Stop Using the “Goodies and Gimmicks” Approach to Retention – Part III
by David Lee
Part Three of a
Three Part Series Published by ERExchange.com
In the first two segments of this article, we explored how understanding and satisfying core human needs in the workplace is a far more effective strategy than bribing employees with goodies and gimmicks. In the second segment of this article, we explored four critical human needs that influence employee retention:
· Pride in One’s Work and
Employer
· Work That Has Meaning
· Understanding The Goal and One’s Role
· To Be
a Player And Not Just a Hired Hand
In this third and final segment, we will examine two
more human needs that affect your organization’s ability to create a loyal and
passionate workforce. These are:
·
The Chance to
Experience Efficacy
·
To Be Heard
At the end of this segment, you will find a “Next
Steps” section with eight things you can do to translate this information into
the beginning of a successful, comprehensive retention strategy. But for now, let’s examine how your
organization satisfies these two other critical human needs.
We are also hard-wired to desire the feeling of
mastery, the “thrill of victory” that comes from doing something effectively.
Whether it comes in the form of solving a problem, completing a task, or
conquering a challenge, mastery provides intrinsic pleasure. The behavior of
babies and small children demonstrates the fundamental and self-reinforcing
nature of this drive. Nobody has to reward a baby to encourage it to try
relentlessly to stand up or tie its shoes. “The thrill of victory” is reward
enough.
The same is true for people at work. Nothing leads to
feeling good and feeling good about oneself, like
being good at something worthwhile. Conversely, few things create a demoralized
workforce more effectively than preventing them from doing their jobs well.
Improving morale and retention requires examining your organization for the
typical ways organizations hamstring efficacy, such as inadequate training,
out-dated technology, and job expectations shrouded in mystery. Besides
affecting retention, these obstacles strongly impact productivity. A 1995 study by Yankelovich
Partners for the firm of William M. Mercer revealed that the average worker
surveyed reported they could be 26 percent more productive if it weren’t for
the following obstacles, listed in order of importance: lack of direction,
support, training, and proper equipment.
1. Do we prepare our employees
to do their jobs well, through adequate orientation and training?
2. Do we have any jobs where
failure and inadequacy are the primary experiences employees have?
3. Do we provide the
technology and logistical support for employees to do their jobs well?
4. Do our managers know how to
set clear expectations, give clear feedback, and perform productive performance
reviews?
Few things enrage employees more than when senior
management doesn’t bother to ask for their feedback or ask how they are doing.
Although getting employee feedback is Management 101, many senior managers plow
ahead with new initiatives or maintain unproductive practices without bothering
to ask how they are “playing among the troops.” I’ve often been struck by the
power of the need to be heard when conducting focus groups with organizations
having serious morale and turnover problems. On several occasions one or more
employees will sigh at the end of the focus group and say “Whew, I feel so much
better just being able to say what’s on my mind. Now I can get back to
work.” When I hear this, I can’t help
but think of the morale and productivity increases the organization would enjoy
if they implemented formal and informal processes that engaged their employees
in an ongoing conversation about how they are doing.
1. Do our employees believe we
listen to them?
2. Do our employees believe we
care about what they have to say?
3. Do we actively solicit
feedback from employees, both formally and informally?
4. Do our managers ask their
subordinates for input on how to improve as a manager?
5. Do we respond to employee feedback
promptly, letting them know what is being done – or not – with their feedback?
6. Do we make it safe for
employees to express dissatisfaction and disagreement, or do we label them “not
a team player”?
If you’re serious about holding onto your best people,
you cannot ignore the results from
How a boss treats an employee is the strongest
determinant of their work experience. Just as in customer service the truism
goes: “To the customer, the employee serving them is the company”; to
the employee, their manager is The Employer. Having supervisors who
haven’t been properly trained or aren’t held accountable for how they treat
their people is a recipe for low morale and high turnover.
Quint Studor, CEO of Baptist
Hospital in
Thus, perhaps the most important action your
organization can take, is to provide your managers
with the training and support to do their jobs well, and to hold them
accountable. Not only will your employees be happier, but so will your
managers, because they’ll be more effective.
Retaining employees – especially your best ones –
requires more than Goodies and Gimmicks. It requires understanding what human
needs drive satisfaction and high performance, and then using this knowledge to
create an intrinsically motivating work experience. If you do this, you will
become an organization that truly is Retention-Worthy.
Here are some next steps to put these ideas into
action:
1. Create an Employee Advisory
Council and use the preceding questions as a catalyst for exploring how to
create a more intrinsically satisfying work experience.
2. Use the preceding questions
to engage your management team in the same conversation.
3. Actively involve your
workers in generating and executing solutions.
4. Stay connected with the
voice of your workers through surveys, focus groups, town hall meetings,
Q&A coffees, informal check-ins by managers, and your
Employee Advisory Group.
5. Impress upon your
management team that retention is a everyone’s job,
not HR’s.
6. Invest in management
development. Help your managers increase their Emotional Intelligence Quotient
(EQ) by learning about human nature and how it affects employee performance.
Help them develop the skills to bring out the best in their supervisees.
7. Support your managers’
development by instituting a coaching and mentoring program for them.
8. Hold managers accountable
by using appropriate goals and metrics in their performance evaluations.
For Parts II and III, go to
the Employee Retention
article section.
Click Here for more articles
by David Lee
About the
Author: David Lee is a consultant, speaker, and executive coach.
The founder of HumanNature@Work, he has worked with
organizations and presented at conferences throughout
For More Information:
David Lee, President
HumanNature@Work
P.O. Box 430
Bar Mills, Maine 04004
Tel: 207-929-3344
E-mail: info@HumanNatureAtWork.com