According to formal and informal workplace surveys employees are staying where they are, not because of loyalty to their bosses or love of their work. They’re staying because they’re concerned if they initiate a search:
- They’ll be found out and dismissed, before they are able to find work.
- An aggressive and talented field of job seekers can easily replace them.
- There aren’t any jobs out there that are more secure, satisfying, or promising than the ones they currently hold.
What they don’t know is that many companies have cut back as far as they can and want to hold on to the talent that remains; it’s expensive and time consuming to train new people, no matter how attractive they appear on paper; it’s bad for morale when high potential employees leave for something presumed better.
To survive this market, management has had to pare, scrape, and cut wherever possible. They’ve asked employees to do without raises, perks, and promotions. They’ve replaced those who’ve declined the invitation with those willing to pay the price to remain employed. The cost to survive has been great. Employees have felt overworked, underpaid, and unrecognized for compromises they’ve grudgingly made to keep their jobs and their companies afloat.
Once the economy turns, management will struggle to keep the employees they’ve depended upon most. Their best trained and most valued, talented, loyal, steadfast, and true employees are apt to run for the exits, carrying the inventory in their experienced heads. They’ll be looking for companies who will acknowledge their contributions, treat them well and pay them better.
What can management do now to encourage employees to stay with them in good times as well as bad?
Pay attention to what employees want from their work. Good pay used to be enough, but priorities have changed, at least that’s what the Louis Harris Pollsters found when they asked that question of the American worker. Of these options:
- Good chance for promotion,
- Good pay,
- Job security,
- Good working hours, and
- Gives a feeling of real accomplishment
The one response that significantly out-polled the others was: work “that is important and gives you a feeling of real accomplishment”.
In another Harris Poll, “What three factors appear to have a big impact on job satisfaction?” the top polling responses were:
- Having control over one’s work.
- Using talents and skills, and
- Recognition and Appreciation.
In the book “The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America”, authors Levering and Moskowitz describe those businesses that make the grade as magnets for people looking for meaningful work and models for getting it right. They found that top companies had more employee participation in decision- making, greater trust between management and employees, and more equitable wealth distribution through profit sharing. And they had more fun.
Fortune Magazine’s quest for the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America” revealed that top ranking companies value training and education, work life balance, and special relationships with employees.
The Gallup Organization conducted a 21-year research project to distinguish the strongest departments of a company from all the rest. Buckingham and Coffman, in their book First, Break All the Rules, What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently present their findings. Chief among these is that the front line manager, more than pay, benefits, promotions and training, is key to attracting and retaining talented employees. These successful managers use four key strategies in hiring and developing employees.
- They select for talent, not just experience, intelligence or determination.
- They set expectations by defining the right outcomes, not the right steps.
- They motivate by focusing on strengths and not weaknesses, and
- They develop by helping employees find the right fit, not the next rung on the ladder.
If you have management responsibility, take time, now, to evaluate the well being of your employees. Speak openly and honestly about the current state of the business and the vision you have of its future. Talk about the role each employee plays in its sustainability, viability, and profitability. Train, develop, encourage and provide opportunity for each employee to achieve more than is currently within reach and celebrate every time it happens.
