Retain Top Talent

Do you have bosses in your organization that create a toxic work culture? Are you at risk of losing some of your top performers as the job market continues to accelerate over the next decade?

How do you know? When was the last time you solicited feedback - formally or informally about your supervisors, managers, and executives?

Good basic ideas on recognition, team work, personal development, learning - all of which leads to increasing engagement and productivity.

Here's the key question - why do so few companies and managers shy away from investing in trying to build employee engagement - when we know the impact on retention and productivity?

Is there not enough published information and studies to justify the investment, is there not enough incentive to change, is it not part of your culture, or is it that you just don't know what to do? 

I've been talking about this idea for years - great leaders show their appreciation, gratitude, and caring toward their teams and employees.

Not having gratitude and appreciation as part of your core values can be one of the reasons your best performers will be poached in the next year or two.

Fixing a culture where there is a lack of gratitude and appreciation is very simple - why don't more CEOs and Executives take action toward building it into the fabric of their organizations?

Alarm bells should be ringing! Can you believe the statement in this article in Inc that a survey showed that 80 percent of the reason to leave a company was a lack of being patted on the back?

I've been talking about this simple idea of one element of employee engagement for years - yet out of 600-700 CEOs and executives that I present to annually - very few are doing anything substantial around employee appreciation and recognition.

As the job market continues to heat up over the next decade, be prepared for the exodus due to a lack of appreciation.

We can all agree with the article headline that there is a direct correlation between employee happiness and business success.

How do you focus in this area, particularly when surveys, such as the Gallup engagement survey, show that engagement, happiness, and satisfaction is less than 30%?

I liked the way the author of this article broke down 4 key areas to focus on to improve employee happiness: trust, health, recognition, and culture.

What initiatives are you currently implementing to focus on these 4 key areas?

Here's a novel idea (I'm kidding of course). When was the last time you sat down and painted a strong visual image of the path forward for your biggest contributors or most impactful employees? How detailed did you get in terms of time frame, money, responsibility, authority, impact, and expectations?

NOT having this conversation frequently is a recipe for the turnover of your best performers. Top talent wants to know what the future looks like - not platitudes and generic phrases - but hardcore specific time frames and expectations.

One of the key elements to employee engagement is recognition and appreciation. How many different ways does your company help build employee engagement? The article has 15 different ideas - which ones are doing and do you have a team looking in to the other suggestions?

In the next few years, it's going to be tough to keep your best peope from being poached unless you're doing most of these!

Another survey showing the importance of company culture. I'm not sure I would agree with the point about culture being the most important issue = but the percentages around employee satisfaction and engagement are pretty consistent with all the other surveys on this topic.

What's the risk of not taking action to improve your culture?

This idea about the power of headlines applies just as well to job advertising and networking messages. Why are still stuck on using the job title for a headline?

Of course, the job title is what it will be called on a regular basis once the person is hired. However, that's not what will catch the eye, interest, or passion of potential applicants.

Let's take a page from David Ogilvy and write headlines that attract candidates.

There is a strong link between performance management and employee engagement - particularly around the idea of defining clear expectations.

Why do so many companies ignore this fundamental element of both performance management and employee engagement? Is it too hard? Do they not know where to start? Do they not care?

Great infographic around employee engagement, happiness, and satisfaction. The free food one was a surprise - not sure I buy into that being important criteria - but the other items - right ON!

How can you begin an engagement program right now to stop your employees from thinking about "Is the grass greener somewhere else?"

The HBS article talks about the need to develop and nurture relationships inside and outside of work. I would like to focus on the inside element.

In coaching HS girls basketball for the past decade, I've realized one of the elements behind high performing teams is a shared experience of getting to know each other, learning each other's values, sharing stories, and understanding each other at a deeper level.

This doesn't happen naturally - you as the coach/boss need to facilitate this shared team experience or bonding.

How do you create high performing teams, improve retention, and raise engagement among your direct reports?

Interesting perspective about viewing onboarding through the lens of the experience vs. the process and steps. Would your recently hired employees give their onboarding experience a "10"?

What a great idea for retention and employee engagement. You've probably noticed that I've been writing a lot about employee engagement, recognition, appreciation, happiness, and retention.

The job market is rapidly shifting from how do I find people to how do I keep my best ones from being poached.

A big part of engagement and retention is showing appreciation, gratitude, empathy, caring, and recognition.

What could be more simple than uploading your company logo to hallmark, using some standard cards and sentiments on the inside, and then writing a short note of appreciation?

You'll change your culture dramatically overnight for a just a few dollars. I use these hallmark cards on a regular basis with employees, consultants, non-profit volunteers, and customers.

What's holding you back from a few minutes to create custom appreciation cards - either online or formal printed cards? It's almost a no-brainer to invest 30-60 minutes to try this tactic.

Interesting article on the concept of "work marytrs" - those who feel the need to broadcast to others their excessive workaholic behavior.

I can appreciate this article having grown up in a few large competitive organizations like Beatrice Foods, Mattel, and Westinghouse where everyone seemed to be in competition for who was the bigger work martyr.

My question is whether there is some hidden agenda/cultural issue that drives some of your employees to feel the need to work excessive hours and then make sure everyone else knows they are doing it.

My experience of consulting with hundreds of companies on an annual basis for the past 30 years is that very few companies have an effective and robust non-monetary reward/recognition program covering such topics as praise, fun achievement awards, learning and development.

Although it's not possible to motivate employees, you can create an environment for self-motivation by showing your employees that you care and are appreciative when they knock it out of the park or act as a role-model in demonstrating one of your core values. Not having a robust program to show appreciation and gratitude means that your employees will not be motivated to do anything beyond the minimum expectation you tolerate to allow them to keep their jobs. How depressing!

Interesting perspective on employee engagement in a manufacturing environment. Gallup shows this group to be a little tougher to engage.

Although the article stays at a superficial level with recommending specific tactics, it does raise some good challenges to think about if you're in a manufacturing company.

Most companies on-boarding consists of filling out paperwork in HR. Here's an interesting take on getting employees off on the right foot and staying passionate. A Great on-boarding program is the start of ensuring high employee engagement.

The evidence of employee engagement is overwhelming when looking at metrics of improved customer satisfaction, net promoter scores, lower turnover, and fewer employees trying to see if the grass is greener somewhere else.

What's holding you back from implementing best practics in employee engagement - such as better definitions of success in jobs, non-monetary reward/recognition programs, and better performance management feedback?

Yes I know - the article is little edgy. I like edgy. I like shaking things up. I am not a status quo person. As you may know - I don't play nice with tribal approaches to hiring and retention.

What's the old saying - life imitates art or vice versa?

I am always looking to see how work life gets portrayed in comedy programs and stand-up. I really like Tina Fey's take on the whole work-life environment.

Just a few simple elements can dramatically affect your culture and employee engagement. A big one that most companies are terrible at is showing gratitude. You could pat people on the back, write emails, put them on a pedestal when they do something spectacular, and basically treat them with respect. 

Why do most managers struggle with showing gratitude toward their team members, and continue to be abusive, obnoxious, indifferent, mean, and dripping with sarcasm?