Attracting and Keeping Good Employees

Companies are competing more rigorously than ever for human resources due to Baby Boomers reaching retirement age. This trend will increase as the volume of retiring Boomers grows in the next few years, and leaders who do the best job of attracting and keeping the best of the available resources will be the most successful. Keeping good people is critical. The cost of losing good people is greater than we may realize, and can result in:

• A costly and time-consuming rehiring process
• Loss of knowledge, skills, experience
• Loss of focus on goals
• Decreased customer service
• Lower sales and profit

To attract and keep good employees, we must first be attractive. We need to ensure we have the kind of company where good people want to work. We cannot afford to lose employees or fail to attract them because of a poor culture. Creating a great culture is one way a small business can compete with larger companies. And, if you are smaller, you also have the advantage of being more flexible when making culture changes. Some benefits of creating an attractive culture are:

• It will stop the flow of good talent from leaving your company. It is expensive to find and hire qualified people — it is much less expensive to keep the ones you have.
• It will attract other good people to you. Word of mouth is priceless. Your current employees will be your best recruiters.
• Current employees will be more focused, creative and productive people.

Reasons People Leave a Workplace Saratoga Institute, a leader in third party exit interviewing and employee commitment, did a five-year study of nearly 20,000 employees. According to the data, the reasons employees give for leaving falls into seven categories. These are listed in no particular order:

• Job or workplace was not as expected
• Mismatch between job and person
• Too little coaching and feedback
• Too few growth opportunities
• Feeling devalued and unrecognized
• Stress from overwork and work/life imbalance
• Loss of trust in leadership

Do you notice something missing from the list? It’s money. Does this mean money is not a reason people leave? No, but several studies have shown that beyond filling our basic needs, money is not the top motivator for most people. These same studies, however, show that many managers believe money is the main reason people leave. Many times employees often cite “more money” as a reason for their departure, even though it was something else that triggered them to start looking. It is easier for an employee to say that money is the main issue rather than talking about the leaders and company culture — no one wants to burn bridges. So what do the seven reasons people leave have in common? All of them are things that can be reduced or eliminated with effective leadership. Every reason is something that is either directly or indirectly part of the company leaders’ responsibilities. The leaders set the culture and tone, and put practices in place under which the organization operates. Importance of Formal Leadership Development Many people are in leadership roles without formal leadership development, and the reasons people leave companies reflect this lack of training. You would not put someone on an expensive piece of equipment without proper training, as they could hurt themselves, others, the equipment and productivity. Yet this is what happens with many leaders who are in charge of a far more valuable asset: people. Those without formal leadership development:

• Rely on technical skills vs. leadership skills.
• Do their people’s jobs rather than their own.

Do you see any symptoms in your company? Here are some indicators that leadership development is needed:

• Manager is not holding some or all team members accountable.
• Manager uses the power of the position rather than coaching.
• Manager puts out fires rather than finding long-term solutions.
• Manager works long hours and/or does not feel like they can take a vacation.
• Manager makes decisions or solves problems that their people should be doing instead.
• Manager micromanages employees rather than develops them.
• Long employee line forms outside the manager’s office.
• Employee performance suffers when the manager is not there.

Good employees are not attracted to this type of work environment. No one should be in a leadership role without formal leadership development — the cost is too high for the organization and for the employees! Recently, one of our clients shared a delightful story. A business owner had set out to improve leadership and company culture. In the process, the company’s management team defined company values and included this information in employee pay envelopes. An employee who intended to leave the company read about the values. He then met with the company president to discuss the values and, as a result, decided to stay. He told the president, “I want to work for a company that is striving for these kinds of values!” Leaders have control of the company culture. Many things go back to leadership basics, and attracting and keeping good employees is no exception.  What Leaders Can Do to Attract and Keep Their Most Valuable Asset Ensure the job or workplace is as expected. Leaders usually think their people know exactly what is expected. Our experience has shown that this is not always true. Ensure your people know their priorities by developing clear, written expectations for each position. Get High Payoff Activities (see September/October issue of 2015 SGIA Journal) in place for each position and be sure they are communicated to each employee. High Payoff Activities are the six most important prioritized activities where an employee should spend at least 80 percent of time. Limit it to six activities because most people cannot focus effectively on too many things at once. Job descriptions are important, too, but often these can be confusing if the most important priorities get lost in the details. The best job descriptions include High Payoff Activities listed prominently, so their priorities are clear. When Tery was first exposed to High Payoff Activities, he was spending 70–80 hours per week managing four departments. He thought he knew his manager’s expectations. However, when Tery listed his High Payoff Activities and had his manager do the same, they found several items did not align. As Tery reprioritized his activities, he found there were items to delegate, streamline or even eliminate. Within three months, he reduced his working hours by 50 percent and his departments’ performance improved dramatically. Also develop simple scorecards based upon High Payoff Activities so employees know daily whether they are winning or losing. This empowers employees to manage their own performance and frees up a manager’s time. Ensure good match between job and employee. Sometimes employees fail or leave not because they are bad employees, but because they’re in a position that is not in line with their strengths or potential development areas. Use High Payoff Activities to determine if an employee is a good fit for a position. During the screening process, compare previous experience, knowledge and strengths with the specific tasks that are to be performed. Once on the job, notice tasks that are not being performed to the desired level. Determine if the lack of performance is due to a coaching need or if it is a task the employee is avoiding because of a poor fit. Take appropriate action quickly so the employee does not get discouraged or become unproductive. Provide coaching and feedback. People need ongoing interaction with their leaders. Many times employees only get feedback when they have done something wrong. Replace constructive criticism, where the focus is what was done wrong, with coaching feedback which focuses on what to do differently next time. Think of yourself as a coach and focus on ‘coaching for improvement’. A coach is concerned about developing people so that everyone wins. If clear metrics are laid out with High Payoff Activities and scorecards up front, everyone is on the same page. It takes much of the emotion out of performance discussions. The coach/leader can have more productive, ongoing dialog with employees about performance improvement and goals achievement. Employees will be more receptive since they know their leader has a mutual win in mind. Provide growth opportunities. Many people want to grow and develop. Employees deserve to have an individual motivation and training plan, with clear steps to get to the next level in performance and/or position. Review with each employee how he or she is doing on each High Payoff Activity. Identify gaps in performance and develop a plan to close the gaps. Learn the employee’s goals and what motivates them so you can help them achieve their goals by supporting the company goals. Even if a position is not open, people appreciate your investing time and resources in them. Sure, some employees may leave for another company after receiving training, but studies have shown that the cost of not developing your team is much higher. Help employees feel valued and recognize their achievements. Having clear expectations (High Payoff Activities and scorecards) and providing ongoing coaching and development will go a long way toward helping your people feel valued. Make sure employees get the proper recognition for what they have done. When goals are met, celebrate and recognize the achievement. Make this part of the culture. Avoid overwork and work/life imbalance. Overtime and hard work often cannot be avoided but people who are happy in their jobs tend to have less stress. If a good culture is in place with clear expectations, clear performance measurement and solid people development, people think less about the hard work and more about the sense of accomplishment. When possible, accommodate an employee’s desire or need to work part time or work at home. Praise employees for getting their work done in less time rather than rewarding them for working long hours. Provide effective time management training to help your people get their jobs done better in less time. Be a trustworthy leader. Employees need to know they can trust their leader. Trust is built over time, but getting these steps in place effectively will help people have more confidence in company leaders. They will know their leaders care about them, want them to grow and develop and win at their job. Leaders also need to have their own High Payoff Activities implemented so they are setting a good example of focusing on the right things and following through on commitments. Establish and communicate a clear vision and values for the organization. Treat employees with dignity and respect, and help them be a valuable part of the team. Action Steps A lot goes into creating a culture, and it is not easy to change it overnight. In contrast, certain things can be implemented which will have an almost immediate impact. Start by looking at the real reasons employees leave your organization. What steps are you taking to address them? In order to build a culture that will keep and attract good people, these seven areas need to be properly tackled over time. Otherwise, even if employees stick around, they may become disengaged — which is worse than leaving. Determine where you need to go, identify the gaps and then create a plan to address them. Consider using an outside facilitator who can greatly enhance the process of awareness, planning and implementation. Your most valuable asset will thank you for your efforts. Remember, “What gets scheduled gets done!” Ask yourself, what is one thing you can schedule today to begin the process? Perhaps begin with putting High Payoff Activities in place for yourself and then your people. Once everyone is crystal clear about expectations, you will have the foundation on which to build. In the next article, we will look more closely at the role training and development play in helping to attract and keep good people, and how this can give you the competitive edge and help you be the employer of choice.