Editor’s note: Veteran entrepreneur and investor Donald Thompson is a regular contributor to WRAL Tech Wire. His columns appear on Wednesdays.
RALEIGH – In a recent report about employee burnout, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) warned of an oncoming “turnover tsunami” as the COVID-19 pandemic begins to end and the American economy resumes job creation. According to their research, a full 52% of American employees are currently searching for new jobs, and 57% say they are burnt out on work.
When the pandemic first hit and the economy contracted, many professionals – “unwilling to sacrifice income security for happier and healthier work environments” – stayed at jobs where they already felt unhappy and, since shifting to remote work, have worked longer hours in order to prove their value and productivity to leaders. In fact, SHRM says “nearly 70 percent of professionals who transitioned to remote work because of the pandemic say they now work on the weekends, and 45 percent say they regularly work more hours during the week than they did before.” Changing jobs feels like the best way to fight their burnout.
Donald Thompson
Now, with swirling anxiety about returning to the office and increased cognitive and emotional distance as a byproduct of working from home, thousands of disengaged employees across the country are simply biding their time and waiting for a good chance to leave. As business leaders, this is the moment when you need to make big moves to guard against attrition, and start building your talent pipeline.
Why engage?
According to LinkedIn’s attrition and disengagement calculator, for each employee lost the cost to your company could be 50–250% of that person’s annual salary. In fact, attrition costs U.S. businesses more than $1 trillion a year. The cost of recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and investing in your team’s development is, perhaps, the single biggest investment that any business will ever make. So, when those employees disengage or leave for better opportunities, you’re simply not getting your highest return on investment.
But keeping your employees motivated and engaged isn’t only about preventing turnover; it also helps you increase productivity and create a stronger workplace culture. When people feel connected to their organization’s mission, vision, values and goals, when they feel a sense of shared purpose and collaboration, they are happier and healthier both in and outside of work. So, how do you re-engage and re-motivate your team?
Listen and Learn
First, it’s important to know where you stand. As I mentioned in last week’s column, sometimes you have to slow down to go fast. Take the time to pause and get a temperature reading on your current employees. How are they feeling about their work schedules? About leadership communication? About the company’s future? To gather that data, you may consider sending retention surveys or conducting stay interviews to learn what keeps your employees working for you and what might lead them to look elsewhere.
Whichever method works best for you, remember that employees need a truly safe space to speak candidly and without judgment or retribution if you want to learn what’s really going on. If you don’t already have a culture of trust and transparency where employees feel comfortable speaking their minds, you may need to hire an objective third party to gather information on your behalf.
Give big praise
One of the most common reasons that great employees often leave is that they feel stuck in place, unseen or underappreciated. According to CoFounders Magazine, 81% of employees say their primary motivation for working harder is that their manager shows appreciation for their work. In contrast, only 38% feel motivated by demanding bosses, and 37% by fear of losing their job. Give positive and constructive feedback as early and as often as possible. Pausing to say thank you and to praise your employees takes little effort and makes a tremendous impact. So, in terms of preventing attrition, that’s your number one low-hanging fruit.
Consider rewards and incentives you could enact that show your appreciation for good work, and remember, those rewards don’t always have to be financial. Almost everyone wants a raise or a promotion, but smaller gifts — like a hand-written card, a paid day off, a special nod in a company-wide meeting or an email to the team that mentions someone’s special effort on a project — may do more to show that you’re paying attention and appreciate each person’s work. Give particular focus to emerging leaders and influential team members who are moving the needle, and remember, even a 15-minute phone call can do wonders for your personal relationship with high-potential, high-performing employees.
Emphasize collaboration
When everyone is working remotely, it’s easy to lose sight of the team. On the other hand, when employees have the opportunity to witness their colleagues working hard for shared goals, they are more likely to feel connected and engaged. To me, that’s the real value of teamwork: that we can each reach farther and do more and better things when we share resources and support each other’s wins. It’s what I learned from playing football in high school and college — when you can be a part of something bigger than yourself, when you share the successes and the failures, it just feels so much better to win.
To cultivate a sense of camaraderie and community when your employees aren’t working from the office, it’s important to pull people together more often. Virtual happy hours; small, in-person meetings for people who feel safe getting together; and dedicated water cooler Slack channels just for goofing around or giving shout-outs to each other are good ways to build community with an all-remote team.
Look to the future
Make sure you’re providing ample opportunities for employee growth, skills development and training, especially for your middle managers. According to 2020 research from Gallup, only 33% of middle managers say that they are learning and growing on the job, 36% feel that they do not have the skills necessary to do their best work and 65% do not understand how their performance affects their opportunities for promotion.
The best executives are always coaching their high-performers to be future leaders and to grow along with the business. In addition to coaching, we need to show our middle managers how their role affects every employee’s experience with the company and where we see their personal room for growth. Be transparent about career progression, future compensation, behavior expectations, strengths and needs. You may even consider offering exclusive, individual training to help them grow their potential for success.
Internal coaching from C-suite executives is critical to employee retention, and study after study shows that CEO engagement leads to greater employee engagement by helping your team feel seen and heard. Make yourself available, stay present, stay positive and remember your role as a future-focused leader, not a manager of daily operations.
Let them go
Of course you want your employees to feel connected to your mission. Of course you want them to feel happy, motivated and engaged at work. Building a culture of appreciation, collaboration and personal development will help you to do that, but sometimes, we just have to trust that our employees know what’s best for their own future goals.
Even great leaders can’t prevent all employee attrition. The past year has been difficult for everyone, and it’s important to acknowledge that many people may need a change of view or of pace in order to reset, refresh and refocus.
With the impending post-pandemic turnover in mind — and with so many businesses now poised to hire — I’ll spend the next few weeks of this column focusing on what you can do to fight attrition, build a diverse talent pipeline, attract top talent and avoid common pitfalls when hiring, recruiting and onboarding new teammates. If you have questions or concerns, reach out on LinkedIn. I’m always happy to be helpful when I can, and I love hearing what my fellow leaders are navigating as they move toward greater success.
About the author
Donald Thompson is an entrepreneur, public speaker, author, podcaster, and executive coach, recently named one of “Forbes’ Next 1000: Upstart Entrepreneurs Redefining the American Dream.” He is currently CEO of Walk West, an award-winning digital marketing firm, and co-founder / CEO of The Diversity Movement, a technology-driven consultancy with a diversity, equity and inclusion lens. He is also a board member for several organizations in healthcare, banking, technology, marketing, and sports, a Certified Diversity Executive (CDE), and a thought leader on goal achievement and influencing company culture. Connect with Donald on LinkedIn and at donaldthompson.com.
