Category: Organizational Culture, Employee Performance & Retention
Audience: Leaders, CEO, COO
Overview: Retaining Talent Requires Alignment
By: John K Moore, President, Client Performance Solutions, The Culture Think Tank
Read Time: 5 minutes
With the NBA playoffs heating up, I’ve been mulling over several ‘fast five’ strategies, inspired by the game, to help leaders tackle the challenge of retaining talent. These insights are part of the playbook I’ve developed over the years coaching leaders, distilled into five key elements:
1. Five Compelling Statistics
Discover the high costs of employee turnover, the failure rate of new hires, the preferences of younger generations, remote work trends, and the effectiveness of leadership development programs.
2. Five Warning Signs
Keep an eye on high turnover rates, disengagement indicators, limited advancement opportunities, micromanagement, and lack of recognition.
3. Five Supportive Leadership Behaviors
Communicate openly, recognize employee contributions, lead by example, embrace diversity, and provide clear task instructions.
4. Five Tactical Recruiting Responses
Focus on retention metrics, embrace diversity in recruitment, prioritize new employee feedback, offer competitive compensation, and implement Critical Behavior Interviewing (CBI).
5. Five Tactical Non-Recruiting Responses
Invest in employee development, foster a supportive work environment, promote transparent communication, conduct exit interviews, and provide learning opportunities.
You don’t need me to tell you that the better you are at Attracting Talent, the easier it will be to Retain Talent.
Attracting talent is crucial, but let’s focus on retention for now – we’ll tackle how culture attracts talent in a future article.
Five Compelling Statistics – Retain Talent – Protect Your Bottom Line
1. Losing an employee is like setting money on fire! According to the SHRM, an employee loss can cost a company 50-75% of that employee’s annual salary, just to replace them.
And if they bail within the first year? Brace yourself – the number jumps to a staggering 200% of their annual paycheck, factoring in everything from recruitment and hiring to training and lost productivity from other team members.
2. 46% of newly hired employees fail in their role within the first 18 months according to Leadership IQ. The primary reason is not a lack of technical skills, but issues related to behavior, coachability, and motivation.
3. Studies show that younger generations, such as Millennials and Gen Z, prioritize work-life balance, career development opportunities and a sense of purpose in their work. Companies that fail to meet these expectations may struggle to retain younger talent.
4. A survey by Buffer found 98% of remote workers would like to work remotely at least some of the time, for the rest of their careers. Company leadership’s ability to delegate work, trust team members, redefine job duties, and assign key performance metrics comes into play here.
5. Brandon Hall Group found that organizations with strong leadership development programs are 84% more effective at developing leaders and 73% more effective at improving employee retention.
Five Warning Signs for Leaders – Your Employees are Eying the Exit
1. High Turnover Rate – Track your annual turnover rate by department and location, noting reasons for leaving through exit interviews and the length of employment before departure.
2. Lack of Employee Connectivity – Employee distancing – evidenced by decreased productivity, absenteeism, delayed responses or lack of enthusiasm in meetings are people prone to leave.
3. Limited Opportunities for Advancement – When employees see no clear path for career growth or advancement, they are likely to leave in search of better prospects elsewhere. Job descriptions should identify requirements and criteria necessary for promotion opportunities.
4. Micromanagement or Lack of Autonomy – Employees want to feel trusted and empowered to do their job. If there’s excessive micromanagement – our #1 requested STOP behavior by staff of their leader – it can frustrate everyone and drive away your talent!
5. Lack of Recognition and Appreciation – Employees who feel their efforts are not recognized, their needs addressed or their hard work appreciated become disengaged and seek validation elsewhere. Do you have a simple Reward & Recognition Program? If not, consider implementing one.
Five Supportive Leadership Behaviors – Build Trust & Set an Example
1. Communicate openly, transparently, and frequently with employees to share the company’s vision, goals, expectations, and updates on current and planned initiatives.
2. Regularly inform each employee of all the benefits, rewards, training, and any other forms of compensation and perks that typically go unrecognized.
3. Serve as a role model for the behaviors expected from employees.
4. Value and celebrate diverse perspectives, ideas, and experiences. Encourage open dialogue and respectful debate to help foster a culture of innovation and creativity.
5. When assigning tasks, be sure to vary the level of instruction according to the employee’s familiarity with the subject matter. This approach can help reduce the confusion, anxiety, and frustration that lead to challenges with retaining talent.
Five Tactical Recruiting Responses
1. Base the success of Recruiting teams on how long a new employee remains with the company. Traditional methods focus on how quickly a job order can be filled, which doesn’t help much with retaining talent.
2. Actively recruit employees from diverse backgrounds and age groups to foster innovation, creativity, and various perspectives.
3. Regularly meet with new employees to understand their expectations, concerns, and onboarding challenges. This approach can also help identify continuous improvement opportunities and potential retention risks.
4. Ensure compensation packages are competitive within the industry and region. Consider offering perks such as flexible work arrangements, health and wellness programs, and professional development opportunities.
5. Go beyond only hiring for skill levels to focus on the required behaviors expected within the new employee’s department and location. Most companies only address behaviors when a performance issue arises, which is too late so consider a Critical Behavior Interviewing (CBI) approach.
Five Tactical Non-Recruiting Responses
1. Implement programs and initiatives that support employee development and advancement. This can include training programs, coaching and mentorship opportunities, and pathways for promotion.
2. Encourage a supportive and inclusive work environment where employees feel valued, respected, and connected to their colleagues and the organization’s mission. Focus on the expected leadership behaviors to accomplish this.
3. Foster open and transparent communication between leadership and employees. Provide regular feedback, listen to and document employee concerns, and address them promptly.
4. Be sure to conduct exit interviews when employees depart the company to gather feedback on their reasons for leaving and areas where the company can improve to retain talent in the future.
5. Provide employees with opportunities to learn new skills. This could include cross-training, job rotations, or access to online learning.
Developing a holistic approach as a leader can help ensure talent is retained and stays a long time.
The holistic approach begins with company reputation and brand, then expands to include the entire recruiting process, the candidate experience during recruiting, expectation management, onboarding and training, coaching and mentoring, job descriptions and performance scorecards, cultural alignment, leadership behaviors, and other considerations.
To help begin to solve your talent retention issues, here’s my recommended ‘Fast Five’ approach:
- Reflect on past retention experiences
- Evaluate current retention metrics
- Collaborate to identify improvement opportunities
- Create a phased Talent Retention Roadmap
- Establish a plan for sustaining retention efforts.
As you can see, getting each of these 5 elements “right” is only part of the solution – aligning them with each other and keeping them aligned is the challenging part!
For leaders, there is no “one size fits all” approach to retaining talent – the best approach is the one that works for your company.
John is President of the Client Performance Solutions Division at The Culture Think Tank. He specializes in developing innovative strategies and aligning them with processes and people. His book, Align or Resign, highlights many of his business techniques. Schedule a chat on John’s calendar.
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