Stop Fighting the Retention Battle; It's An Engagement War
Even with a recovery in the economy, the job (and housing) market will take
some time to catch up. That doesn’t mean there aren’t jobs out there. It just
means they are for very specific talent. Those talent know exactly who they
are. Since 2008, we’ve personally seen this talent pool still get calls from
headhunters and move around from one company to the next with bigger titles,
pay, and responsibility.
So what this means for many companies is that there has been an ongoing battle
for talent, and not just hiring talent, but also hanging on to their best and
brightest, even in the toughest economies. Who is this “talent?” This
typically means one or two key people in a department that they cannot afford
to lose. They are usually the ones with institutional knowledge (i.e., if they
leave no one will know how to run the system) or a specific skill set that
drives product development and therefore revenue for the company. Don’t we all
wish we were this person!
Funny thing though, Human Resources and many managers have been fighting the
wrong battle. When you find yourself in the retention battle, that is,
throwing as much money as you can to keep an employee, you’ve already lost the
battle, not to mention you were fighting the wrong battle because you are
thinking too small. The larger war is about engagement. Attrition of key
talent is just a symptom of you losing the war. When we try to retain
employees, we are too late. They are already disengaged; that’s why they are
looking somewhere else.
Ultimately organizations want productivity out of their employees; and they
should given that Gallup estimates $300 billion a year is lost in lack of
productivity. How do you get your employees to be more productive? Get them
engaged with their work.
When you look at engagement metrics, they typically fall into four categories:
- Values - Do I agree withe the values of the company?
- Leadership - Do I believe in leadership and their vision, strategy, and direction for the company?
- Management - Are the management practices aligned with the values the company espouses, aligned with the leadership direction, and supportive of me…the employee?
- Employee - Do I believe I have a career and future with this company? Am I doing work that is stimulating? Do I feel recognized for my contribution?
The first two categories are very difficult for anyone to take on and impact.
At the end of the day, getting more engaged with your job boils down to two
things…do you like your manager and find them supportive; and have you taken
ownership of your career to get what you need out of your current job.
As a manager, it is your responsibility to engage your employees. It is your
responsibility to sit down and have those standing 1-1’s to give your
employees feedback on what they are doing well and where they could improve,
coach them to be stronger, and give them the resources to learn and stretch
themselves.
As an employee, it is your responsibility to GIVE 100% to your job. This
includes your knowledge, time, effort, and ideas. It is also your
responsibility to make sure you get GET 100% for all you give. This includes
compensation, experience, learning new skills, and networking to build your
contacts.
If companies actually focus more on engaging their current talent, they’d
actually get more out of them…$300 billion more.