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Financial Services Marketing Insights: A Marketing Compass
What we now call “marketing” began long before the name was coined. In the mid-1800s, traveling salesmen dressed “snake oil" and other tonics in fancy packaging and extolled their virtues to a gullible public. New marketing applications soon...
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Is America Bankrupt?
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Organizational Culture, Creativity, Innovation
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The common belief is that lack of structure and randomness enhances creative output, whereas in truth, creativity is enhanced when it is organised, systematic and based on highly structured processes. This article will use Episode III of the Star...
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Employee Retention - Critical Skill at a Critical Time
Many of you have probably heard about the "pending" labor
shortage. The Herman Group predicts that by 2010, there will be
a shortage of over 10 million employees in the U.S. This is not
a problem that will magically appear in 5 years. The problem is
NOW!!
We are currently in the tightest labor market of the past 40
years. Data already suggests we have a shortage of almost 5
million employees. Much of this is due to the impact of the 20%
drop in birth rate we saw after the Baby Boomer generation. At
the same time these Baby Boomers begin to retire, fewer people
are entering the job force. Unemployment rates are at their
lowest levels since early 2001 and they will only get lower.
If you haven't given this problem much thought, you're not
alone. Most companies have been lulled to sleep by the up and
down economy and fickle job market of the last few years. That's
great news for those of you reading this because the few
companies who understand the importance of this problem, and
proactively do something about it, will gain incredible
competitive advantage.
The Impact You will feel this impact in two ways: 1. Increased
employee turnover According to the Gallop organization, only 29%
of employees are truly engaged in the work they do. That means
71% of your employees would probably not think twice before
leaving for a better (or maybe just different) opportunity. At
the same time, the current positive state of the economy, low
unemployment rate and flexible work arrangements have given
employees more choices than ever before. And, by the way, your
best employees have the most choices, and therefore more reason
to leave! Think about the impact that would have on your
customers, employee morale, hiring costs, training and number of
non-gray hairs on your head.
If you haven't begun to see this problem in your organization,
you will. If you don't tackle this problem today, you will pay
dearly to solve it tomorrow.
2. Increased difficulty in recruiting Some of you may have
already experienced the increased time it takes to find
qualified employees. Two years ago, a job candidate was happy to
have one good job opportunity. Today, most good job candidates
have several opportunities to choose from.
This will cause two types of problems: either your company will
be understaffed as you wait longer to fill those open spots, or
you'll rush to fill open spots by settling for employees that
are not really qualified for the job.
The Solution So how do you weather this storm?
What follows are eight ways to dramatically increase the chances
of keeping and maximizing your best employees.
1. Hire the right people The first step for any company hoping
to become great is to hire superior people. "A" players breed
more "A" players. Companies filled with "B" and "C" employees
will not have the ability to attract "A" players. In addition,
the "A" players you do have will be de-motivated and/or leave.
Research has shown that companies mis-hire 75% of the time! That
means most companies need to hire four mediocre or
under-performing employees in order to find one "A" player. The
cost of this poor performance is astounding when you estimate
the impact on company performance and/or employee turnover
costs.
Therefore, the first step in your retention process should be to
improve your hiring process. You will need to develop a system
for recruiting, evaluating and hiring superior people. This is
an extensive topic unto itself, which has spawned hundreds of
books. I suggest you read "Hire With Your Head" by Lou Adler or
"Topgrading" by Bradford Smart as a great starting point. 2.
Know your employees Do you adhere to the adage that all
employees should be treated equally? If so, your employees will
never achieve their true potential, and never be truly happy in
their work.
Each one of your employees has different strengths, weaknesses,
likes, dislikes, goals, motivations and learning styles. By
understanding and acting on these differences you will be able
to bring the best out of your team.
Let's look at an example concerning motivations... One employee
is motivated by money and/or status while the second employee is
motivated by free-time and flexibility. Should both be offered
the same type of work incentives? Of course not.
Let's look at one more example. This time concerning learning
styles... Some employees learn best by studying everything there
is to know about task before trying it. Forcing them to begin a
task before they're ready will result in poor execution and
diminished confidence. Other employees like to learn by doing.
They like to understand the basics of the task and then be "let
loose" to learn from their mistakes. Studying the details of a
task for too long only bores and de-motivates them. Would you
train these different types of employees in the same manner? I
hope not.
The sad thing is that most managers don't know their employees
well enough to understand these differences. If that's the case
in your situation, the first step is incredibly easy. Just ask
them. Ask them what they like and dislike about the job. Ask
them what motivates them and how they like to learn best. Not
only will you find out an incredible amount of useful
information, you'll also show them how much you
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care.
3. Focus on employee strengths When creating and giving employee
evaluations, how much time do you spend on strengths versus
weaknesses? If you're like most managers, you rack your brain to
find every possible weakness and development need for the
employee you're evaluating. I remember having a hard time
writing reviews for my best performers since it was more
difficult to find areas of weakness. Telling them where they
were doing a great job was almost an afterthought and not much
more than a pat on the back. Focusing on weaknesses might help
an employee become a bit more "well rounded", however, being
"well rounded" is incredibly overrated. Employees will rarely
become strong in an area of weakness. The best we can hope for
is that they will rise to become mediocre. However, where an
employee has talent, they can become world-class. In addition,
focusing on maximizing those areas where we have true talent is
incredibly motivating.
This doesn't mean we should ignore weaknesses. By all means, if
weaknesses are getting in the way of doing the job, you need to
find ways to manage around those weaknesses. These can include
looking for ways to get them to acceptable levels of
performance, changing their responsibilities or counseling them
out of your organization. But don't expect them to become
"expert" tomorrow in those areas they're weak in today.
Your return on investment will be significantly greater by
focusing the employee's efforts on continuing to build on their
talents by adding new knowledge, experience and tools. Would you
rather have a "well rounded" employee or a world-class employee?
4. Create a compelling mission I'm not talking here about your
typical mission statement, created by high level executives
during a 2-day retreat. I'm talking about something your
employees feel in their gut. Something that makes them believe
their work is important. Something that gives them pride in what
they do.
If you work for a brokerage firm, wouldn't it be more powerful
to state your mission as "We help our clients provide for their
children and live comfortably into their old age" than to say
"We will be the leading brokerage firm in our industry". If your
company makes smoke alarms, wouldn't it be more powerful to have
a mission to keep families safe instead of a mission to be the
#1 provider of smoke alarms.
Think about what makes your work important and make that your
mission.
5. Trust your people Conventional management wisdom says you'll
get the most out of your employees by defining specific goals
and detailed procedures for getting there. This is only half
right. Creating challenging goals is critical, however, let your
employees figure out how to get there.
Most of us know it's the people on the front lines who truly
understand the best way to get things done. Defining every
detailed procedure for them not only stifles their motivation
and creativity, but also lowers the chance they'll create
break-thru performance.
If you've hired the right people and given them the tools
necessary to do the job, you should give them the freedom to get
the job done. Giving them ownership will allow them to reach
their true potential.
6. Show your appreciation There's a reason why teams play better
in front of a home town crowd. There's a reason why stand up
comics feed off the laughter of the crowd. Appreciation works!
Find ways to measure and reward positive outcomes. Compliment
and celebrate your teams' accomplishments big and small. There's
no such thing as too much praise as long as it's genuine.
7. Cultivate strong managers Research shows that employees leave
their managers, not the companies they work for. It does no good
for a company to invest in great compensation plans, mission
statements and performance management systems if front line
managers can't execute against the previous six ideas.
Simply put, managers need to know how to effectively select,
manage, develop and reward their employees. Missing any one
these pieces will lead to poor performance and high employee
turnover.
Therefore, a company's biggest investment should be in the
selection and development of great managers.
8. Have fun! We spend half our waking lives at work. Shouldn't
we figure out how to make it fun? Not only will a fun work
environment breed happier employees, it'll breed creativity,
outstanding service and tremendous teamwork.
Allow your employees to play, have fun and experiment. Encourage
them to contribute to others (employees, customers and the
community) in extraordinary ways. Most of all loosen up. Let
people bring their true selves to work and have a good time.
Your customers, employees and bottom-line will be better for it.
Following these eight steps will actually do a great deal more
than help you keep your best employees. Happier, more productive
employees will lead to improved innovation, quality, customer
service and, best of all, profitability.
About the author:
Mike Goldman is the owner of Pridestaff of Paramus, providing
workforce solutions to companies in Northern New Jersey. Mike
also spent 17 years consulting to Fortune 500 companies and is a
writer and speaker in the areas of career management and
workforce strategies.
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