Employee Engagement and Retention
Brain Based Business has a post up on When Firms Value Workers. One of the reasons workers feel valued is:
“Daily opportunities exist to grow… and incentives for personal and organizational advancement are common … where we work”.
David Zinger at Employee Engagement has some thoughts on the subject here. He has also created an Employee Engagement Network.
My boss implemented a short employee survey that we use as a retention indicator that has some similar question. We adapted it slightly from First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently
- I know what is expected of me at work.
- I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
- I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day at the Club.
- I have received recognition or praise for doing good work in the last seven days.
- My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
- Someone at work encourages my development.
- My opinions seem to count at work.
- Our mission makes me feel my job is important
- My co-workers are committed to doing quality work.
- I have someone that I trust at work.
- Someone at the work has talked to me about my progress in the last six months.
- I had opportunities at work to learn and grow in this last year.
How do you measure employee engagement?
Genuine ‘leadership’ really is the ‘bottom line’ when it comes to effectively developing and retaining your best people. There are very legitimate reasons why people join and then choose to stay with the organizations they’re part of. We discussed in a recent leadership development session the fact that the number one reason why people ‘choose’ to leave their jobs can be traced back to ineffective leadership on the part of their immediate supervisor. We referred to real statistics that confirmed the fact that people have a tendency to leave managers and supervisors more often than they leave companies or jobs. It’s certainly helpful when a manager or supervisor is perceived as being a ‘nice person’ and is well-liked by the people in his or her department, but what people really want and need is effective leadership on the part of someone they respect and they trust enough to follow. They need someone who they feel has something to impart when it comes to helping them achieve their full potential and to helping them achieve the success they desire on their job and in their career overall. When managers and supervisors make an employee feel respected, valued and also appreciated, the manager or supervisor is not only functioning more in a ‘leadership’ capacity but they are contributing to the ultimate retention of the employee. And in like manner, anything the supervisor does to make an employee feel un-valued will contribute to unwanted turnover. Probably one of the most important functions that will lead to employee retention involves letting team members know in specific terms what ‘good’ looks like, and why it’s considered ‘good’. Some of the most common complaints that have come out of exit interviews and from ‘blind’ exit surveys have included a lack of clarity regarding specific expectations, a lack of clarity regarding one’s earning potential, a lack of feedback regarding one’s performance, a lack of ‘follow through’ with regard to commitments made, canceling scheduled meetings, and a failure to create an environment that’s conducive to the employee’s achieving success; all of which reflect ineffective leadership on the part of their supervisor. In summary, one of the most important things I’ve learned over the years in this business is that ‘work’ is about the money, but true ‘loyalty’ is all about relationship and how people feel about themselves ‘on the job’ and how important they feel their contribution is to the success of the team (family), and whether or not they feel really appreciated. Why not take a look at your organization. Are you really doing your best to retain your most valued people? Consider these suggestions. Ask yourself what you can do to make an ever bigger difference in the life of your people and see how many ways it comes back to you. Leadership really is ‘the bottom line’ in the people business! (Leadership-The Bottom Line happens to be the name of our unique approach to the development of leaders. Feel free to contact me (Dr. Jim) for free leadership development materials or for a free leadership session at your location. We’re happy to share!)
If you want to read a reader’s feedback
, I rate this article for four from five. Decent info, but I have to go to that damn msn to find the missed pieces. Thanks, anyway!
Feb 14th, 2008 at 4:27 am
[...] Idealware has some options. We use suvery monkey for the retention survey that I posted about here and are planning on using it for 360 reviews in the future. How does your organization use [...]