I have been asked to share my thoughts around the topic of employee retention on a number of occasions recently because of the huge economic downturn experienced in 2009. Companies have had serious struggles with the downsizing of employees while many of my managerial friends have felt like they were pulling for the longest straws in the boardroom deciding the fates of their teams. It now seems that companies are slowly recovering from those turbulent financial nose dives but are now facing another crisis.......retention of their talent. In other words, are you going to stay with your employer after the hard times? I think there is a 70's love song out there with that exact theme.
I hear it everyday, how demotivated you felt during these hard times. Your bonus plan frozen, wages frozen, extra perks frozen, the darn coffee fund was even taken away! Now that may sound silly to many people in their current job search and they may even feel that you should be grateful to at least have a job never mind the coffee fund. What we as job seekers need to understand however is that not only is it vital to find your next role but what will keep you there? Countless consultants and managers have discussed why people choose to move on. There are surveys all over the Internet and I am sure if you asked to speak with your companies HR representative, they would love to engage in this very conversation.
Here are some of the top reasons why we break camp and move on.
1. The Boss - How well we get along with our manager really cannot be ignored. Are you micromanaged? Respected? How does your manager deal with you on a daily basis? Do you feel listened to or does every meeting or phone call face rescheduling on a constant basis? Workplaces that promote employee empowerment or enable workers will see fewer depart the work environment. Another key element for managers to consider is the fact that they only look as good as their team performs!
2. Higher Salaries Elsewhere - Pay is tied for the number one spot with a bad boss as a reason to go. Financially certain companies or industries can only afford so much and the money to pay you more has to come from somewhere.
3. Internal Pay Equity - An interesting and often over looked fact or perception by existing employees is that new talent is attracted by higher pay in the exact same role they currently fill. To add insult to injury, when annual raises are issued at the standard 4% these employees still feel the new coworker is earning more than them. This perception makes for some very resentful feelings in the work place.
4. Benefits - The beloved coffee fund, flex days, medical or dental benefits, work place dress code, paid time off, educational reimbursement, vacation time, training are all seen as leverage by recruiters. Savvy job seekers want to know about how much all of this will cost them each month and employment decisions to work somewhere or not can be strongly influenced by this whole benefits package.
5. Pay Increases, Bonus Payout Guidelines - many employees feel that their current bonus structures are difficult to achieve if not impossible or the goals are constantly changed by management to target even more.
6. Workloads - In these past 12 months or more employees have been doing more with less. Teams have been downsized but workloads have remained the same with the overload shifted within the team. Workers are picking up the load from these empty cubicles as well as survivors guilt and grief over the loss of a coworker. This leads to severe burnout and more coworkers off on sick time.
7. The Lone Wolf - A little syndrome that happens rather common place in today's world of work as far as I am concerned. Employees are sometimes forced to go it alone during their work day. They may work remotely or perhaps management is located in another city. These workers rely on management to reach out remote by phone or email but sometimes managers are unavailable forcing decisions or creating a whole feeling of lack of support.
8. Human Resources - There is a perception in the world of work that the company HR department is responsible for all of their hardship or unfair treatment. This evil department is responsible for every raise that passed them by, benefit form rejected, pay error and the like. Please understand that your HR department is none of the above. HR does not write company policy but rather they are your advocate in the work environment. The HR department is your "Sherpa guide" if you will that will assist with your forms, explain legislation to you that is accurate rather than the advice given by your friend. They want you to come to them when you feel you have concerns because employee retention affects them directly! (That was just a paid service announcement for all of my HR friends out there)...but seriously ....
9. Job Site Location and Maintenance - I am puzzled by job site location as a key retention point but in all of my years, this is a surprising reason for turn over. Let me explain what I mean here. Workers accept a role that may be a considerable commuting distance from home or several public transit transfers that quite frankly wear the worker down each day. End result, they find a job closer to home with a commute that feel less like traveling across the country each day.
Maintenance is an interesting but serious reason for turnover. I have heard this before but recently met a job seeker who had left a "dirty" work environment without another job to go to. I inquired further to discover that as part of company cost cutting, management decided to end the cleaning contract of the office in order to save money and also save employee jobs. A great thing to do but every person's definition of clean can be different and this worker could no longer stand office mates that did not throw out their desk garbage cans on a daily basis or keep the restroom clean.
10. Lack of Movement or Future Opportunity - While some employees may not care to climb the corporate ladder, they still want growth in their roles. This can mean further training, attending seminars or working in other departments perhaps cross training. A cross trained employee in my opinion is worth their weight in gold. Other employees might be reaching for the top of their department, division or region. Others still may want to be the future company leader.
Employee Retention Is Not All Doom And Gloom!
Employee retention is actually a very positive and fun set of strategies that job seekers can use to their advantage. Solid employee retention strategies are the life blood of any organization. The cost of employee turnover can be enormous when you consider the following:
- attracting talent - costs associated with recruiting
- screening processes
- salaries and signing bonus (often times salaries increase as roles are back filled)
- costs of on boarding and training
All of these costs affect the company bottom line which in the end does trickle down to the pool of money that can be paid to current employees incumbent in their roles. Remember the dollars have to come from somewhere!
There are some things employees would like their company and managers to start doing today and not all of them are going to cost their business a small fortune.
1. Selection, Selection, Selection - The right hires are an absolute first line defense when it comes to the loss of talent. Using great selection and screening tools helps ensure the right fit for the company. Using proper screening and selection helps companies drill down to the heart of hiring decisions as well as ensuring a new hire has the appropriate job description that provides very clear understanding of a companies expectations over the next 30/60/90 days. Supportive "on boarding" support also is essential. Ambiguity in the first months to a year will absolutely result in employees leaving or being terminated.
2. Benefits and Salary - Pay rates and salaries are what they are in many industries so there can be little room for leverage or barganing here. What can a company do or an employee ask for? Benefits! This can come in the form of flex days, personal days, sick days, vacation time, medical/dental benefits, tuition reimbursement, educational spending accounts, health and wellness spending accounts, RRSP or pension fund matching strategies or time off to attend seminars and courses. Very creative strategies might be a work from home option or workshare program between new parents returning to the workplace. Dress code can also be a very nice perk.
3. Management and Leadership - Bosses need to be available to their employees within reason. Managers need to coach or mentor employees building an empowering relationship. After all, the next happy retained employee could be the head of IT or the new CFO. With the right leadership in any organization employees have a sense of belonging and value which goes a long way to keeping them in place. Leaders need to be aware of bad habits like postponing meetings, micromanaging and not following through on what they say they will do.
4. Praise and Feedback - Employees want to know how they have been doing. They want to be recognized for going the extra mile, they want regular feedback even if it is not favorable. Coaching and providing feedback keeps the work environment healthy by setting goals that are attainable or corrective actions. Great feedback is the foundation of a solid and trusted work environment.
5. Growth and Challenge - Even when there can be no opportunity for growth in a role, challenge and learning can certainly be added. Cross training employees provides new experiences and knowledge that can only benefit a company. It also gives employees new experiences that make them feel more valuable in their roles.
6. Have Fun!- This should be the number one thing to start doing today in my opinion. Employees definately need to have a laugh at work. Remember, we spend more time with our coworkers in many cases than our family members. Funny competitions or theme lunches might be what is called for especially if your company has been flying through some very rough turbulance. One company I am familiar with has organized lunches weekly where some employees attend a book club while the others have cribbage tournaments. A very Canadian thing to do I might add! Other workplaces support charities and donate employees during work time to work within the community which is very rewarding for everyone involved.
7. Work Life Balance - What does this really mean or even look like? When companies ensure proper staffing levels or adequate coverage teams can balance a variety of employee needs such as an important day at school for somebody's child. That parent can now attend that special concert or in a generation of baby boomer's people find themselves caring for an elderly parent so this could be time to take that person to medical appointments or assessments. It could even be as simple as a flex day taken to do some personal de-stressing.
8. Include Employees In Company Planning - Where possible and of course allowable, include all members of the company in the decision making process especially if it involves their department. Keep your employees engaged and reminded of company mission statements or visions but managers, live up to them yourselves! Be creative and have a workshop where employees contribute to the operating principles or vision of the company.
9. Recognize And Celebrate Employee Successes - Celebrate milestones like birthdays or company anniversaries. Celebrate the big win or successful proposal with the team or writer, celebrate your customer service rep who deals with some of your most challenging customer(s), this is all very simple and inexpensive but demonstrates the employees value to the business.
10. Clear Communication - This comes up frequently when I speak with job seekers. Often during my conversations it is divulged to me that people felt their former bosses spoke to them in code, unknown languages or a dialect of their mother tongue they have never heard before. Answering questions with more questions, deflecting, bobbing and weaving the question is a very frustrating experience for an employee. Employees want the straight goods in a clear understandable language spoken with honesty and integrity.
I hope my message here has been clear for you. There has been a lot of information in this post but my hope is that you will find some reasons to stay in your current role or provide some guidance around how companies are looking to keep you once you are hired.
We have all been in the top 10 situations to leave an organization or have that strong desire to do so. The reasons to stay are pretty good however if your company utilizes some or all of these basic strategies to keep you on board. This is great intelligence gathering however if decide to interview and you understand the perks of retaining employees as well as the cost of turnover as leverage. These retention strategies will I hope give you food for thought or great interview questions that will help you assess your next career move.
Good luck, happy hunting!
