Employee Engagement & Retention - Managerial Effectiveness - 4

Encourage employees to follow their passion : - Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your Life – Confucius. Ask your employees what they really like to do, what they are passionate about or what gives the greatest thrills/kicks at work…as they answer, dig deeper. When was the last time you pulled your team together to ask for their ideas? Do it more often. If you help connect your employees’ passion to their jobs, not only they, however, you will also  reap the rewards. It is imperative to collaborate with your employees to incorporate their passion into the work they do. When people are doing what they love, they are at their best. If you build a team of passionate people, they’ll not only produce for you –they’ll actually help retain each other.

Retaining your best employee is a strictly rational business strategy …Do all that you can…Think about the last time one of your most talented employees was poached by competition or just walked out of your door ? Did you launch an investigation? What measure did you implement to prevent it from happening again? You will never really know what it costs to lose a talented employee if you never calculate. A careful assessment of the numbers might just convince you to focus more heavily on retaining your talent.

Be an opportunist in a positive sense of the word on behalf of your people…Make people smarter…Help them Mine Opportunities : - Mining opportunities means looking for, finding and retrieving opportunities with your people - It doesn’t mean you are in charge of their career oaths. You must help them find opportunities on your own turf or they will  find it themselves outside your turf. If you are an opportunity-minded manager, you will help your employees seek opportunities and help them to see those opportunities when they are right in front of their noses. To discover opportunities, one must look at the world in a new way, through new lens. It is impossible to make people smarter in a short term,  but you can help them see with new eyes.

Question the Rules / Status quo… We rely on rules to provide safety and sanity in our communities and workplaces. Yet, progress demands questioning the rules. Overgrown rules sometimes need questioning. When your employees come to you with new ideas, concepts or rule breakers, they want appreciation and acknowledgement. The rule questioners are our innovators. Imagine the talent that is lost because no one took time to listen to the challenging questions of innovative people. They multiply; they live in huge manuals and begin to stifle productivity and creativity. Evaluate new ideas fairly before you discard them.

Reward and Recognize.. Pay fairly and competitively…But don’t stop there: - Research and common sense tell you to pay fairly or your best people might leave. Benchmark similar organizations in your industry and find out what are their pay scales, bonuses and perks look like. Challenge, growth opportunities, flexibility, great coworkers, meaningful work, a good boss and recognition are things that matter more to most of your people. When those are missing, talented people walk. Focus on rewards that really work and are within your control. Don’t assume that everyone wants/likes the same types of rewards and recognition. There is no  harm in asking your employees what kind of recognition or reward they most appreciate. Don't be parsimonious in praising  your good people. Find creative ways to show your appreciation and you will increase the odds of keeping them. It help to have a nose to catch people doing right things - The key is that you let employees know how much you value them and their contributions.

Give them the Space : Know the difference between inner space and outer space. Inner space refers to the emotional and mental space your employee wants. Outer space refers to the physical world and employees’ work surroundings. Should all work areas in your organization look alike?- Let them personalize. Be fair to your employees, being fair doesn’t mean treating everyone identically. Truly listen to the unique requests your employees bring to you. Make honest attempt to win flexibility and improved work conditions for your people.

Listen and understand : - Most managers don’t really believe that listening is a critical skill. They believe that being results-oriented or customer-focused is much more important to business success than being a good listener. It is imperative that equal focus and attention is paid to internal stakeholders (employees) as they are the people who will keep the external stakeholders (customers) happy. Build your listening skills...it helps a great deal. 
 

Tell the truth - Too often they hear only how wonderful, bright and talented they are : - Employees yearn for straight talk. They want to hear the truth about their performance and the organization. Tell the truth if you want to engage and keep your good people. They want to know where they stand – they want to know if your perception of their performance is the same as their own. Even the  Top Talent  in the organization need to know honest, balance feedback. People who hear the truth about themselves and the organization; feel free to tell you the truth are more engaged and more likely to stay.

In my next post, I shall touch upon few more Tips. Watch out the space!