Do your employees feel their career is safe?
“No matter what industry you’re in, the people on your team matter most.” Bill Gates
Want to reduce turnover and increase productivity? Do you believe it is important to keep the institutional knowledge in-house? Do you hope to attract and hire ‘A’ players to your team to fill those critical positions?
When employees feel their employer sees them as an individual, not just another cog in the corporate wheel, and career and ambitions are nurtured by their employer, they feel safe. When employees know they can be successful, appreciated and that their ambitions are respected, even cultivated, they show a loyalty that is not in the slightest altruistic. If a company provides the resources required to do an excellent job and the empowerment to use those resources, loyalty ensues. The corporate brand is strengthened and A players are more likely to come on board and stay.
Employer commitment to the success of employees has never been more important than it is today. With so many unfilled openings, it appears employees can pick and choose. In reality, many of those jobs go begging because candidates don’t have the qualifications. So how do you lure the top candidates with the right credentials to solve this employment misery?
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The challenge is to learn what each person needs in order to be successful. Or, better said, to become a maximum contributor. There are so many factors, talent, skill, age, generation, education and socio-economic level, to name a few. Yet it is the critical bit of information a true leader needs to learn. Solution? Ask.
So much of what is written is advice to attract and keep millennials. While that is a huge challenge, it is unlikely, and not even advisable, that your employees are all the same age. Needs will vary and the better you address that diversity, the stronger the loyalty.
Millennials have a sense of immediacy. If they don’t get what they want now, they have no problem moving on to where they believe they will get satisfaction. If they don’t feel working for you will grow their career and give consideration to their personal life, they move on. They are loyal to their career and if your company, team, fits their needs, they stay. If not? They move on. What they require applies to any employee.
Steps executives must take to provide career safety
Ok, you asked and now you have a laundry list of career demands from your diverse work force. Are there actions you can take that affect the whole team? That add to your brand as a terrific employer? How do you make employees feel their career is safe?
Make your organization a place you’d want to work: A place you’d encourage your friends to work. Here’s a basic check list.
- Transparency – Important corporate and department information is accessible. Everyone knows the goals and responsibilities of each team member. High-level priorities are communicated to all team members so everyone understands what they are working toward.
- Acknowledgement – Thank-you’s, public and private, tailored to their frame of reference as well as the team’s.
- Accessibility – Do your employees, both directs and individual contributors, know they can can get face time if needed? Is your door open, literally and figuratively? This is even more critical for managing remote teams.
- Known objectives – Does your team know the mandate for your organization? Do they know how they fit into that objective?
- Empowerment – Do you tell people what to do or do you encourage ownership of projects and solutions where they get to make decisions?
- Ownership – Do you conduct updates or do you give instructions?
- Updates – Do you conduct routine updates to assess progress, lend support, discuss problems and solutions?
- Career opportunities – Do you review your employees’ career objectives and put plans in place?
- Mentoring – Grow your employees and support their aspirations with mentors.
- Education – Formal and informal training demonstrates your investment in their future.
- Clean, well lighted work space – Nothing says I don’t care about you more than dirty coffee rooms and bath rooms.
- Food and drinks – Courtesy demands fresh water, juice and other pick-me-ups.
- Updated technology – Employees have an imperative to stay current. Do your part.
- Visibility – A real career builder is visibility within the niche. Media and speaking opportunities are plums awarded to the strongest players.
- Include significant others – Significant others sacrifice along with the employee. Acknowledge the travel time, late hours and emergency sessions are hard on them. Offer thank you’s that include dinner certificates and include them in company celebrations.
- Acknowledge personal life – Don’t lose your best employees because they have no life balance. Find out what they need and do what you can.
- Time off – Reward extra effort with extra time; the most valuable asset an employee has.
- Get rid of dead wood. – The hardest action is the most important action. Constantly remove those who are not performing. Nothing demoralizes a top performer more than putting in more effort and hours because their peers are not pulling their weight or worse, are creating problems.
If you focus on individual needs, you don’t need gimmicks, gifts and contests to motivate and retain your employees. Just make them feel valued. Ask them what is important to them and give it your best shot. A day off here and there may go a long way towards gaining their support during the crunch time long hours.
Bottom line is employees who feel valued stay with their employers. The best way to communicate they are valued is to protect their career with resources, opportunities to succeed and programs and opportunities for growth.