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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 16.8 million people quit their jobs between October 2021 and January 2022. (1) Even more alarming is a Gallup report that found that 48% of American employees are actively job searching or watching for another opportunity to come along. (2)  Interestingly enough, Gartner (3) identified three drivers that are attributed to people leaving their jobs:

1. Related to Work Experience: Lack of recognition, lack of managerial support, lack of career growth opportunities

2. Related to Personal Experience: Burnout, value misalignment (particularly on social justice issues,) job flexibility

3. Related to External Drivers: Seeking something more interesting, looking to enhance skills, desiring a career change/life change, financial drivers (e.g., more pay, financial stability)

While Gartner’s insights aren’t a solution to employee exits, they provide valuable insights. However, you will need to glean more information through investigation to make these actionable. The following are some ideas to formulate strategies for retaining satisfied, happy workers.

Triage the situation. 

It might be a natural response to worry about gaps in your workplace. Yes, these positions will need to be filled. However, it’s also essential to take a moment to assess. In healthcare, they define this moment as triage: “to assign degrees of urgency to an injury….” Before advertising for applicants to fill positions, consider factors such as:

  • Organizational, department, and team cultures
  • Individual managers, supervisors, etc., including style, grievances, feedback, presence, support, etc.
  • Goals, objectives, benchmarks, etc., including whether these are realistic given current circumstances
  • The workload of employees versus downtime
  • Workload distribution among team members
  • Peer-to-peer interactions include gossip, morale, difficult people, etc.
  • Absenteeism has predictors of burnout, job-seeking behavior, stress management issues, etc.
  • Reward, appreciation, recognition, and frequency that they are utilized are applicable/personalized to an employee, etc.
  • One-on-one time of employees with managers and senior leaders
  • Frequency of changes and rapid deployment of changes

Focus on current employees.

Loyalty is something that can’t be taken for granted. It’s earned every single day. Demonstrate that your employees matter by getting them involved with changes that impact their jobs. Let them voice their concerns and listen and take action, even if it is small steps. Show them appreciation. Give them time off, primarily when they have worked long hours to meet a deadline or have taken on an exceptionally challenging task. Redistribute workloads so everyone is carrying their fair share. These actions, while seemingly minor, can collectively be decisive in boosting morale.

Win back employees on their way out.

Trained employees who are good at the job, well-liked, and productive are leaving for a reason. Often, it’s not about money. It’s about the culture or management. Before they move on, ask for the opportunity to speak to them. Take this opportunity to hear them, as many employees leaving will be the most honest when they aren’t worried about losing their job. Ask direct questions to understand better if there are issues that can be solved, but more importantly, if you solved them, would they return? Listen carefully to their goals and ambitions so that you’re prepared to fill those needs in the future. It’s much more cost-effective for an employee to return than to hire a new worker.

Clarify candidates before hiring.

The right candidate isn’t just about matching the education, training, or past job experience with job requirements. This individual must also fit in with the corporate culture and its mission. Additional soft skills often include:

  • Intelligence: able to learn quickly, pick up knowledge that’s not being formally taught, etc.
  • Motivation: tackle projects if complex, be a self-starter, follow tasks through to completion, etc.
  • Relationship Oriented: values all stakeholder relationships, excellent oral and written communication skills, ability to listen, vital emotional intelligence
  • Leadership Qualities: navigates conflict effectively, assesses and manages risks, feedback, personal reflection, stress management, delegation

When workers are happy, organizations grow.

Happy employees typically care about the organization and desire to help the company achieve success. Happy teams like what they do, so their work feels less like work and fun. Once hired, the goal then becomes retention. Your new hires will need the tools, resources, and skills to succeed. The tools would be an essential “tool” needed to do the job. These also include critical relationships with vendor partners, key stakeholders, information about products/services, cross-training that may be helpful if nothing more than background knowledge, etc.

Training should be ongoing, and not just when hired.

Great organizations keep training as a regular part of employee growth, even if the employee doesn’t have lofty goals or career aspirations. If employees are in training, get them to engage with the training through breakout groups, apps, hands-on interaction, experiences, etc. In the same respect, don’t assume that silence means attendees have no questions. The trainer’s job is to ask participants targeted questions to get everyone involved.

PRO TIP: Once the mandatory training has been completed, consider utilizing an incentive program to encourage ongoing but optional additional training. This enables employees to learn new skills, and they receive incentive travel experiences in addition to the learning.

Train and measure long-term knowledge retention.

The requirement to measure skill and knowledge ensures that participants gain value from the training and that the organization benefits from it. Employees should prove that they use the skills and retain the ability—training programs where the information can’t be included need to be revamped. Knowledge retention is why doctors and educators, for example, have to do continuing education to maintain their licenses. It should be the same in any other organization.

Share data and knowledge bases.

Regardless of the system used, employees contributing to shared datasets can streamline many internal (as well as external) resources. Maintaining a list of go-to resources, FAQs, procedures for troubleshooting problems, scripts, shared slide decks, sales, marketing materials, etc., can be beneficial. When one person finds success, it should be shared with others to leverage it. The key is to have one or two individuals maintaining the data and knowledge base to keep things consistent over time.

Nothing discourages employees more than feeling like they’re being deceived or kept out of meaningful business discussions. Managers should communicate consistently and constantly about essential changes in the company or work structure. This communication will help employees feel secure in their positions and keep them committed to the company and their jobs. (4)

Encourage communication skill enhancement – at all levels of the organization.

Communication is one of the most complex skills to learn. It:

  • Empowers leaders to inspire and instruct their teams.
  • Allows teams to work together, solve problems, and innovate.
  • Enable sales representatives to recruit new clients.
  • Gives financial executives the ability to share a brand’s story with potential new investors.
  • Provides engineers the ability to discuss product features with account managers.
  • Offers individual contributors to share their accomplishments and ideas that will assist them up the corporate ladder. (5)

Build quantifiable and measurable goals.

Professional and personal goals should be part of every worker’s “engagement chart” that tracks, monitors, and defines their success record. This chart is unique to each employee and should be done by a manager. These need to be achievable but also a bit of a challenge. You don’t want to make them so easy that employees don’t have to work to get them, but you don’t want to set them so high that they can’t be achieved. Balance is key.

What are the goals each week? Month? Quarter? Year? Reflect on what’s been done. What will you do in the future based on what you didn’t think you could do but did with the proper support, tools, etc.? What could you do if you had the appropriate license, tools, etc.? What do you need to achieve those goals?

Acknowledge your employees, praise them, and keep them motivated. Good training is not just about knowing how to perform the job; it is about loving the job and their co-workers and buying into the company culture. Employees will serve better and go that extra mile if they feel valued and appreciated and know their efforts contribute to the bigger picture. Employees want to know they are making a positive impact. (6)

Discover more inspiring ideas for exciting experiences that boost morale and engage your people. Contact Gavel International for details.

 

SOURCES:

  1. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t04.htm
  2. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx#ite-350777
  3. https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/great-resignation-or-not-money-won-t-fix-all-your-talent-problems
  4. https://wheniwork.com/blog/boost-employee-success
  5. https://www.quantified.ai/blog/to-retain-top-employees-give-them-the-tools-they-need-to-succeed
  6. https://www.gavelintl.com/five-strategies-to-build-an-endurant-and-valuable-workforce/
Jim Bozzelli
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