“It’s no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.”
— Winston Churchill
Retention and recruitment have entered into the war zone. We are suffering a record number of job openings, record number of people quitting their jobs, and higher than usual turnover. It has been called the Great Resignation, and we are battling through the Grave Results: Cost increases, productivity losses, low morale and high workloads.
It’s a war you didn’t sign up for but one that you cannot afford to lose.
Sadly, I am watching companies make strategic battle decisions that do little to advance their position. They are losing ground because they are ill-informed and unarmed. They have chosen to believe that an emphasis on well-being and benefits will close the back door of retention and open new doors for recruitment.
They have an enemy in the camp: The easy way out.
The solution to retention is found in 5 fundamental maneuvers:
- is a change in mindset
- is the change of behavior
- is the strategy
- is the leverage
- is the maximizer
Engage these and people will hesitate leaving if it means leaving you, and they will choose to work for you even if it means making less.
The Mindset
You have to champion people first. The measure of your leadership is how people are different when they leave from when they arrived.
Your leadership is not measured by the projects you accomplish or the position you attain. It is measured by people entrusted to you.
One of my clients asked employees what it would look like to them to be championed. Their answers fell into one of two categories: intentional connection and ongoing development.
That is a consistent answer to similar and published surveys. How important is development?
According to the Work Institute, lack of career development is the number one reason people leave their company, and it has been the number one reason ten years in a row!
Of the top six reasons why employees leave, the bottom two are well-being and benefits.
Did you catch that? The top two solutions being put forth by companies today to increase retention are addressing the bottom two reasons people leave. Misinformed and unarmed.
How do we champion people through intentional connection and ongoing development?
The Change of Behavior
Customize development for each employee.
Cookie-cutter development doesn’t cut it. How do I know? Because poor development is the number one reason ten years running that people leave!
People make decisions based on motivation, value and cost. Today, companies are offering solutions that are not tapping into an employees motivation, they are solutions not valued, and therefore the cost of the solution is too great to the employee. They believe that companies are wasting their time, even if companies are giving them more time off.
What if you could come alongside an employee and know what motivates them, know what they value, and know what cost they would incur for the right solution? (Cost is measured by time, energy, ability and money).
We happen to know the answer. 9 of 10 employees would trade earnings to feel more engaged by their company. They would give up 23% of future lifetime earnings. 69% would be less likely to quit.
We just found the answer to retention. How do you as a leader best exercise intentional connection and customized development without having to invest a lot of your time, energy, ability and money?
The Strategy
Give employees an advocate.
An advocate is a person who comes alongside another for their success. They help people clarify their goals and determine their best course of action.
An advocate is different from a mentor or coach, though they may mentor and coach in the relationship. Mentors pour in (they fill a void). Coaches draw out (they help you clarify your thinking). . Advocates stay with you, guiding a person through a cycle of assessment, coaching, training and support.
An advocate works with a person on personal, relational and work-related needs based on the employee’s self-determined focus.
It all takes place in a one-hour per month meeting.
According to Harvard research, companies that invest this kind of relationship in an employee reduce turnover by 24%.
Why such success? Because an advocate is listening and probing until a person has made clear what is motivating them, what they value in a solution and what they are willing to invest in.
Advocates customize development.
The Leverage
Build a reproducible system.
Companies fail to understand that an environment must be established before things are birthed. You have watched too many efforts start and stop. The latest and greatest will be neither if soil hasn’t been cultivated for sustainability and growth.
How do you build a reproducible system of advocacy?
The Maximizer
Bring in a Lead Advocate.
Championing people by customizing development through advocates requires an expert to build the system. You can hire them or contract them, but you need to get them.
Lead Advocates are experienced in the dynamics of an advocate relationship and in training others to be advocates.
Eventually, you will choose to either train your own employees to be in-house advocates, or you will choose to maintain advocates as a third-party service. Either way, the Lead Advocate has the experience to establish the culture and to facilitate the process.
The cost you would incur in efforts toward well-being and benefits more than cover the cost of an advocacy strategy for you.
By the way, the other three reasons people leave (ahead of well-being and benefits) is work-life balance, manager behavior and job characteristics, all areas employees can address and work on with an advocate. (Of course, advocates address well-being and are themselves a benefit to the employee. It’s an all-in-one solution).
As Churchill said, you must succeed in doing what is necessary. To win the war of retention, intentional connection and customized development through advocates is the new necessary.
To explore how this could work for you, reach out to us.
