Hiring top talent is only the start. Now you have to work hard to keep your very best talent. Most companies stink at structured and systematic retention of their top performers. Discover how to prevent turnover and keep your best people.
This is interesting research out of HBS linking gratitude and dishonesty. So many of my clients ask how to measure honesty in the interview. Perhaps, instead of focusing on honesty, we should focus on what people want to feel gratitude and appreciated.
Businesses are losing vast amounts of money due to voluntary turnover. Could talking to employees about their job satisfaction prevent them from leaving?
Interesting article on building trust with your team. The article dicusses 3 tactics to build trust - counter-intuitive to most managers regarding understanding team member personal lives.
One of the most important elements of employee engagement and retention is the quality of the manager. An enormous part of that relationship hinges on trust. Are your managers using these tactics to build trust?
This article should be raising the hairs on the back of your neck about your workforce - what action steps are you going to take to engage the 80 percent who are just getting by doing the minimum necessary so you'll tolerate them without firing?
Just did a couple of workshops on this subject with 2 groups of CEOs and Key Executives in Honolulu - little bit of a shock over the need to engage folks and actively retain people. Are you ready to start losing some of your best talent? The issue is not as much about finding people now as it is about keeping people.
How revolutionary - empathy - caring - listening. Why don't more managers do it?
Do you think it's an intuitive ability or one that can be coached and trained?
Do you measure empathy - caring - listening when evaluating managers. Why do we make the false assumption that if you carry a manager title, you must obviously have these traits?
To have engaged employees at work, there are 10 essential metrics that companies need to keep in mind. Learn actionable tips on how you can improve them.
Good article about setting metrics to measure employee engagement and retention issues. I'm curious how many companies regularly measure these metrics and actually put action plans in place to improve the metrics on engagement.
My take on this article was that the CEO and other executives drive the culture of their company through their actions - not so much in the things they publish or announcements they make.
My favorite line is along the dimensions of you get what you tolerate.
Every organization should by surveying their employees for cultural and fit alignment. This article has a great set of questions related to how employees view their managers - which is the second most common reason people quit their jobs.
I would highly recommend using the Gallup Employee Survey of 12 dimensions to understand what percentage of your work force is engaged - and what you need to do to raise that number.
How can you convince your leadership that investing in people, your company culture, and employee engagement should be a priority? Check out these surprising [and convincing] stats, and download our free Culture Worksheet to get the conversation going in the right direction.
Good article on the impact of culture in your company. I zeroed in on this quote:
"According to Gallup, disengaged employees are almost twice as likely as engaged employees to seek new jobs. And it’s not just the disengaged ones that you should worry about - 51% of U.S. employees say they are on the lookout for new jobs."
Is that not frightening? The entire job market is about to degenerate into pure poaching. We could be looking at another 10-12 years of an increasingly difficult job market for employers. How do you protect your existing employees from considering that the "grass might be greener elsewhere?"
Good reminder on the key elements of what Gallup identified - autonomy, training/development, personal growth, being challenged - all of it tying back to Maslow. Yet, we keep forgetting these underlying elements of what drives people to perform at the peak of their ability.
Is there any doubt that there is a strong correlation between employee engagement and customer engagement/quality of experience?
Great infographic demonstrating simply the correlation.
My question is if it's that rock solid of a correlation, why are more companies not investing in employee engagement, and why are more companies not tracking the metrics around employee engagement and customer experience?
What can be seen, heard and experienced by employees and customers, is unique to every business, and is more successful in some than others? Culture isn’t tangible, but it is unavoidable and manageable; it’s the sum total of a business’s values, ethics and beliefs, perpetuated by its people through interactions with peers and customers. So, …
Are your younger workers demanding more flexible work hours and the chance to work from home. Have you tried to experiment with virtual work arrangements. It's one of the strongest desires from the younger generations. Are you adapting or resisting? Is the lack of a structured approach to managing virtual employees limiting your ability to hire younger talent?
Peter Drucker (1909-2005), the late Austrian-born management consultant, once famously said that culture eats strategy for breakfast — i.e., while a sound business plan is excellent, nothing is more important than a company’s culture.
Loved the quote from Drucker about Culture Eating Strategy.
Do you have a defined culture? What are the 3-5 key elements of initiatives that reinforce that culture - whether it be praise and gratitude tactics or healthcare/wellness plans?
No culture - or one that your employees make up - is a real problem in being able to attract and keep better people.
In engagement-centric organizations, you're likely to see stronger Net Promoter Scores, higher retention rates, more innovation and better financial performance.
71 percent of employees indicating they would leave their current employer for a better job?
The author suggests you need a employee engagement strategy to prevent your best employees from leaving. The vast majority of companies I work with have NO process, structure, plan, or strategy to deal with employee engagement.
The approach of most companies appears to be "if employees show up for work, they must enjoy (be engaged) with their jobs.
The good news is that employee engagement is on the rise - I'd like to think it's because I've been sounding the alarm for the last few years.
The bad news is that over 50% of your workforce is disengaged - they just don't care. They barely show up and do the minimum necessary - huge opportunity for most organizations.
Seth Meyers breaks the mold holding people in a traditional box around their job - he actually encourages and supports side gigs and opportunities to spread their wings and realize their dreams while still working for him.
Are we moving in this direction with the younger generation?
Are we stuck in a mindset about careers and jobs based on 1970s assumptions?
Can supporting employees taking on other assignments outside of their job with you only work in creative fields - or can it be broader across more traditional disciplines like HR or finance?
I'd love to hear examples of bosses and companies that are supportive of helping their employees achieve their dreams.
This is a very scary statistic. It's so simple to put these recognition and non-monetary reward systems in place - why do companies ignore the studies that show a major reason employees leave is a lack of recognition?
This quote by Richard Branson is one of my favorite quotes. I am amazed at how many CEOs will not invest in training and development because they feel it's only giving employees the capability to seek work elsewhere. Is that not the ultimate in dysfunctional behavior?
How many studies do we need to look at that training and development is a powerful attraction, retention, engagement, and motivational tool?
Why do so few entrepreneurial companies see little value in training and development?
Do you measure intellectual humility in your interviews. I would expand upon this idea of not just looking at where you went wrong and then adapting - but looking into the process by which candidates come to conclusions or recommendations.
One technique is to use case studies, role plays, and homework assignments to get at how someone critically examines a problem or issue.
Through this technique and Jeff Bezos' ideas we're starting to get at how someone thinks, raw intellect, problem solving, analytical skills, and inquisitiveness.
I recently posted an article on LinkedIn in my Retention Hot Tip Series about giving praise. This article complements my blog post with other tactics of saying thank you. My perspective is that most employees feel underappreciated, don't understand how they matter, and don't feel expending extra effort is worth since their manager doesn't seem to care.
So few companies are focused around employee engagement. As the author indicates, the cost is astronomical. Culture, morale, productivity, and customer satisfaction are just a few of the areas affected by employee engagement.
If these points are well-researched and accepted - why then do most companies and executives choose to ignore the fundamental issues around improving employee engagement?
I'm curious if your company has an employee or personal development plan for all employees? If not, this could be an enormous area for increasing retention. Helping people grow, learn, develop, and get better at their jobs is one of the most important part of an effective retention program.
In just a few years - the issue will be finding talent, it will be hanging onto the talent you've got before they get poached by a competitor.
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This is interesting research out of HBS linking gratitude and dishonesty. So many of my clients ask how to measure honesty in the interview. Perhaps, instead of focusing on honesty, we should focus on what people want to feel gratitude and appreciated.