It Pays to Keep Your Staff Engaged...
...in What They Do
Dr. John Izzo, Ph. D., author of Values Shift: The New Work Ethic and What It Means for Business, tells us that worker motivation and retention now rank evenly with customer service as the keys to holding the market edge. In fact, he cites eye-opening stats from a 1998 study of 100,000 employees in 2,500 business conducted by Gallup International. According to researchers, business units in the top 24% in terms of employee engagement were:
- 50% more likely to achieve customer loyalty
- 44% more likely to achieve above-average profitability
- 29% higher in revenue
- 10% lower turnover than those units in the lowest 25%
If that's not enough to convince you of the importance of retaining your employees, consider evidence from research performed at Harvard titled the 'Service Profit Chain.' It proves the absolute connection between people and profit. When employees are happy, satisfied, and both find pleasure and take pride in their work they tend to work well together and stick around longer. When they stick around longer and become increasingly better at taking care of customers' business and emotional needs, they create loyal customers who bolster profits.
Wow! Employee loyalty and retention is directly linked to customer loyalty and retention. So it pays to retain your staff; this means it pays to get to know them, to know their needs and wants, and to invest in their well being. According to Dr. Izzo, employee well being revolves around six main values or expectations:
1. Partnership - People want involvement and a stake in a company. They have little tolerance for hierarchy and meaningless processes.
2. Balance and Synergy - They want alignment between corporate and personal values. They are not willing to sacrifice personal life for professional life or vice-versa.
3. Work as a Noble Cause - People want hands-on ways to be involved in worthy causes. They expect work to be more than a way to earn a living, they want to see it contribute to the community, the environment, and to feel their work makes a difference in people's lives.
4. Growth and Development - They expect to grow as people and professionals. They want work that excites them, strengthens their skills and helps them to improve personally.
5. Community - They want connection with others, friendship and for work to be fun. They want a day-to-day expression of caring from managers. They want to develop a support network that contributes to personal and professional development. They are in search of a corporate culture that fosters compassionate feedback, and accountability when it comes to living their values.
6. Trust - If you want to keep your employees, the most important quality you must earn from your people is their trust. They must believe they can trust you, or all your other efforts will be a bust. Foster corporate openness (inside as well as outside the company), ethical and honest business practices, and truth telling in your company. Create an environment in which people are always aware of where they stand with the company and feel they are always 'in the know.'
We believe the workplace is populated by a more conscious and thoughtful 'generation 'whom, as we mentioned earlier, you really need to take the time to get to know. The great news is, if you meet their expectations - which are all centered on having a relationship of integrity and meaning with the organization - they will reward you in kind.
When these qualities are missing, they leave - and they leave quickly. Dr. Izzo informs us that employee retention efforts are in crisis - 40% of all workers always have an updated resume, two thirds feel they have what it takes to succeed in the new economy, and only 49% are committed to staying with their present employer, which is down from 62% only five years ago.
You may be tempted to think that, because of the state of the economy, all this has changed and people are clinging to their jobs for dear life. Don't give in to the temptation! What we're talking about here is their commitment to your organization. Sure, they may show up day in and day out. But are they giving that discretionary effort that sets loyalty leaders apart from the rest of the pack, or are they just 'going through the motions?' Are they passionate customer care providers or just warm bodies biding their time (while they're on the clock) until the next best thing comes along?
We guarantee that your best employees update their resumes regularly. And because they're plugged into so many informal networks they don't generally have to 'look' for new jobs so much as wait for a good job to find them. Hey, you know that if you're good at what you do, the word gets out.
Demographic trends also favor workers - Dr. Izzo says that just to maintain the current level of job to applicant ratio, 25% more people over 55 will have to stay in the workforce! If they do (and they probably will), this will lead to more challenges for managers, who have to manage many people with different generational ideas. The reasons for being good at navigating change just continue to multiply...
