On a recent LinkedIn poll, nearly 100% of you said that employee retention was important. Most reasons why employees leave can be prevented. See this article that discusses the true cost of turnover: http://awcoach.co/the-true-cost-of-turnover/ Several of you have asked me to provide some retention ideas so here is a list of 16 ideas.
Make it a really positive experience. Gallup reports that only 12% of employees strongly agree their organization does a great job of onboarding new employees. This is a huge area of opportunity.
▶️ See onboarding best practices here: http://awcoach.co/best-practices-for-onboarding-new-employees/
It’s not simply about learning, it’s about implementing. McKinsey & Co. reports that only 10% is retained from classroom training – and we don’t even know how much of that 10% is applied.
Millennials are currently the largest generation in the workforce and 63% of them say their leadership skills are not being fully developed. <Deloitte>
See these articles for more about why leadership development is so important:
▶️ http://awcoach.co/why-development-for-leaders-and-employees-is-so-ambiguous/
▶️ http://awcoach.co/what-to-do-with-all-of-these-brand-new-leaders/
▶️ http://awcoach.co/5-reasons-why-we-need-to-develop-leaders/
Many of the items on this list revolve around strong, effective leadership.
Close the gap; the only way for leaders to understand what’s actually going on is to ask their direct reports.
The only way for leaders to understand what motivates their employees and why they stay is to be open-minded and ask them. Check out the following resources:
▶️ http://awcoach.co/how-to-conduct-stay-interviews-that-are-effective/
Trust is the foundation of everything in the workplace. At-will employment erodes trust and psychological safety. If you can do what you can to help people feel secure in their job, especially given the amount of layoffs happening right now, this will do wonders for motivating and retaining your team.
▶️ http://awcoach.co/trust-earned-or-given-in-the-workplace/
▶️ http://awcoach.co/how-to-build-trust-with-your-team/
This solves two problems: (1) provides growth & professional development for employees – the lack of which is one of the top reasons people leave organizations; (2) develops people managers before they manage people. This gives people something clear to work toward and is a highly proactive item that reaps big, long-term rewards for engaged and motivated employees.
How can you motivate and engage your employees if you don’t know what motivates and engages them? You need to understand how each person’s job fits into their life goals (keep in mind, they might be running on autopilot and not self-aware – and that’s okay too. Operate in a non-judgmental capacity). How ambitious are they? What growth trajectory do they care about? Treat employees the way you would treat your consumers: get to know everything about them.
Remember – in order to receive genuine, honest answers from your employees about this, you must do your part to create a foundation of trust. If they don’t trust you (or the organization), they will likely not share a genuine answer. Some organizations have a culture of pushing for growth and higher titles – and even if people have no interest in that, they might feel pressured to say they’re interested. This how we end up with people in leadership positions who don’t want to be people managers. Creating a “dual career ladder” is a great way to provide promotion opportunities without forcing people into leadership positions.
Most people leave jobs because of ineffective, dysfunctional, toxic leaders. This is PREVENTABLE. But, in order to prevent it, a system needs to be in place and it needs to include an outlet where employees can report bad leaders where it leads to resolution.
Many people go to HR as an only-and-last resort to help with this, but unfortunately, HR often can’t help with this. Too often, HR isn’t empowered by the C-Suite or given a “seat at the table.”
Additionally, I’ve had many HR Managers reach out to me to inquire about my services and their correspondence indicates they know nothing about leadership development or what a highly-effective leader looks like. Yikes!
▶️ http://awcoach.co/employees-need-an-outlet-to-report-bad-leaders/
People are leaving jobs because there is no room to grow in their current role (and their leader isn’t prioritizing growth & development for them). They are driven. They want to reach their potential. Provide them with a way to do this. I have a few clients who have told me how much it means to them when an organization offers a professional development stipend. LinkedIn reported that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if the company invested in helping them learn (think: leadership development, professional skills, continuing education, etc.).
Encourage people to think for themselves. Encourage people to take responsibility for themselves. Check your policies – are you catering to the lowest common denominator? If you are, is that how you want to operate? If your leaders (including HR leaders) were developed to exhibit highly-effective skills and competencies, chances are they would be able to navigate situations more confidently and effectively. Are you creating policies because you don’t have strong leaders (or don’t trust your leaders) to handle these situations?
Coming from a place of positive intent really shifts mindset and culture. It naturally sets a tone that motivates people.
Narcissists have no hope so you want to identify them and axe them immediately. Send them off to work for the competition. They are doing nothing but hurt your organization. If there is a narcissist as CEO or in the C-Suite, the only hope is that the Board recognizes this and understands how detrimental they are to the organization.
Low performers: try your best to train them, coach them, and hold them accountable. If they aren’t open-minded enough or catching on quickly enough, cut your losses and move on.
The impact of this is felt more and more as these people are in higher positions.
“As long as organizations turn a blind eye to managers who crush souls, disengage employees and ignore the importance of growing talent, we will have bad bosses.” –Mary Abbajay, Managing Up
Nothing will destroy a great employee faster than watching you tolerate a bad one.
The second you have a leader who isn’t consistent or fair, it ruins it for everyone else. Strong leadership is needed for this.
HR has a reputation for being mostly administrative / policy pushers. My question to your organization is: what role do you actually want HR to have and are you giving them a voice and empowering them to do that? This needs to be fully embraced by the entire C-Suite in order to work.
Provide rewards for leaders who are retaining their employees and have negative consequences to leaders who don’t retain their employees. The caveat here is – don’t enact this without offering leadership development. You must give leaders the resources and tools to succeed and then you can instill consequences.
360 assessments can help employees feel heard – only use them if you plan to take action and drive positive change.
Learn more about assessments ▶️ http://awcoach.co/leadership-development
Recently, CNBC reported that 96% of workers are looking for a new job this year. The reason is two-fold: 1) Looking for higher pay to keep up with rising expenses and inflation; 2) no room to grow in their current role combined with bad leadership/toxic workplace.
Can you possibly provide a one-time bonus to everyone? Can you raise your prices and share this with them? Can you lower the salaries of executives for a certain amount of time to provide your staff with increased pay? Can you stand up to your stakeholders and board and tell them this is more important and that they will reap the benefits long-term by doing this? I’m certain there are many out-of-the-box ways that you can come up with here. You might want to involve others in brainstorming.
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