Taking Employee Engagement Beyond Retention

Many leaders mistakenly think that employee engagement is solely about retaining top talent. 

While minimizing the attrition of “A Players” is a critical component to any talent management strategy, many companies have a relatively high level of employee retention but dangerously low levels of employee advocacy and discretionary effort. For example, a recent high-tech client routinely pays its employees 150% of market.  This allows them to attract top talent.  It also enables them to keep many talented workers for 3-5 years working an average of 70 hours per week.  After the 3-year period however, the best and brightest move on to work in high performance corporate cultures that are more supportive and balanced.  So while short-term retention is high, mid-term retention is too low and continues to climb.

If you want to improve performance, know that both employee engagement and talent retention matter. They are deeply linked. Raise the level of employee engagement and your retention rate will also increase.

If your organization is struggling with keeping and getting the most from your people, you need to find out the reasons. Why are your workers feeling disengaged? The best way to answer this is with a proven employee engagement survey that is implemented with the promise that prompt action will be taken by the leadership team. 

Meantime, why not simply ask your employees? What “gears” would connect them more productively to the workforce engine? If you have a company that lives the value of open communication and there is no reason to fear repercussion, your workers are the best source of telling you what is wrong and what they want to change. The sooner you begin the process of making the work environment a more positive one, the sooner you will see your employees making the choice to commit to their work and to the organization.  Then you can implement employee engagement training to improve areas such as manager effectiveness, career development, feeling valued, job satisfaction, trust with coworkers, alignment with goals, teamwork and trust in senior leaders.

In the exhaustive research we have conducted around engagement by surveying over half a million employees across more than 5,000 organizations every year, we have learned what makes employees come to work each day eager and ready to dig in. Here is a short list of what matters to them:

 Work that has a purpose
Today’s employees want their contribution to make a difference to their community or society. They care, at the very least, that their organization is socially responsible. They do not want to simply “push product” that has only commercial use or work for a company that pollutes the environment. They would rather be proud of their connection to a product that has real and lasting benefit or to a firm that is eco-friendly.

 A flexible work environment
Today’s workers value their independence and options. They would like to make their own decisions about when and where they work. Flexible hours and days working from a home office show that the company values a work/life balance that fits individual priorities.

 Opportunities for personal growth
In this open talent economy where competition for “A” players is fierce, be sure you are competitive in the programs you offer for personal development. Workers want to feel that they are continuously learning and stretching in new directions. Give them the chance to pursue a new field, work in a different department or deepen their knowledge of their current job.

 Recognition
Don’t underestimate the importance of recognizing work above and beyond the call. When you see a behavior you want to encourage, speak up and recognize it.

Does all this sound expensive? Not at all as costly as losing good employees or maintaining a substandard, lackadaisical workforce.

Learn more at: http://www.lsaglobal.com/leading-for-employee-engagement/