then structure their entire management process around it for feedback, recognition, learning, and coaching.

If you can move the needle on defining success in the next 3 months, you'll go a long way toward improving productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and flawless execution.

I'm starting to conduct deep research on the process of managing a remote remotely. This article addresses a couple of issues many companies and remote workers are facing - the security issues around connecting to corporate networks through consumer home wifi routers, and how to carve out an effective home work space.

Now that I've done about 25 webinars for Vistage groups and members on How to Manage Remotely in a Crisis - a pattern of the most common issues facing companies are beginning to emerge. I'll share some of the best practices I've discovered from my clients in this space to overcome these issues.

Interesting recent survey research on employee engagement. Take note of the very low percentage of employees who believe their CEO has a vision for the organization.

This is a great time to engage your employees in a discussion of crafting their job with goals, outcomes, deliverables, expectations, and KPIs that take advantage of their strengths. Have you started to have these conversations with your subordinates?

Some good ideas to think about when managing your remote team. I especially like the water cooler time/chat and coffee break ideas that many of my clients are implementing to replace the casual conversation that naturally takes place in the office.

Some good ideas from the Zoom blog about the problems and issues around culture when everyone is working from home. Have you tried some of these ideas yet?

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?