By Marnie E. Green
Despite fluctuating economic times and increased globalizationof American jobs, most employers are finding it hard to keepgood workers. The reality of today’s job market is that workersare expecting more from their employers and are not afraid tomove on if their needs are not met by your organization.
Based on compelling data from the Society for Human ResourceManagement and others who study workforce trends, leadingorganizations must take time to analyze their retentionrealities and ensure that the valuable employees they currentlyhave are not seeking greener pastures.
How do great organizations maintain low levels of turnover andhigh levels of employee satisfaction? The answer is found in oneword: culture.
Organizations with high rates of employee retention concentrateon creating four distinct cultures that keep people focused onthe organization and its goals. The purpose of this article isto explore these four cultures and to recommend practicalstrategies for developing these cultures in your workplace.
Effective retention cultures include an intense focus on choice,balance, development and care.
The Culture of Choice
Donald N. Smith, the president of Burger King said, “Theindividual choice of garnishment of a burger can be an importantpoint to the consumer in this day when individualism is anincreasingly important thing to people.” Burger King recognizedlong ago that Americans expect to have multiple choices eachday. Workers are not an exception to this rule. Today’semployees are looking for choice in the methods they use forcompleting a job, in the benefits they receive from work, and inwhen and how they report to work.
In the last two decades, we’ve seen an explosion in the types ofemployee benefits offered by employers. We’ve seen an increasedacceptance of telecommuting and flex-time. Choices in the toolsthey use, the methods they employ, and the recognition theyreceive are all characterized as innovations in human resourcemanagement. In short, we continue to learn more and more aboutemployee engagement and the link between empowerment andretention.
Do your employees have choices every day? If not, they mightsoon be exercising their choice to leave.
The Culture of Balance
Even with increased acceptance of flextime and work/life balanceinitiatives, employers indicate that stress levels still remainhigh in their workplaces. Employers with lower levels ofturnover recognize the increasingly important issue of balanceand are addressing this need with proactive programs to helpworkers find satisfaction at home and on the job. This trend isbeing driven by a growing population of women in the workforce.The trend is expected to continue with young women surpassingmen in professional degree acquisition.
Progressive organizations will recognize these trends and lookto their increasing population of women to drive their cultureof balance. And, while some organizations have already respondedto this call, those organizations with professions that aretypically dominated by males may find this to be an increasinglyimportant issue in terms of attracting and retaining workers.For example, in the historically male-dominated world ofprofessional accounting, firms traditionally expected highlevels of billable hours and little time off. Some firms are nowrecognizing the value of creating a culture of balance byoffering increased levels of mandatory vacation each year.Coupled with flexible hours and family-friendly benefits, thesefirms are recognizing the impact a balance-focused work culturecan have on the retention of top performers.
The Culture of Development
Bestselling authors Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, intheir book, Love’Em or Lose’Em, say that any organization thatignores the ambitions of good people can’t expect to keep them.High rates of retention are clearly linked to the amount ofattention the employee gets in terms of their professionaldevelopment and growth. When employees feel that their careergoals have been acknowledged and that they are continuing to bechallenged on the job, they are likely to stick around.Employees who feel stagnated, ignored, or bored will likelystart to look for other opportunities. So how do greatorganizations create cultures of development?
A culture of development can be cultivated through a variety oftools. Training, mentoring, and clear career paths allcontribute to this culture. However, the strongest culture ofdevelopment is created by the first line supervisor who workswith the employee each day. Every supervisor and manager has anopportunity to show that they are interested in the employee’sgrowth and development by asking the right questions and byunderstanding where the employee wants to go professionally.
Kaye and Jordan suggest that managers and supervisors have aregular “stay” discussion with each employee where the followingquestions are explored:
• What learning opportunities can we support? • What workchallenges would “turn you on?” • What can we do to help you bemore fulfilled on the job? • What will keep you here?
Simply by asking, managers and supervisors can begin to create aculture of development, and hence increased levels of retention.
A Culture of Care
R. Brayton Bowen of the Howland Group said, “In a strict sense,the kind of motivation we need to be talking about in today’senvironment is inspired rather than induced.” As Bowen indicatesemployees will be motivated to stay put and work at higherlevels if they feel that they are cared for and if they careabout the work they are doing. In other words, employees mustfeel a sense of inspiration to fully commit to their dailyactivities.
In organizations where retention levels are high and turnover islow, research has found that employees find some level ofinspiration from their jobs. Such inspiration might be a senseof contributing to the greater good. It might be a commitment tothe team and its goals. Inspiration may be derived by followinga committed and ethical leader. However the inspiration iscreated, employees must be lead to care about their work andabout the organization.
How is a culture of care created? Recently a study was done withemployees of a small city government. Written employee surveysindicated that morale was low and that many of the employees,including long-term employees, were considering leaving theorganization for other opportunities. In fact, turnover was athigh levels in comparison with previous years. In a smallorganization such as this one, with less than 30 employees, theresults of high turnover are devastating to the organization,its productivity, and its reputation in the community.
Upon further exploration of the survey results throughone-on-one interviews, it was discovered that the reason theemployees were dissatisfied was because they felt that they werenot being listened to by a new manager. Some employees said theywere not feeling respected. They reported that a newly promotedsupervisor often trivialized their skills and did not recognizetheir day-to-day achievements. After further review, thefollowing conclusions were found:
• The leaders, including managers and supervisors, directlyimpacted the culture and the sense of care within theorganization.
• The leaders did not recognize the impact their behaviors werehaving on the morale of the workforce.
• For morale, and thus retention levels, to improve, theleadership team, many of whom were new to the organization,needed to address their own beliefs and skills as it related tobeing leaders.
In this example, retention and overall employee satisfaction wasbeing directly impacted by the level of empathy and attentionprovided by the organization’s first and second line leaders. Itis clear that the relationship between these key players andemployees is a major factor in employee retention today.
Conclusion
We have all read the ominous reports that indicate the workforcewill shrink in numbers over the next ten years with theanticipated exit of the baby boomers. It is clear thatorganizations will continue to be challenged to attract andretain qualified and committed employees. It is now time to turnour attention internally, to the four cultures of employeeretention. Use the following questions to explore the fourcultures in your organization:
• Does your organization provide ample choice to employeesthroughout the work experience? Do employees feel that they cancontrol their day-to-day work life?
• Does your organization recognize the increased need forwork/life balance by employees? How can you continue tocommunicate this priority to employees?
• How is your organization fostering a culture of development?Besides the traditional development strategies such as trainingand tuition reimbursement, what is your organization doing tofoster a sense of continuous learning and development at alllevels? What role do supervisors and managers play in creatingthis culture?
• Do your employees feel “cared for?” Have the organization’sleaders created a sense of commitment among the staff by showingthey care?
With the national average length of employment hovering aroundone and a half years per job, it makes sense to explore what ittakes to retain and develop a committed staff. Retention, whileoften considered a factor of economic times, is now beingconsidered a long-term strategic goal for organizations thatrecognize its value
Article Source: www.ArticlesBase.com
