Engaging or retaining employees?
Is there really a “chicken or the egg” question?
Michelle Ray, “The Attitude Adjustor”, keynote speaker and workplace motivation expert
“How do I motivate my employees? The age-old question has now become even more relevant and complex for managers. Organizations’ expectations of leaders have changed in reaction to the competition for talent and tight labour pool. Management at all levels must include attraction and retention of employees as a critical component of employment strategy. A leader’s resume is now as closely scrutinized as their employee’s, specifically when it comes to the leader’s interpersonal communication skills coupled with the ability to create the type of environment that engages every team member. Organizations that are succeeding in reducing turnover and attracting the best talent do not consider these management skills desirable. They are indeed prerequisites for successfully engaging and retaining your workforce.
The new buzzword replacing motivation is “engagement”. The Conference Board defines engagement as a “heightened emotional connection that an employee feels for his or her organization, that influences him or her to exert greater discretionary effort to his or her work.” Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) coined the expression “emotional bank account” to describe “the amount of trust that’s been built up in a relationship.” Retaining your best people is not only about remuneration or incentive packages. It is about building a bond in the employer/manager/employee dynamic that fosters a commitment to the organization, resulting in an intangible, mutually rewarding experience.
Consider these astounding findings regarding engagement levels in the workplace by Towers Perrin in their 2007 Global Workforce Study, (90,000 people surveyed in 18 countries regarding the drivers of employee engagement) the largest of its kind ever undertaken. According to their research, only 21% of employees are engaged at work, 8% are disengaged, 30% are disenchanted and 41% are “enrolled”. When we understand what drives attitude and behaviour toward an employee’s duties and responsibilities, we are better equipped to develop a retention strategy. Why do these low levels of “emotional connection” exist and what should organizations do to improve these numbers? The volume of research available on this topic highlights some common denominators regarding “drivers” of engagement. In summary these are:
#1.Caring leaders who provide outstanding leadership and direction
Outstanding leadership as a key driver of employee engagement is on or near the top of numerous surveys on this topic. In my workshops and presentations, I often ask managers and supervisors to think about their own best and worst managers throughout their employment history. How would you describe their positive and negative traits? Invariably participants say that their manager’s ability to communicate, provide strategic direction and timely feedback differentiated their experiences. When we view our leadership in a positive light, it drives us to perform optimally. I was fortunate to have an outstanding example of great leadership in my first full-time job. The CEO was dynamic, caring, and interested in every individual. He practiced “MBWA” (Tom Peters “In Search of Excellence”: Managing by Walking Around) before Tom Peters wrote his book! He knew the names of all his employees (100+), took the time to have regular, casual one-on-one conversations with us, celebrated our company successes and gave us clear direction regarding the company’s goals on a quarterly and yearly basis. Turnover was virtually non-existent during my seven years with the company and to this day I have fond memories of my first job because of his leadership style. Today, all generations at work crave and are motivated by authenticity from management. Echoing the Towers Perrin findings, Watson Wyatt WorkCanada’s 2006 survey found however that only 44% of respondents trusted their leadership, with these numbers declining at lower management levels. In the words of Cavett Roberts: “Before I care how much you know I need to know how much you care.” Prior to implementing any employee initiatives, knowing how to emotionally connect as a leader should be the highest priority. Developing a more “open-door” approach to communication and making it an inherent part of your work schedule positively impacts employee engagement and job satisfaction.
#2.A fun work environment that inspires productivity and encouraging employee input
Let’s consider the value and relevance of some of the early motivation studies in the 20th century such as Elton Mayo’s research on the link of working conditions to human behaviour. In a nutshell, Mayo’s work provided insights on how organizations can positively impact workplace culture and increase productivity by building a team to encourage social interaction, having managers paying attention to their employees, and creating an environment where people can express their creativity with minimal supervision. There is wisdom in these findings that have applicability in our 21st century work climate. People are affected by their physical workplace environment (an extrinsic motivator) and will thrive in the best conditions. Some attributes of great places to work that attract talent include funky colour schemes and office décor, cafeteria with superior food and healthy choice options, games room, happy hours, catered lunches, regular employee appreciation events, affiliation with “green” and social causes (such as charity fundraisers), team sports, flexible hours, telecommuting, potlucks, workout facilities, on-site training opportunities; just to name a few. Attraction of talent is only one part of the equation. You may get their attention and hire them, however if you don’t engage them, no matter how wonderful the aesthetic appearance may be, they will invariably get bored and start looking elsewhere. Asking for and subsequently acting on your employees’ input builds their confidence and sense of accomplishment. People want to feel that they are making a contribution as well as a positive difference.
Organizations that create opportunities for employees to express their knowledge, skills and ideas are tapping into two powerful intrinsic motivators: Self-worth and self-esteem. In addition, a fun atmosphere also builds engagement. For example, have you flown on Westjet or SouthWest Airlines lately? Both airlines are renowned for encouraging their crews to bring their sense of humour to work. Take the time to study and apply some of the best practices of great places to work and you will undoubtedly reap the rewards of improved financial performance, lower absenteeism, reduced turnover and a more engaged workforce.
#3.Challenging work assignments and recognition
The Hay Group, a global HR management consulting firm, recently surveyed half a million employees from three hundred companies to assess the satisfaction levels of “committed” employees (those who said they would stay with their company for at least five years compared to those who would leave after one year) and discovered that of the fifty influencing factors, pay was ranked the lowest. A misconception exists regarding remuneration being the #1 motivator. There is little doubt that salaries in many industry sectors play a significant role in attracting a certain caliber of job candidate. However, what many of us really seek after being hired is validation for our work… “Show me that I matter to you” rather than “show me the money” is the underlying message that employers should focus on. How does one demonstrate validation?
a) Offer interesting and varied work assignments
b) Let the employee know about the opportunity path and incorporate on-going training & development
c) Provide tasks and projects that stimulate interest and give people the tools, processes and support needed to thrive while being challenged
d) Acknowledge your employees’ contribution to you and your organization
e) Request and give on-going feedback
f) Express genuine appreciation for a job well done
Conclusion:
The value of preventative maintenance to retain employees
Can we stop employee defection and should we try to retain someone who is an asset and wants to leave? Clearly, there are situations where an employee will go no matter what the circumstances. The objective however is to recognize the importance of these three key factors outlined above regarding engagement and job satisfaction as critical components of a successful retention strategy. Leaders and their organizations can profoundly influence their employees’ decisions. Although we cannot quantify attitude, the payoff when people are happily engaged in their work and highly satisfied with their employer will be evident in terms of higher productivity, profits, customer satisfaction and loyalty. Conversely, if people are shutting down on the job, the consequences to themselves and the organization will eventually be obvious. Beware of what Professor Thomas Lee described as the “unfolding model of turnover”. People often start thinking about “greener pastures” long before they quit. By remaining acutely aware at all times for signs of employee disillusionment, disenchantment and disengagement, we are ideally positioned to be proactive rather than reactive on the subject of retention. It’s too late when conducting the exit interview.
August 14th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I like your three common denominators, Michelle. But having turned around four different management disasters and achieved the kind of superlative employee performance which exists only in most manager’s dreams, I would like to offer my own solution.
First, get rid of any traces of the top-down command and control approach to managing people. Why?
Top-down concentrates on producing goals, targets, visions, orders and other directives in order to control the workforce and thereby achieve organizational success. Concentrating on giving direction prevents these managers from doing much of anything else. Thus top-down treats employees like robots in the “shut up and listen, I know better than you” mode, and rarely if ever listens to them. By so doing this approach ignores every employee’s basic need to be heard and to be respected. In addition, not listening to employees makes top management ignorant of what is really going on in the workplace thus making their directives misguided at best and irrelevant at worst.
In top-down, nobody listens to employee ideas, nobody values their opinions, and nobody gives them any recognition. The only way that the workforce can deal with managers who treat them in this way is to disengage and ignore their behavior. In the workplace this is seen as being sullen, uncommunicative, having a poor attitude, low morale and/or apathy.
(During my first 12 years of managing people, I used top-down and was never aware of how bad my leadership was. It was not until I started really listening to employees that I began to understand.)
In this way and others, top-down demeans, disrespects, demotivates and demoralizes employees sending them very negative value standard messages. The standards reflected in this treatment “lead” employees to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with the same level of disrespect they received. No one can become committed to company goals while being treated so poorly.
This is the road to very poor corporate performance as compared to the results that would be achieved using a better approach. Top-down managers are their own worst enemies because they “lead” employees to the very worst performance. (In “The Human Side of Enterprise”, author Douglas McGregor named this “Theory X” and named the other extreme “Theory Y”, but he did not provide how to achieve it.)
If you want your employees to produce very high performance and eagerly embrace necessary changes, swing to the other end of the spectrum thus leading toward the highest possible performance. To do this, first get rid of all traces of a top-down approach. Everyone wants to do a good job, but don’t want to be ordered around like a robot.
Next, start treating employees with great respect and not like robots by listening to whatever they want to say when they want to say it and responding in a very respectful manner. Responding respectfully means resolving their complaints and suggestions and answering their questions to their satisfaction as well as yours, but most importantly theirs. It also means providing them more than enough opportunity to voice their complaints, suggestions and questions. Spend your time making your support reflect the very highest standards of all values by resolving their complaints and suggestions thus “leading” them to use the very highest standards.
And realize that the highest quality and most respectful “direction” is the very least since no one likes to take orders or really needs them except in emergency situations. Anyone routinely needing extensive orders should not be on your team.
This treatment leads employees to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with great respect. Listening and responding respectfully also inspires them to unleash their full potential of creativity, innovation and productivity on their work giving them great pride in it and causes them to love to come to work.
You will be stunned as I was by the huge amount of creativity, innovation and productivity you have unleashed. To learn how I escaped top-down after using it for 12 years, read an interview of me at
http://www.extensor.co.uk/articles/int_simonton/interview_ben_simonton.html
Best regards, Ben
Author “Leading People to be Highly Motivated and Committed”
August 17th, 2008 at 9:25 am
Excellent post….I led the Walt Disney World Resort operations for then years and I can tell you that when we moved to the style of leadership you describe above from 1995 to present all results got better. Great leadership leads to a great employee environment with leads to great guest service which leads to excellent business results. This is why I wrote a book on this subject outlinging how to do it and how long it can take to move an environment to one where everyone matters and they know it…Lee Cockerell
May 27th, 2009 at 4:30 am
Tnks for the article.
I also wouls consider the “Business external environement” as countable factor regarding employees motivation. For example. economic crisis vs. economic hype. External environment infulance managers and down to the blue shirt workers.
Best, Jacque.