Talent Retention Archives

Leaders: Do You Connect Employees With Their Noble Purpose?

August 28, 2023/Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Leadership, Talent Management, Talent Retention, Winner: Impact Award for Content Excellence /by Amy Brown

When employees feel disconnected from their jobs — or their work doesn’t bring a sense of purpose to their lives — they’re more likely to quit. Unfortunately, this is happening all around lately. Troubling signs like productivity theater and resenteeism are flooding the work zone. Clearly, many employees are struggling to connect their organization’s purpose with their own.

According to McKinsey, 70% of employees find a sense of relevance through work. This doesn’t mean people expect their job to define them 100%. But when personal and business purposes align, everyone benefits. Workforce engagement and loyalty tend to improve significantly. As a result, employees become more willing to advocate for their employer and recommend prospective applicants.

Why should leaders care? Because when you create a culture of psychological safety and compassion, you empower people to be authentic at work. This, in turn, drives commitment, satisfaction, and team performance.

Keys to Connect With Employee Purpose

1. Start by Ensuring Psychological Safety

In a world overflowing with toxic workplaces, psychological safety is more important than ever. No one should have to fear humiliation or punishment when they share concerns, ideas, and mistakes. Everyone should feel free to speak up and support one another without rejection or embarrassment.

The definition of psychological safety isn’t everyone being nice to others all the time. Rather, it is a work environment where everyone is welcome to:

Share feedback
Challenge the status quo, and
Work together to resolve disagreements.

But these conditions don’t materialize out of thin air. They depend on supportive top-down leadership.

2. Facilitate Open Communication

Purpose-driven cultures thrive when leaders consistently encourage a free flow of communication. This is possible when everyone feels a shared sense of ownership and trust.

In practice, trust emerges when all team members are willing to offer peers a “soft landing.” In other words, when a teammate is in a vulnerable position, others recognize and respect their situation and honor their point of view.

When teams approach authenticity with grace, it sends a powerful message throughout the organization. But this won’t start until leaders establish ground rules and set a consistent example for others to emulate in day-to-day settings. As team members become more familiar and comfortable with others’ abilities, personalities, and perspectives, respectful collaboration can naturally take hold.

3. Measure What Matters

Finally, companies that recognize people as their most valuable asset apply appropriate metrics to measure engagement, growth, and satisfaction.

Quarterly pulse surveys can include some probing questions to assess employee sentiment about psychological safety and leadership communication. This provides meaningful data you can use to compare results against historical trends and statistical norms.

Benefits of Connecting Purpose and Work

Studies show that people who live their purpose at work are more productive than those who don’t or can’t. They’re also more resilient, healthier, and less likely to leave their company.

Most of us find this kind of culture appealing. In fact, more than 80% of employees want their employer to value them as humans — not just worker bees. Yet, only 45% actually believe they’re seen this way. This gap is important. It means too many of us feel like mere cogs in an endless wheel designed for others’ benefit.

So, where does the concept of engagement fit into this picture? Successful performance doesn’t happen by accident. It comes when organizations tap into employees’ passions and strengths. People who feel engaged, seen, and heard are more likely to contribute their full selves to work whenever they’re working.

Of course, in today’s “work from anywhere” world, leaders often find it difficult to understand what team members feel internally. This uncertainty can cause them to respond in unhelpful ways. No wonder remote and hybrid employees often find it harder to connect with their organization’s purpose!

The best solution is for leaders to reach out proactively to ensure that team members are finding meaningful value in their work. Building and maintaining those connections takes time, space, intention, and investment. But eventually, as you engage in conversations and build camaraderie unrelated to business tasks, trust will develop and the rest will follow.

Compensation and benefit packages matter to employees. But even the best salaries and perks can’t compare to a purpose-driven culture. People need regular reinforcement to confirm that they are contributing in ways that make a meaningful impact. This kind of human connection only comes when leaders take the time to develop genuine relationships with everyone on their team — and encourage others to do the same.

Building a Culture of Authenticity: One Idea That Works

Although connecting with each employee’s purpose may take time, it doesn’t need to be complicated. Start by committing to bring everyone together in person, even if only periodically or on an annual basis. People naturally want to form human connections with team members, and in-person meetings are the best way to promote that kind of relational energy.

At Authenticx, we’ve established a practice that helps. We invite each team member to choose one word as their own personal beacon for the year. The goal is for everyone to select a term that describes how they’re trying to grow as an individual.

Part of living that word comes from the act of sharing the word’s meaning with others and the journey each of us travels with that intention throughout the year. So we all know each other’s words. Each quarter, we schedule word-sharing sessions to discuss where we’re struggling, where we need to be accountable, and where we’re finding success.

Recently, one of our employees shared the word “engagement.” It’s a perfect word for capturing the need to tap into people’s passions and strengths to achieve business success. When people feel seen, heard, and engaged they’re likely to contribute more fully when they’re working.

We’ve found that this practice opens a window into each employee’s mindset and often offers a new insight into their work role and performance. By learning more about what matters to team members, we can spark more useful discussions. And we see this “single word” exercise as a starting point for these conversations.

A Final Note on Purpose at Work

When people feel empowered, respected, trusted, and valued, they’re more likely to challenge themselves, remain committed, and stay on board. These are worthwhile outcomes for any organization, no matter what the mission may be.

This is why purpose-focused leaders don’t hover, but they do pay close attention. They listen to employees’ needs, tap into their passions, and promote connections across teams. As a result, team members can develop a healthy emotional commitment to their work and resilience that keeps them moving forward — even during difficult times.

Want to Improve Engagement? Focus on Employee Expectations

June 26, 2023/Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Hiring and Retention, Talent Retention, Winner: Impact Award for Content Excellence /by Paul Bauer

When it comes to implementing a successful engagement strategy, HR teams can’t afford to ignore employee expectations. Yet, research suggests that too many organizations forget or overlook this pillar of engagement. For example:

According to Gallup, 53% of employees don’t clearly understand how their role contributes to their company’s objectives.
48% of survey respondents told HR Dive they’ve left a job because it did not meet their expectations.
And our own recent onboarding research found that 20% of employees think their employer’s original job listing was misleading.

If you’re an HR professional or business leader, statistics like these should alarm you. Clearly, something about the process of managing employee expectations is going awry. And if you care about engagement, the sooner you address this disconnect, the better.

A Related Issue: Labor Market Trends

To understand this challenge, it’s helpful to consider the bigger picture. For example, in the UK and elsewhere, the talent pool is shrinking, despite a sharp decline in permanent staff recruitment. This decrease is fueled primarily by demographic factors — experienced workers are retiring early, the birth rate continues to fall, and immigration rules are changing. Plus, the pandemic has caused many people to rethink their career goals.

As a result, when organizations need to recruit, finding the right people at the right time is becoming increasingly difficult. And in terms of retention, it means employers must work much harder to keep their best and brightest people engaged and on board.

In other words, recent labor market dynamics have shifted power from employers to the workforce. Individuals now have enough latitude to be more selective about their career moves. They’re also likely to expect more from their current role — for example, higher wages, better recognition, or stronger professional growth opportunities.

With all this in mind, organizations need to understand what people expect from their employment experience, and proactively address these expectations. This makes it easier to create a positive work environment and improve employee satisfaction. Both of these metrics are essential for effective talent attraction and retention. So, how can HR successfully manage employee expectations?

6 Ways to Manage Employee Expectations

To elevate employee engagement across your organization, first step back and evaluate existing HR strategies and programs. If you’re falling short in any of the following areas, this is the time to rethink the tools and techniques that support your engagement efforts, as well as broader leadership and management practices:

1. Communicate Clearly and Consistently

Access to relevant, useful, accurate information is essential, right from the start of the employment journey. When you approach candidates and new hires with clear, open communication, their job expectations are much more likely to align with yours. What’s more, it sends a powerful message about the importance of transparency and inclusion in your work culture.

Be sure you center communication activities around your organization’s vision, mission, and values. You’ll also want to be sure important company policies are readily available.

In addition, showcasing updates and insights from senior leaders is a highly effective way to reinforce priorities and build trust. In fact, as our 2023 staff satisfaction survey shows, many employees value communication from senior leaders as part of a positive workplace experience.

2. Revisit and Revise Job Descriptions

As mentioned earlier, inaccurate job listings are all too common. The problem may not be intentional on an employer’s part. Regardless, it can derail the employee experience from day one.

Candidates naturally form expectations based on the job posting that prompted them to apply. So, when actual responsibilities don’t match, new hires aren’t likely to stick around. And even for those who stay on board, this mismatch can permanently jeopardize trust and goodwill.

Now, imagine how badly your employer brand would be damaged if numerous employees experienced the same kind of disconnect. This is why HR teams must ensure that job descriptions correctly outline roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations. And ideally, these descriptions should help people envision what it’s really like to work at the company.

HR must also recognize that developing a job description isn’t a one-shot process. For best results, you’ll want to review descriptions regularly and update them as business needs change. All this will help new employees understand what’s expected and avoid misunderstandings over time.

3. Prioritize Performance Management and Feedback

When organizations are able to measure, evaluate, and improve workforce performance, they operate more efficiently and profitably. And the best way to ensure that employee expectations are on point is with support from a robust performance management program.

Underpinning this program with an integrated performance management system makes it possible for HR to establish company-wide workforce goals, track progress, and provide regular feedback. It also helps support line managers in conducting more meaningful employee evaluations.

By working in concert to set clear objectives and provide constructive feedback, HR and line managers can continuously guide and improve employee performance. Plus, they can effectively manage expectations about job roles and career progression.

4. Ensure Fair Business Practices

An HR professional’s core duty is to maintain fair, consistent decision-making across an organization. This includes adhering to fair and unbiased practices in areas such as annual performance and salary reviews, promotions, and disciplinary actions. Ensuring fairness and consistency helps manage those all-important employee expectations. It also helps build trust.

HR can’t afford to ignore the element of trust. When it comes to successful engagement strategies, the employer-employee relationship is critical. And as with any relationship, it depends on a solid foundation of trust. But trust isn’t just switched on like a lightbulb — it is earned in numerous ways, over time. Fairness directly contributes to this process.

5. Provide Ample Training and Career Development

As our research on successful company cultures reveals, staff members want more than just competitive salaries. They also expect to develop new skills, so they can grow professionally.

This is why the best employers invest in building workforce competencies and knowledge through various learning opportunities — training, mentorships, stretch assignments and more. By committing to a culture of learning, organizations demonstrate their faith and confidence in employees’ future success. As a result, these organizations enjoy higher retention rates.

6. Pay Attention to Exit Interviews

Lastly, exit interviews offer a perfect opportunity to discover if departing employees feel their expectations have been met. When people decide to move on, they’re typically more comfortable providing unfiltered feedback, for better or worse.

By conducting exit interviews, you can gather valuable insights that help the organization compare actual employee experiences with expectations. By analyzing and acting on this intelligence, your HR team will be better able to identify areas for improvement and manage future employees’ expectations.

A Final Word on Managing Employee Expectations

These suggestions offer a framework for HR planning. Still, this is only a starting point. Every company, culture, and workforce is unique. So, wherever your organization may be on the employee engagement spectrum, remember that improvement is an ongoing process. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither are employee expectations. Just stay focused on improvement and keep moving forward.

Employee satisfaction is an inside job. To understand workers' motivations, check these three key points of view

Employee Satisfaction is an Inside Job: 3 Points of View

June 12, 2023/Career Development, Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Retention, Leadership, Talent Retention /by Drew McLellan

If you lead a business of any kind, it’s essential to understand the factors that influence employee satisfaction in your organization. This kind of insight starts with awareness of needs, wants and desires of people across your workforce. Especially now, when employers are struggling to find strong talent, knowing what motivates your staff can play a central role in attracting and retaining top performers.

That’s what prompted the Agency Management Institute to take a closer look at employee satisfaction issues in the marketing and advertising realm. Although this research focuses on professional services firms, it can be useful for leaders in other industries to consider, as well.

For example, with 72% of agency leaders saying they want to empower their staff, there’s no more powerful place to start than by learning what interests, inspires, and energizes team members. By leveraging these insights, you can improve internal communication, build individually tailored development opportunities, improve overall team performance, and more.

3 Key Profiles Behind Employee Satisfaction

When employees feel connected, engaged and satisfied with their work, their organizational culture is likely to be built on knowledge of who they are as individuals. When looking at various attitudes and characteristics associated with employee satisfaction, three types of personality profiles emerge:

Enthusiastic 27%
Self-reliant 45%
At-risk 29%

In other words, an employee’s primary profile is highly likely to indicate their level of commitment, work performance and overall workplace satisfaction.

Employee Satisfaction Types Up Close

Each employee segment brings unique characteristics to the table. But responding effectively to these diverse needs requires keen leadership and a strong work culture. So, what makes each group tick? These snapshot descriptions offer helpful guidance:

1. “Enthusiastic” Segment

Only 27% of survey respondents are considered “enthusiastic.” These people tend to give their employers high marks for professional development, career opportunities, work culture, and even compensation. More importantly, they feel that a long tenure with their company is the best way to build a career. They’re loyal, excited, and engaged. In short, any company would consider these individuals dream employees.

Historically, the enthusiastic group is the smallest segment. Naturally, employers want to know if and how they can attract and develop more of these valued employees. The answer lies in recognizing issues that matter to employees in the other two categories.

2. “Self-Reliant” Segment

Representing 45% of respondents, “self-reliant” employees are by far the largest group. Although these employees tend to think of themselves as responsible for achieving their own success, this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Generally, self-reliant employees believe leaders don’t acknowledge or appreciate their struggles or contributions. In fact, many in this group feel “invisible.” And their discontent extends beyond a lack of recognition. They’re also skeptical about whether employers know how to develop their skills, provide opportunities for advancement, or improve their financial position over time.

Interestingly, 63% of these employees are millennials who tend to work for larger organizations. It’s also worth noting that women are heavily represented in this segment, and they tend to feel their opinions and ideas are heard less often than their male peers.

Although these issues are more of a concern for at-risk employees, high stress, difficult clients, and unrealistic expectations about working outside of conventional hours contribute to employee dissatisfaction in this segment. The same can be said for scope creep, job insecurity, and turnover. For all of these reasons, 22% of “self-reliant” employees have thought about leaving their job for greener pastures.

3. “At Risk” Segment

29% of employees are classified as “at risk.” They tend to work for smaller organizations and rely on their employers to engage with them and support them. They’re also much more likely to be women. In fact, 66% of at-risk workers are women.

It should seem obvious, but “at risk” employees are most likely to resign. In fact, research indicates that 50% of people in this segment have thought about seeking other employment. These individuals are looking for more, whether it’s with their current employer or elsewhere.

What’s driving this restlessness? Typically, at-risk workers are looking for a better (or different) workplace culture. Perhaps their current workplace doesn’t suit them, or company policies don’t align with their principles. These people want their employer to care about their wellbeing, align with their values, and provide more opportunities for collaboration and growth.

“At-risk” employees also crave more collaboration. They care deeply about their work. They’re often at the center of an organization’s activities, because they desire opportunities to collaborate with peers in meaningful ways. However, they’re less satisfied with their career trajectory, compensation, and path for advancement than others.

But these people aren’t operating in the shadows. In fact, they’re often spearheading key roles, including strategy, leadership, project management, and account management. Because these employees are central to an organization’s success, losing them could cause major setbacks and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

3 Steps to Strengthen Employee Satisfaction

With all the responsibilities that come with running a business, it’s easy to forget that employment is a two-way street. Here are a few considerations to help you improve engagement and satisfaction among your team members:

1. Encourage people to invest in their own development

Professional development must be a shared responsibility between company leadership and staff. Individuals can’t develop themselves entirely on their own. They need your active guidance, support, and resources to develop themselves. Giving people an active role in mapping their growth plans and decisions about where to invest their time and energy can make a measurable impact on their commitment and satisfaction.

2. Take time to craft a personalized development plan

Because you’re working with individuals, it’s important to recognize that professional development isn’t a one-size-fits-all endeavor. Every employee deserves a growth plan that’s personalized for their unique goals, interests, and aspirations. Without a plan they can “own,” no amount of time or money will improve their engagement, performance, satisfaction, or retention. What’s more, employees who don’t see any promise of growth won’t be employees for very long. Your commitment to their future success can make all the difference.

3. Find ways to push autonomous workers to new heights

Don’t forget to give “self-reliant” employees their share of attention. While they may not speak up often with complaints, “self-reliant” employees can be a tricky bunch to manage and develop. These folks often need a side hustle to feel engaged, creatively. If they’re asked to do additional work or contribute to a new project, they may engage less with their primary work. To better support these employees, consider pairing them with mentors. This way, they always have access to someone who can help them stick to their agenda while moving forward on their career path.

A Final Note

Building workplace satisfaction is as much about striking a balance as it is about understanding what makes people tick. Investing in your workforce’s professional growth and creating a supportive environment are both key. In fact, if you read between the lines of this survey, it’s clear that employees often believe these actions are worth more than money.

Leaders: How Can You Keep Your Cool at the End of the World?

June 2, 2023/Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Leadership, Organizational Planning, Talent Retention /by Eynat Guez

The world of work is a little rough these days, to say the least. Companies large and small continue to scramble in the face of serious economic and cultural uncertainty. Ongoing inflation, workforce automation, post-pandemic burnout, and “The Great Reshuffle” are just a few of the many challenges eroding confidence among employees and employers alike. Every day seems like an exercise in digging deeper to find the patience and strength needed to keep your cool.

Most HR, business and finance leaders are focused on making do with increasingly tighter budgets while bolstering employee retention. This isn’t a viable long-term strategy, but it’s one way organizations can minimize damage while pushing through lean times. No wonder many professionals feel like they’re moving in quicksand.

But don’t lose hope! I’ve been there before and have come through it intact. Here are five proven tips you can use to alleviate some stress and avoid sinking further than necessary…

5 Ways to Keep Your Cool During Tough Times

1. Take Inventory

Imagine you are Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. You’re in a strange new place where anything could happen — not all of it good. It’s intimidating to feel adrift in the unknown. But I recommend adhering to the same advice the Hitchhiker’s Guide shares with every wayfarer: Don’t panic.

Take in the situation around you. Make an inventory of what’s happening in your organization, in your industry, and in the world at large. Who is most affected by today’s realities? What are they saying? More importantly, what are they not saying? What kind of ideas are floating around? Which of these ideas seem most useful and actionable?

Document the resources available to you. Specifically, insist on gaining better visibility into your workforce costs. Account for all of your employees, freelancers, contractors, temporary workers, and consultants — everyone who is paid to get work done. Consider not only their salaries, but also related benefits and employer taxes, which can add an additional 30%-60% to your costs.

For most companies. employee costs represent the most significant budget item. However, many organizations lack a comprehensive view of these costs. A single dashboard where you can understand all of these costs can improve visibility and clarity. Both of these are critical to making smart management decisions now and going forward.

With a clearer, more holistic perspective, you can begin to formulate a broader plan. In fact, I recommend that you develop multiple plans. Scenario mapping is a smart strategy that can help you keep your cool as a leader. Prepare for as many “if/then” scenarios as possible. That way you won’t be caught off guard when your ideal plan goes awry. Just look for indicators that Plan A is in jeopardy, and switch to Plan B, or whatever plan aligns best with the changing climate.

2. Take Action

Once you develop one or more plans, do something. Pick your most promising path and act. While it might be tempting to wait out the storm, in my experience, this strategy rarely succeeds. By taking initiative, you can seize the opportunity to exercise some control over the situation at hand.

No doubt, a crisis creates challenging circumstances. But it also presents opportunities for change. Through action, you position yourself to take advantage of opportunities that can ultimately benefit your organization and your team.

For example, as a business or HR leader, you can advocate for more inclusive hiring practices, so your company can attract new sources of talent. Also, you can talk regularly with employees about challenges they are facing. Through these conversations, you can identify small but meaningful changes that will improve operational workflows and work culture.

This proactive approach creates an environment that helps you keep your cool. And perhaps more importantly, it can help you improve the employee experience, rather than allowing it to erode.

Finance leaders can take a similar proactive approach to identify areas where it’s possible to trim overhead and increase efficiency without damaging fragile employee engagement and satisfaction levels.

3. Get Lean

Pack light and pack smart. This is a wise rule of thumb for any adventurer, but now more than ever.

This is a great time to put agile methodologies into practice. With greater uncertainty in day-to-day work, and fewer people actually doing the work, teams need to stay flexible, be adaptable, and adjust when opportunities arise.

Whether it’s too much bureaucracy, an excessive budget, or too many cooks in the kitchen — a glut of resources can actually impede progress, rather than facilitate it. By streamlining resources and workflows, you’ll be better prepared than a top-heavy organization to recognize and respond to unexpected internal or external changes.

Empower your team to do more with less. Audit your process, considering where you can improve by cutting out unnecessary steps and removing unhelpful roadblocks. Rather than assuming you should continue doing things as they’ve always been done (because they’ve always been done that way), create a culture that actively pursues and rewards improvement.

Ask yourself and your team what your customers really want. Then focus like a laser on delivering precisely that.

4. Question Everything

Crisis creates an opportunity to reevaluate the status quo. You may be tempted to wish for a return to how things were in the “good old days.” But consider this a chance to take a closer look. Were those days really as good as they seem? What actually worked, and what didn’t?

If you’re already rethinking your resources and workflows, you might as well reconsider how everything is done. A holistic approach can help you improve systemically, rather than in a piecemeal fashion.

One of the best ways to learn how something works is to look at all the pieces and evaluate how they work individually and as a whole. You can even apply this to your company’s business-as-usual standards.

Critique your operational best practices. Are these ways of working truly the best way to accomplish specific objectives? Question conventional wisdom. It may not actually be as wise as you think. Put organizational traditions under a microscope. Could your cultural norms be creating more discord than cohesion? Don’t leave any stone unturned. This is the ideal time to expose, examine and resolve underlying issues.

5. Recognize That Talent is More Crucial Than Ever

The four previous tips won’t amount to much if you don’t have the right team in place. It’s easier to keep your cool and act effectively when good people are supporting you. It’s also easier to ask questions and restructure an organization when you’re challenged and encouraged by sharp minds. Now is the time to invest in the kind of talent that will step up to this challenge.

Of course, in a candidate’s job market, this is easier said than done. But a more equitable approach to talent sourcing and a more intentional, streamlined hiring process can tip the odds in your favor.

AI-powered talent acquisition platforms can help eliminate bias associated with ethnicity, gender, age, or education. They can also help identify untapped skilled candidates from nontraditional backgrounds.

Consider how you can improve hiring outcomes by improving your candidate experience. For example, would recruiting results improve if you focused on 1-3 targeted interviews with key stakeholders (people who actually understand the position and the work to be done)?

Also, this is the ideal time to seriously invest in internal talent mobility. For example, what can you do to improve upskilling among existing employees? The more skills each individual develops, the more effective your team will be at adapting to inevitable changes and completing projects successfully.

Keep Your Cool By Embracing a More Stable Today

Although today’s business environment may be unclear, any organization can develop a more resilient foundation that can withstand chaos and change. Leaders can take ownership of this process by challenging past assumptions, rethinking outdated business practices, and channeling resources where they’re needed most.

It may not be easy to keep your head above water — let alone thrive — in the midst of this crisis. But it is possible to keep your cool and carry on without giving in to forces you can’t control. By applying these principles, you’ll be better prepared not only to weather the storm, but to get ahead of it. Just don’t forget to bring a towel!

What kind of employee retention strategies really work? Check these 9 ideas from HR and business leaders

Employee Retention Strategies: 9 Ideas That Are Working

May 15, 2023/Company Culture, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Retention, Talent Retention, Winner: Impact Award for Content Excellence /by Brett Farmiloe

Keeping valued employees onboard is top-of-mind for many organizations these days. But what kind of employee retention strategies are actually working?

To find out, we asked numerous HR and business leaders to tell us which methods are making a difference for their workforce. And they responded with a variety of answers worth considering. Here are 9 of the best ideas we received:

Actively Support Employee Mental Health

Invest in Employee Growth

Invite Family Members to Team Events

Support Employee Sabbaticals

Assign an Employee Partner for Each New Hire

Create a Culture of Trust and Connection

Offer a Generous PTO and Benefits Policy

Build Meaningful Onboarding Connections

Provide Professional Development Opportunities

To learn more about how your organization can make the most of these employee retention strategies, read the full responses below…

9 Effective Employee Retention Strategies

1. Actively Support Employee Mental Health

One of the most powerful ways we have improved our retention rate is by proactively supporting employee mental health. We make workplace wellbeing a priority by encouraging mindfulness and reminding people to take short mental health breaks every day.

To ensure our employees benefit from improved wellbeing, we’ve also brought in trainers to teach various mindfulness exercises. These simple improvements have been easy to implement. Yet, they’ve helped our employees become happier and more engaged at work. This, in turn, has led to increased retention.

Mark Pierce, CEO, Cloud Peak Law Group

2. Invest in Employee Growth

To help retain our best talent, we provide ongoing internal and external opportunities for career growth.

For each position in every department, we publish clear, open-source career ladders. And we offer programs that help each employee develop skills and competencies needed to become a subject expert at their current level or qualify for success at the next level.

These opportunities include a robust Skill Enhancement and Employee Development (SEED) program for individual contributors, and a rich Leadership Essentials and Development (LEAD) program for people leaders. These are cohort-based programs we offer twice a quarter. In conjunction with other social learning activities, these programs improved our retention rate by 28% in the second half of 2022.

On the external development front, we offer a Be Your Best Self program that lets employees spend up to $1,500 a year on certifications, conferences and other activities in line with their professional goals. This initiative elevated our retention by 13% in the second half of last year.

Elizabeth Boyd, Fractional Director of Talent Development and Learning, TalentLab.Live

3. Invite Family Members to Team Events

Rather than hosting happy hours and team events for “employees only,” we invite spouses and children, too.

In addition to helping employees get to know their colleagues better, this is an excellent way for families to become familiar with colleagues their wife, husband, partner, mother or father works with each day. This means family members can put faces to names during future at-home conversations about work.

What’s more, these informal family relationships often help employees become much closer. Sometimes, colleagues’ family members become friends, as well. All of this leads to a much happier workplace that employees hesitate to leave.

Janelle Owens, HR Director, Guide2Fluency

4. Support Employee Sabbaticals

Effective work-life balance isn’t just a distant goal to achieve. It’s a reality we are all continuously managing and renegotiating. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the life component suddenly takes precedence. That’s when an employee must radically rebalance key priorities.

By offering extended time away through sabbatical leave, you provide significant reassurance. Should the worst happen, employees know they can take time away from work without risking their employment status.

Similarly, if a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity arises, such as long-term traveling, studying, or focusing on personal growth, people know a formal mechanism is in place to support them.

Some of our organization’s most engaged and loyal employees have taken sabbatical leave multiple times. Even those who haven’t exercised their right to a sabbatical think highly of the option. They appreciate the fact that we offer flexibility, should the need arise.

Chloe Yarwood, HR Manager, Test Partnership

5. Assign an Employee Partner for Each New Hire

Whenever you’re expanding your team, think about group dynamics. Sometimes when you hire new staff for positions that are similar to others’ roles, members of your team will feel scared. They may assume you’re looking to replace them when that’s not the case.

To ease any tension or anxiety, ask existing employees to team-up with new people on relevant projects. Give them responsibility for delegating tasks to the new hires, so they feel included and empowered to make onboarding more successful.

This helps existing staff feel more control over the situation. They’ll also pick up on the fact that you need more resources to manage a growing workload. By recognizing this is an investment in everyone’s success, existing staff should feel more secure in their positions. This also means they’ll be less likely to look elsewhere out of fear.

Dennis Consorte, Digital Marketing and Leadership Consultant for Startups, Snackable Solutions

6. Create a Culture of Trust and Connection

We’ve found that one of the most effective ways to keep employees is to focus on building a culture based on trust and connection. This doesn’t happen overnight. But it can make a huge impact over time.

We started by implementing weekly team meetings where people from different departments discuss issues or challenges we’re facing. This opens lines of communication among team members. Everyone is welcome to share ideas for improvement. It’s also a forum to discuss what has worked in the past or could work in the future. This creates an active dialogue around innovation that encourages employees to grow professionally.

These regular meetings give us a chance to build stronger relationships through group problem solving. They also help us develop mutual understanding, while recognizing everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Plus, we have an opportunity to celebrate individual and collective successes.

Travis Lindemoen, Managing Director, nexus IT group

7. Offer a Generous PTO and Benefits Policy

Because our entire team works remotely, we have to make sure the work people do is more valuable to them than the work they would otherwise be doing in a more traditional setting. That’s why we offer 38 days of PTO (personal time off) each year, as well as private healthcare stipends employees can use to maintain their mental and physical health.

Similar companies typically don’t offer any of these benefits. That’s why we stand out among competitors. It helps us recruit strong talent, and ultimately it means employees stay with us longer, as well.

Gordana Sretenovic, Co-founder, Workello

8. Build Meaningful Onboarding Connections

Our organization invests in multiple policies and programs to improve employee retention. One stand-out initiative is our structured onboarding plan, which includes intentional workforce integration activities such as team-building exercises and networking events.

We believe strong retention really begins on Day One. So, by introducing every new hire to the company culture, we can help people more quickly feel comfortable in their roles. This has led to increased overall engagement across the organization. It has also helped improve job satisfaction and reduce turnover.

Grace He, People and Culture Director, teambuilding.com

9. Provide Professional Development Opportunities

One of the best ways to keep people engaged in their jobs is to provide opportunities for professional growth. It not only helps employees learn new skills, but also demonstrates that your organization wants to invest in their growth and development.

This could include internal or external training programs, mentorship opportunities, tuition reimbursement programs, or a combination of these options. For example you can provide funding for people to attend relevant conferences or networking events, so they can develop a broader range of professional relationships skills in your industry. This not only helps build a more knowledgeable and competent workforce, but also improves retention.

Timothy Allen, Sr. Corporate Investigator, Corporate Investigation Consulting

After Layoffs, How Can Employers Handle Survivor Guilt?

April 18, 2023/Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Employee Well-Being, Talent Retention, Workplace Empathy /by John Hackston

We may or may not be heading for an economic downturn this year, but we certainly are seeing a slew of layoffs. The technology industry has been most heavily affected, with more than 224,000 jobs eliminated since the start of 2022. Although many small companies are affected, we’re also seeing announcements from big names like Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Salesforce, and Meta.

Now, layoffs are spilling into other sectors as well. For instance, Disney, Goldman Sachs, and FedEx recently announced job cuts. Even McDonald’s is downsizing.

But no matter where and when layoffs happen, we can’t help wondering about the people who’ve lost their jobs. How will they cope financially? How will their mental health be affected?

It’s natural to be concerned about their wellbeing. But what about employees who remain onboard? We shouldn’t forget about them.

Many of these layoff “survivors” are likely to be suffering as well. They may be expected to put in extra effort or take on additional tasks to cover for those who are gone. All the while, they’re worrying about whether their own job will vanish next. Survivor guilt only compounds their problems.

Recognizing the Trauma of Layoffs

When lives are lost in a traumatic event, survivors sometimes feel guilty because they didn’t die. Or they may obsess about what they could have done (but didn’t) to help save others. This survivor guilt phenomenon also emerges in the aftermath of work layoffs. Although the situation is less dire, employers should take it seriously.

Remaining employees may feel guilty because they still have a job when others lost theirs. They may believe they’re less worthy or less skilled than those who were laid off, which further compounds feelings of guilt. This is one reason why layoff survivors typically don’t perform as well as predicted, which can ultimately harm business performance.

Learning From Covid Layoffs

The last big wave of layoffs happened during the Covid pandemic. At that time, my organization conducted research to understand the impact on employees. Specifically, we asked people how much they agreed or disagreed with these questions:

I am annoyed or angry that I am still working, when others have been laid off or furloughed.
I feel guilty about having a job, when others have been laid off or furloughed.

We found that remaining employees were much more likely to feel guilty than annoyed. In fact, only 5% agreed or strongly agreed that they felt annoyed or angry. In contrast, 33% agreed or strongly agreed that they felt guilty. This means a third of respondents were experiencing survivor guilt.

Upon closer inspection, we found that the extent of this guilt varied considerably from person to person. In part, it was due to differences in personality preferences for either Thinking or Feeling, a dimension included in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) framework.

People with a Thinking personality preference prefer to make decisions based on objective logic. In contrast, those with a Feeling preference favor decisions based on values and how those decisions affect people.

Our research found that individuals with a Feeling orientation were significantly more likely to experience guilt than those who lean toward Thinking. Specifically, 44% of people with a Feeling preference agreed or strongly agreed that they felt guilty, compared to only 21% people with a Thinking preference.

How Guilt Affects Remaining Employees

Given today’s economic pressures, organizations could see a repeat of the 2020 survivor response. It’s important for line managers to pay close attention to this, because survivor guilt can erode job performance.

But here’s a potential problem: Managers and executives are far more likely to have a Thinking personality preference. This means they’re less prone to survivor guilt, themselves. They’re also less likely to notice survivor guilt in others, or take it seriously.

How can organizations bridge this gap? The MBTI assessment and similar tools can help managers understand if their staff members see the world the same way they do. When an assessment reveals misalignment, it can help managers recognize that, even if they aren’t experiencing survivor guilt themselves, they should be open to others who are struggling.

Steps to Minimize Survivor Guilt

Managers and HR specialists can take several steps to mitigate the worst effects of survivor guilt. For example:

1. Let remaining employees know that you addressed all those who were laid off as individuals and you treated them as well as possible. But don’t communicate this message if it isn’t true. People with a Feeling preference have a knack for sensing inauthenticity. So lying will make matters worse than saying nothing at all.

2. Offer to help employees who lose their jobs. For example, you may want to offer outplacement counseling to everyone who is laid off. Providing this kind of support is a moral thing to do. Plus, it can improve morale and engagement among those who remain. So, even though it increases the upfront cost of layoffs, this investment can lead to tangible business benefits.

3. Reassure employees that, even if they had been prepared to make sacrifices themselves, the outcome wouldn’t have changed. Again, don’t communicate this message unless it is true.

4. Clearly explain the rationale for layoffs to those who are leaving as well as those who remain. This helps avoid the appearance of arbitrary decision making.

5. Do not congratulate survivors because they still have a job. This may only increase any guilty feelings they’re experiencing.

6. Establish multiple channels to share information on an ongoing basis. People have different communication preferences, depending upon their personality. That’s why it’s important to offer a variety of methods, especially if your organization includes remote and hybrid workers. Here are several ideas:

Provide opportunities for people to ask questions and submit suggestions. Some people prefer live face-to-face discussions, group meetings, online forums, or instant messaging. Others need to think about questions and submit them in writing. These people may feel more comfortable with on-demand online events, online feedback forms, email messages, or anonymous surveys.

Whatever communication mix you implement, be sure to set expectations for how quickly you’ll respond to questions, ideas and comments. And once those guidelines are in place, be sure to follow through.

Final Thoughts

Whenever employers initiate layoffs, it’s vital to consider the organization’s psychological contract with employees. Unlike a tangible work contract based on things like salary and working conditions, the psychological contract is intangible. It focuses on values and “the way we do things around here.” This contract is an implied agreement between employer and employee.

Organizations must consider if and how layoffs violate this contract. When this is the case, leaders must explain their actions. Otherwise, employees with a Feeling personality preference may walk away from their jobs without any explanation or warning. They’re likely to feel justified because their values have been compromised.

To avoid these unintended consequences, think ahead about the implications of layoffs — not only for those who will lose their jobs, but also for those who will remain. Then act accordingly. If you want your organization to prosper in the long-run, ignoring survivor guilt is not an option.

When You Train Employees, Do You Also Boost Retention?

March 24, 2023/Editor's Picks, Employee Retention, Featured, Learning, Learning and Development, Podcast, Podcast Recap, Podcast Recaps, Skills Development, Talent Retention /by Meghan M. Biro

Sponsored by FranklinCovey

If you’re involved in hiring or managing people, no one needs to tell you that competition for top talent is incredibly fierce. And keeping teams engaged and motivated is getting more difficult all the time. That’s why it pays to be especially thoughtful and strategic about how you train employees.

This isn’t just my opinion. It’s the conclusion of organizations like SHRM, which found that employees are 76% more likely to stay onboard when their organization has a dedicated process to support workforce learning and growth. Similarly, Deloitte estimates that retention is 30-50% higher among companies with a strong learning culture.

But this begs the question — exactly how can you build and sustain a learning environment that engages people so they want to stay onboard and advance your agenda? That’s the topic we’re exploring today with a brilliant business leader who is also a recognized expert in learning and development…

Meet Our Guest: Paul Walker

I’m honored to welcome Paul Walker, President and CEO at FranklinCovey! As the company’s chief strategist and operational leader, Paul is committed to transforming organizations and enabling greatness. He actually started his career at FranklinCovey 22 years ago, and has grown and adapted along with the company. So clearly, he knows first-hand how learning and development can help retain top talent. Please join us as we explore this topic:

Connecting Learning With Retention
Welcome, Paul! Let’s dive right in. How is training tied to workforce retention?

Our work with clients and research from others tell us that training is integral to retention for several reasons:

When you train employees, they feel valued because you’re investing in them. And the more valued people feel, the more likely they are to stay.

It helps people perform better. We all want to do our best work everyday. If we need skills to do that, and our employer is helping us acquire those capabilities, it not only helps us do better today, but may also prepare us for something exciting in the future. Again, we feel valued.

How to Train Employees Effectively
**What do people really want from work-related training?**

There are probably more factors, but over and over again we see employees focusing on these things:

Is it easy for me to access, so I can get the most out of it?

How well does it fit into the flow of my daily work life?

How relevant is it now, and will it prepare me for where I want to be in the future?

Is it useful? Does it actually help me perform better?

How Can You Train Employees for Retention? Join us for a live #WorkTrends Twitter Chat - Wednesday, March 29th - 1:30-2:00pm ET. Follow @TalentCulture on Twitter for questions - and add the #WorkTrends hashtag to your tweets so others can see your comments and interact with you!

JOIN US ON TWITTER!

Choose Learning Metrics That Matter

Retention is important, but what other KPIs should we consider?

When we want to train employees, we need to be sure we’re not just advocating for retention or other objectives that may feel a bit soft to people who make budgetary and strategic decisions. These leaders don’t necessarily see how learning supports what they want to accomplish.

Instead, we need to focus on how learning improves the quality of the team’s results. That’s crucial to the organization’s performance.

We need to talk in the language Deloitte used in its research that says:

92% of companies with more intentional, sophisticated learning develop more novel products and processes,

56% are often first-to-market with products and services,

52% are measurably more productive, and

17% are more profitable.

Make It a Leadership Priority to Train Employees

Absolutely. There’s value here, and our KPIs should reflect that…

I would also say the best organizations have figured out how to ignite a passion for employee learning in their leaders. In other words, people development is a key leadership expectation, and leaders want to be involved in helping their people grow and develop. It’s not just the responsibility of HR or L&D…

For more insights from Paul about how to train employees for retention, listen to this full podcast episode. And be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher.

In addition, we invite you to join our live Twitter chat about this topic on Wednesday, March 29th from 1:30-2:00pm ET. Follow us at @TalentCulture for questions and be sure to add the #WorkTrends hashtag to your tweets, so others in the community can easily find your comments and interact with you!

Also, to continue this conversation on social media anytime, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

How to Build a Learning Culture From the Ground Up

March 7, 2023/Company Culture, Learning, Learning and Development, Skills Development, Talent Retention /by Stephanie Trovas

The great resignation, the rise of hybrid work, and the fear of recession are making one thing certain — today’s talent must be agile and adapt quickly. A culture of learning is vital now because it helps organizations thrive when moving through change. But this kind of culture doesn’t happen spontaneously. It requires intentional effort. This article offers guidance for leaders who need to build a culture of learning that will stand the test of time.

What is a Learning Culture?

Culture is the combination of beliefs and values that drive organizational behavior. In other words, “how stuff gets done around here.” When you center beliefs and values on behaviors that encourage continuous growth and development, you can create a foundation for ongoing innovation and improvement.

A strong learning culture encourages and rewards both individual and organizational growth. It takes time and dedication to build a learning culture, but the outcomes can be transformational. What else does this process require? Focus on these factors:

8 Steps to Build a Learning Culture

1. Plan Effectively

Start by assessing your organization’s recruiting and hiring practices to be sure you’re attracting talent with a growth mindset. This should include a careful analysis of your onboarding process. Do you emphasize the importance of learning? Onboarding often focuses on what employees need to learn. But new employees also need to know who they should learn from and with.

Also, examine your approach to upskilling, reskilling, and cross-skilling current employees. This will give you better insight into how prepared your organization is to support future needs.

Use these findings to plan for retention. Keeping employees onboard is critical now. According to The New York Times, “The rise in turnover since the pandemic started has a cost in productivity: It’s taking longer to get stuff out the door.”

Meanwhile, the talent pool remains limited. Currently, for every person seeking a job, 1.7 positions are available. In today’s competitive environment, employers can’t afford to lose top talent. And one of the most powerful ways to keep people committed is through a culture that supports learning and growth.

In a recent report about what we call Work 3.0, we explain how some talent models are more effective than others at achieving these outcomes. For example, organizations with remote and hybrid work models must be careful to ensure that learning opportunities are inclusive and equitable.

Smart leaders rely on the planning process to guide their decisions about learning priorities. This includes careful data gathering and analysis to verify the organization’s current state, define its future goals, and establish a strategic roadmap to bridge this gap.

2. Ensure a Receptive Environment

Successful learning cultures begin with psychological safety. In a workplace where this is high, people feel comfortable asking questions, voicing their opinions, and taking responsibility for their mistakes.

In fact, after studying nearly 300 leaders over 2.5 years, we found that teams with high degrees of psychological safety had higher performance outcomes and lower interpersonal conflict. This kind of environment encourages employees to learn more fully from their mistakes and from one another.

3. Align Learning With Business Imperatives

What matters most to your organization? This should inform your culture. The most effective learning strategies align with business priorities. Alignment helps scale learning while keeping it relevant, meaningful, and applicable.

Environments that welcome open, honest discussions (including respectful disagreements) are more likely to align learning with the organization’s vision, mission, and goals.

You’ll want to emphasize opportunities to develop mindsets and behaviors that move your agenda forward. This should include incentives and rewards for employees who embrace desired growth.

4. Model the Change You Want to See

It’s essential to recognize continuous learning as a key to better business results. Because culture is shaped by leadership behavior, it’s critical to exhibit the actions you want to see in others. Leaders who exhibit an interest in learning and in rewarding others for their growth will inspire employees to focus on these activities.

Leaders play a significant role here by communicating expectations and modeling behaviors they want to see. For example, it’s important to regularly express curiosity, offer feedback, admit mistakes, and share knowledge.

Effective communication and storytelling by leaders can also help your workforce understand what’s expected and why it’s important for everyone in your culture. This includes engaging in authentic conversations, sharing personal learning experiences, and proactively seeking feedback.

5. Integrate Accessibility Into the Process

It’s vital to scale development opportunities so learning is accessible to everyone, not just high-potential individuals. This is particularly important in today’s environment, where employees don’t necessarily work onsite in a central location.

To improve accessibility, offer development through a variety of modalities. This can include a mix of formal in-person training, virtual courses, asynchronous informal learning, micro-learning, experiential learning, self-paced e-learning content, as well as social and collaborative learning options.

Offering a library of resources can also help keep workforce knowledge and skills up-to-date. For example, you can provide resources such as books, articles, podcasts, and videos through a central digital repository.

A learning management system (LMS) or learning experience platform (LXP) with enterprise licensing can help you scale this kind of learning content. This also makes it possible to track consumption and tie learning to individual and team performance.

6. Invest in the Right Tools and Support

A strong learning culture naturally emerges when development becomes integrated into daily work habits. Leaders can play an important role here, by regularly encouraging staff to devote sufficient time to absorb, practice, share, and apply whatever they learn.

One standard is based on the 70-20-10 rule: This approach suggests that 70% of learning comes from working through challenging assignments and experiences, while 20% comes from developmental relationships, and 10% from formal training and coursework. The process is reinforced when employees take time to reflect on their learning endeavors. You can support this reinforcement phase through mentoring as well as “reverse mentoring.”

7. Customize Appropriately

Today’s employees — especially those in remote and hybrid work settings — prefer development opportunities tailored to their needs. When considering how to elevate your learning culture, be sure to ask employees what they want to learn and how they prefer to engage in learning. Then consider how to provide “core” learning opportunities for all, combined with various options that any individual can pursue.

Ideally, a customized approach delivers learning experiences that address each employee’s unique needs and interests over time. Research shows that offering various delivery methods tends to boost learner engagement and knowledge retention. Ultimately, that can improve job performance, satisfaction, and commitment.

8. Measure Effectively

Finally, plan to measure your progress and use that intelligence to improve on a continuous basis.

Formal evaluations can help you track trends, learn from the data, and adjust accordingly. Less formal options, such as the agile review methodology of, “Liked, Lacked, Learned, Longed For” can give you immediate feedback while also changing mindsets.

Strive to make after-action reviews a natural part of work routines. Regularly ask for feedback and use pulse surveys. Also, don’t forget to establish metrics that help you determine how well leaders are advancing the overall learning agenda.

Conclusion

When you build a learning culture, you’ll see how all of these elements are interconnected. If the atmosphere is hostile or complacent, or if content isn’t accessible to all, your mission is likely to fail. If you don’t understand your objectives, measuring progress will be impossible.

Recognize that changing any aspect of an organization’s culture is easier said than done. Progress takes time, patience, support, and persistence — especially from leaders and managers. To secure buy-in, tie improvement metrics to each leader’s performance objectives. Also, to keep learning top-of-mind, publicly celebrate early wins, and keep the cadence rolling.

Eventually, any organization can lead with learning. But it won’t happen until you invest in thoughtful planning and consistent implementation. Remember, it’s a process.

Does a Shorter Workweek Actually Work?

February 21, 2023/Employee Burnout, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Talent Retention /by Gloria St. Martin-Lowry

The pandemic has sparked a global conversation about whether people who’ve been working from home should be free to choose their preferred work location. It’s a natural question for employers to ask as they prepare for the future of work. Now, even some ardent return-to-office fans are starting to rethink their stance.

For example, late last year, the world watched as Twitter CEO Elon Musk issued a strict remote work ban. He soon softened his position, but it wasn’t enough to lure back many disaffected employees. Musk is among a growing list of leaders who are learning that today’s workforce prefers flexibility and wellbeing over “long hours at high intensity.”

The remote work debate continues. But this focus on where we work overshadows a more central argument about how much we should be working. Specifically, the ability to choose a shorter workday or workweek can help employees meet their individual needs. At the same time, reduced hours can help employers, because people are more engaged and productive when they are working, according to a report in The Atlantic.

The Downside of a Shorter Workweek

For most U.S. employers, reducing the standard 40-hour workweek would be a drastic change. This kind of shift in the status quo will no doubt draw resistance.

Opponents of a shorter workweek say this approach will be costlier and riskier to manage. They also note that, because some people won’t be able to participate, workforce inequality will increase.

Certainly, ineffective implementation could lead to poor employee morale and customer satisfaction. In fact, it could backfire if employees are expected to squeeze extra hours into a 4-day workweek. If managers don’t commit to a revised work structure, it will likely erode employee experience and customer experience, as well.

Why These Criticisms Don’t Stand

Interestingly, many of these 4-day workweek criticisms are similar to arguments against remote work. Clearly, every job cannot be conducted from home. A firefighter or police officer, for example, can’t fight fires or crime remotely. Microsoft Teams and Zoom simply aren’t designed to support these front-line professions.

Regardless, many of these workers can benefit from a shorter work schedule. And it can improve their performance when they are on the clock. For instance, a 4-day workweek trial study in New Zealand found that employees sustained their productivity, even though they experienced up to 45% less stress.

Less time spent working means more time spent with loved ones. In addition, a shortened workweek can help close the gender pay gap. For instance, in a U.K. survey, 2 million unemployed people said childcare responsibilities were the reason they remained unemployed. And 89% of these respondents are women.

Discomfort is a reflection of leaders gripping the bat too tightly. It’s a control issue. Many prefer uniformity and the status quo. It’s similar to the push-back we’re seeing with the shift to permanent hybrid work schedules.

Still, engagement studies continue to show year after year that work cultures are broken. Employers can’t continue doing the same things and expect different results. In the post-pandemic economy, we must reevaluate the classic 5-day workweek, as well as the standard 40-hour, full-time work schedule.

Reimagining the Workweek

Between the turbulent stock market and the Great Resignation in recent years, every company is facing significant challenges. Employees often share their feedback about serious work issues as they abandon ship, but for many organizations, the meter still isn’t moving in the right direction. The underlying problem is that we’re stuck in old ways of thinking.

Workers interviewed about why they left their companies often cited the lack of work-life balance as a massive contributing factor. Burnout became an overwhelming issue as companies shifted to work-from-home models. That’s not too surprising. Instead of leaving problems at the office, many people carried those problems wherever they were, at all hours of the day and night. For them, the work-from-home dream actually became more of a nightmare.

But employers have learned how to alleviate some of the stress by giving people more control over their work schedule. In fact, one recent study found that 94% of employees feel a sense of wellbeing when they know their employer cares about them. The option to choose a flexible schedule can accomplish that.

What’s the ROI?

The tangible benefits of a shorter workweek aren’t always obvious, but they deserve attention. In addition to decreased overhead and utility costs, a 4-day workweek means fewer sick days.

You can also realize financial gains by increasing employee retention. Say someone wants to leave your company to find a better work-life balance. You could offer that employee a reduced work schedule at the same salary, knowing they’ll likely remain onboard longer. Here’s why:

It costs an average of $4,000 to hire a new employee, and that person may need a year or longer to learn the job well enough to exceed expectations. The estimated cost of replacing an employee is about 9 months of their salary. And those costs add up fast when you have a revolving door of employees.

You might also want to consider several high-profile 4-day workweek business cases:

Perpetual Guardian saw an increase in employee commitment and empowerment without losing productivity or customers.
Microsoft Japan printed 59% fewer pages and used 23% less electricity during the program.
Unilever saw a roughly 34% decrease in absenteeism and stress levels.

3 Ways to Succeed With a Shorter Workweek

Getting started isn’t too complicated. In fact, our firm has worked with multiple companies that have shifted to a 4-day workweek. In one case, a manufacturing client in a rural community focused on its pool of working parents. This was a win/win because the adjusted schedule works for both the company and parents who want to stay involved with their kids’ schooling and extra-curricular activities.

As you develop and implement your game plan, be sure to include these elements:

1. Involve Your Team

Although the C-suite traditionally makes key business decisions, every employee has a valuable perspective. Some may prefer a 5-day workweek, while others might opt for a shorter schedule. Before you can implement a functional plan, you need to understand your employees’ wants and needs. They deserve a voice because ultimately, they need to make it work.

2. Focus on Outcomes

Your employees are central to this process, but your business and your customers matter, too. When assessing any job schedule, consider the outcomes you want to see instead of simply tracking hours. Focus on metrics like production, quality, or customer experience.

At the end of the day, shifting to shorter schedules can optimize resources and yield long-term savings. In the U.K. more than 50% of business leaders reported cost savings after shifting from a 5-day work schedule to a 4-day workweek. It shouldn’t matter if your team works 20 or 40 hours a week, as long as the job is done right.

3. Stay Open to Continuous Improvement

Forecasts are built on historical performance, so change can be uncomfortable at first. But once you shorten the workweek, you should see measurable improvement in team satisfaction, performance, and business results.

Don’t forget the importance of training. Everyone will need time to get used to new employee schedules, new work shifts, and new ways of managing staff. As long as communication remains open, your organization can successfully move through this culture shift.

Closing Notes

A shortened workweek doesn’t mean your team will accomplish less. In fact, flexibility is the cure for many problems companies are facing in this post-pandemic era.

Employee experience is a human experience. No matter when or where people work, it’s important to find a reasonable balance between work and life. If you redesign your work schedules now, employees will appreciate this change. And over time, you can expect to see even more benefits from your efforts.

Why and how to help employees through lateral moves

How to Help Employees Step Up to Lateral Moves

January 10, 2023/Career Development, Employee Retention, Hiring and Retention, Talent Management, Talent Retention /by Jenny Battershell

When you think about your future within your organization, what do you envision? Do you anticipate moving up through the ranks into a managerial or executive position? Or if you’re a specialist, do you look forward to taking on successive roles with increased responsibility? What about lateral moves? Do they even cross your mind?

In my opinion, lateral moves get a bad rap. Naturally, when people consider how to advance their career within a company, they think first about promotions. Lateral moves tend to be discounted because they don’t signify a “step up.” But that’s an overly simplistic way to look at career paths.

Here’s the truth: Some people aren’t cut out to manage others. Some don’t dream of running a department or a business. This doesn’t mean they aren’t talented employees. Nor does it mean they should be stifled professionally.

On the contrary. The best way to support these employees is through opportunities to move across the organization, rather than encouraging them to take a step “up.” When strong employees move sideways, you can fill their vacated roles with other internal talent, recruit new hires or look into business process outsourcing services.

Why Lateral Moves Make Sense

There are multiple reasons to transform your corporate “ladder” into a “lattice” that supports lateral moves. For instance, with this approach you can expect to:

1. Invigorate Professional Development

When you recognize that talented employees aren’t suited for managerial roles, it’s important to find other ways to encourage continued growth. Carefully chosen lateral moves can further develop employee strengths, expand their skill sets, and help them contribute more fully to your organization’s goals.

2. Improve Workforce Engagement

One of the most critical reasons to support lateral moves is the fact that it boosts engagement. When people are encouraged to use their skills more fully, they feel more connected with their work. For example, imagine a promising member of the finance team shows interest in marketing.

A transfer to the marketing group can mean this employee will work harder and be happier. This is beneficial for the employee, personally and professionally. And improved productivity improves the company’s bottom line, as well.

3. Promote Cross-Functional Collaboration

Lateral moves can also improve communication between departments. Better communication can improve collaboration and remove cross-functional barriers that may have slowed innovation in the past. Plus, when employees share knowledge and expertise gained from other teams, that fresh perspective can help their new teams find better solutions to business challenges.

4. Increase Employee Retention

By enabling people to explore different roles through lateral moves, you create new reasons to keep top talent onboard. Ideally, all team members can find attractive opportunities in departments that align with their professional interests and goals. In the near-term, job satisfaction should increase. While over time, you can expect to see retention increase as costly turnover decreases.

2 Ways to Support Lateral Moves

Did you recently realize one of your team members would be happier or more effective working in a different department? There are a few ways you can prepare them for a smooth transition. For example:

1. Develop a Transition-Specific Training Plan

When employees first joined your company, a training plan probably answered their questions and helped them get accustomed to their role. Although a lateral mover is no longer new to the company, a team-specific training plan could help them step into their new responsibilities more quickly and easily.

A transitioning employee may feel intimidated by the possibility of working with a new team or other changes on the horizon. Partner with the other team’s leader to ensure a warm welcome. Share your insights about the employee with this leader, and encourage them to discuss the new team’s habits and cadence of work.

The sooner an individual understands the lay of the land in a new internal role, the sooner they can contribute and help move the team’s agenda forward. By developing strong training and actively taking a part in the move, you can help transitioning employees reach their potential as soon as possible.

2. Keep Your Door Open

You may have initially been surprised or hurt to hear that a team member would prefer to work in a different department. However, it’s best to support their lateral move. Often, an employee’s desire to transfer isn’t a negative reflection on their current manager’s performance. It may just mean they want to learn more about another part of the business or their career goals are leading them in a different direction.

So keep the door open. In the near term, this employee will need your support as well as the support of their new manager. Major career transitions often come with growing pains. Even if an employee has been with the company for several years, they may not understand much about their new role or the team dynamic. Reassuring this individual that you are available to answer any questions will ease their professional transition.

Final Thoughts

When helping employees with their careers, it’s important to assist those who are strong candidates for lateral moves, as well as those who are moving upward. This is a great opportunity to show employees you care about their professional development and trajectory, even if they aren’t aiming toward a traditional managerial position.

When conducting performance evaluations, think about which employees are well-positioned for this kind of transition. Talk with them about their interests and goals. And if they want to pursue a lateral move, follow these tips to support them.

How can employers keep employees onboard and engaged during uncertain times? Meghan M. Biro says flexibility is the key. Learn more...

Flexibility: Key to Employee Retention in 2023

December 20, 2022/Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Future of Work, Talent Retention /by Meghan M. Biro

As 2022 comes to a close, several work trends are clearly visible on the horizon. Here’s one employers can’t afford to ignore — an alarming number of employees are still leaving their jobs. For all the talk about “the Great Resignation” being behind us, turnover continues to shape the world of work. And it doesn’t seem to be fading.

What’s the culprit here? In my opinion, too many employers continue to discount the need for flexibility in all its forms. Not sure if this should be a priority for you? Then consider some big-picture statistics:

A recent Workhuman survey focused on workforce behavior and sentiment estimates that 36% of employees plan to leave their jobs in 2023.
Gartner predicts that steep 20% turnover rates will continue for the foreseeable future, with as many as 65% of employees still reevaluating their career paths.

These findings are hard to ignore. But rather than drilling down on disengaged workers and why they’re looking for greener pastures, I’d like to flip the script. Instead, let’s talk about people who want to remain in place. What can we learn from them?

Why Some People Stay

What is keeping people onboard? No doubt, some are hunkering down in reaction to growing economic uncertainty. But despite recent layoff news, many organizations are still hiring qualified talent. So why aren’t more people jumping ship?

Here’s why I think flexibility is the key. It is one of the most important factors keeping satisfied people connected with their employers and committed to doing their best work. In fact, as a motivational force, flexibility is second only to salary — ranking even higher than a positive work culture.

That’s powerful stuff. But it doesn’t tell the whole story. Let’s look closer.

Making a Business Case for Flexibility

If you’re mapping your HR goals for 2023, keep this caveat in mind: From a business perspective, flexibility may be losing some of its sheen. Organizations are facing the prospect of another year trying to juggle remote and hybrid workforce models. And after years of struggling to get it right, some companies may not be willing to invest as much time and effort to make it work.

Other business factors are causing leaders to push for a return to the office. After all, money talks. And the cost of office space doesn’t drop by 50% if only half of your workforce is filling the space. Also, we hear more executives emphasizing what suffers when people work from a distance — social bonds, career growth, collaboration and innovation.

But if you’re contemplating a full-scale return to office, perhaps you should think twice. Here’s why. I’m reminded of a 2021 #WorkTrends podcast conversation about flexibility with work-life expert and business consultant, Suzanne Brown.

Did Suzanne know something the rest of us weren’t ready to take seriously when she said this?

“People will stick around now. But as soon as the economy starts to strengthen, if you haven’t already built flexibility into your culture, you’ll start to lose people quickly.”

Circumstances may have shifted since that discussion, but Suzanne’s advice still holds true.

Flexibility Isn’t Just Skin Deep

When the conversation turned to imagining what flexible work could look like on the other side of the pandemic, I recall Suzanne saying:

Flexibility is more than just taking an afternoon off once in a while. Flexibility is how you treat employees in the long-term.

So true. The pandemic underscored what employers already knew (but may not have been willing to fully support at that time). But the fact remains, people want and deserve flexibility, even when the pandemic isn’t a concern.

With this in mind, what can employers do to build flexibility into their organization’s DNA? The challenge is to match the right conditions to choices that make sense for your workforce. Flexibility is both an informal and a formal state of work. And every organization is unique.

The possibilities are diverse: job sharing, split-shifts, permanent remote work, four-day work weeks, cross-functional talent mobility programs, project-based talent sharing, freelancing pools, part-time arrangements and more.

But the trick is to offer a mix of options that are relevant and meaningful for your people, while also supporting your organization’s values, culture and goals. If you’re serious about finding the best choices, you’ll involve your people in defining the options and being accountable for their success.

Clarifying the Rules

Flexibility deserves to be more than a random whim or a moving target. Employees and employers alike need to agree on guidelines. Indeed, your team’s ability to perform well in any combination of flexible roles demands a workable game plan.

Because employees see flexibility as the sign of a great work culture, it’s important to get their buy-in. Begin with a renewed reality check. Take the time now to ask employees and managers what kind of flexible options they believe would work best, going forward. (Anonymous surveys and feedback tools are terrific at helping you manage this process and interpret findings.)

Keep in mind that individual circumstances, career objectives and personal preferences change over time. What works for someone today may no longer fit in a year or two. People don’t want to be trapped in a work structure that no longer serves them. What will your process be for people who want to rethink their choices and modify their work model?

Here’s the clincher for employers. You need to demonstrate respect for people’s wishes. Respect and recognition are intimately connected with employee satisfaction, productivity and commitment.

That means leaders must be willing to do more than listen. It’s essential to take appropriate action in response to input. And it’s even more important to repeat this process, over and over again. When you demonstrate an ongoing commitment to building your flexible agenda around collaborative conversations, how can employees resist?

We’ll see what happens soon enough. The pandemic no longer has a grip on our every move, but the Great Resignation is still happening. No one knows for sure what will unfold next. But whatever challenges lie ahead, you can’t go wrong by staying in touch, staying open and staying flexible.

It could just be what convinces more of your people to stay.

Why Build Your Own Freelance Talent Network?

December 12, 2022/Editor's Picks, Featured, Hiring and Retention, HR Technology, Internal-First Hiring, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management, Talent Retention /by Joey Frasier

Sponsored by: Worksuite

The case for building a flexible talent network has never been more compelling. During the “Great Resignation” of 2021, 47 million U.S. employees voluntarily left their jobs. And in 2022, a wave of disengagement took hold among remaining workers, giving birth to the term “quiet quitting.” Now as 2023 begins, the global talent shortage continues to play havoc with hiring strategies.

Access to skilled people who can keep your business moving forward is no longer a sure thing. That’s why smart employers are investing in freelance talent options. But what’s the best way to find and manage a qualified pool of on-demand talent?

When building a contingent talent network, you may be tempted to source contractors from public marketplaces. This seems easy enough, but it can be a frustrating and time-consuming option. On the other hand, if you run an established business, you could grow your own talent pool by leveraging your brand presence, network connections and internal resources.

This do-it-yourself approach means you don’t need to rely on potentially low-quality, unknown talent from a third-party network. However, it does require some careful planning. So to help you achieve better results, here are our best tips for sourcing, hiring and retaining top freelance talent.

Why Avoid Public Talent Marketplaces?

Marketplaces like Fiverr and Upwork are often an easy and popular first stop for employers seeking on-demand talent. And they can be useful if you need support in a pinch. Whether you’re looking for developers, designers, writers, or photographers, these platforms let you choose from hundreds of eager freelancers — often at bargain prices.

But with so many potential candidates for every opportunity, finding a freelancer who meets your specific requirements can take longer than you’d like. And these marketplaces tend to produce hit-or-miss results. Here’s why:

1. Barriers to Entry are Low

It’s possible to find some fantastic people on these platforms. But sourcing them can be time consuming for your managers and teams. That’s because it’s so easy for anyone to join these public marketplaces. No experience or qualifications are necessary. All it takes is an account and a profile that attracts clients.

Literally anyone can promote their freelance services on these sites, whether they’re capable and qualified, or not. You never know exactly what you’re getting until you actually work with a contractor.

2. Faking Performance Rankings is Easy

You might think it’s a safe bet to hire a freelancer with hundreds of glowing five-star customer reviews. But don’t be fooled. Social proof can be easily bought.

Positive reviews are essential to get found and hired from among the hundreds of other marketplace hopefuls. So naturally, freelancers want to look as good as possible, as fast as possible. But accumulating strong legitimate reviews for freelance services takes a lot of time and effort.

Artificially enhancing your marketplace ranking is illegal. Nevertheless, this has spawned an underground network of people who buy, sell, and exchange reviews so they can get ahead.

These false ranking services aren’t visible on public freelancer marketplaces. But a Google search quickly reveals plenty of opportunities to buy or swap reviews in places like these:

Facebook groups like Fiverrboost, Fiverr Promotion, and Fiverr Review Exchange
Reddit
Online forums for money-making schemes such as Black Hat World

Some websites even blatantly offer to help freelancers falsify their marketplace rankings. Well-known options include ReviewXchange and Fiverr 5 Stars.

Bottom line: When hiring from public freelance marketplaces, “buyer beware” is a smart strategy. But if you can achieve better results in other ways, why take unnecessary chances and spend limited time and resources on public marketplaces?

Are Any Public Talent Marketplaces Credible?

If your only option is hiring from a third-party marketplace, we recommend considering a handful of “focused talent service platforms” (FTSPs). Freelancers accepted by these platforms have been rigorously screened to ensure they are qualified for positions they’re pursuing. This reduces your risk as a hiring organization and makes it easier for you to conduct a talent search with confidence.

Below are four viable FTSPs that offer fully vetted, high-quality talent:

MarketerHire — Provides access to qualified marketing specialists
IndieList — Offers carefully-screened freelancers, contractors, and consultants from Ireland
BetterUp — Connects businesses with expert coaches
Springboard — Provides access to fully trained, vetted professionals in cybersecurity, software engineering, design, data science and tech sales

Harnessing the Power of a DIY Talent Network

Generally, businesses recognize it’s cheaper and easier to retain existing customers rather than continuously hunting for new prospects. The same principle applies to talent acquisition. An internal talent pool offers multiple benefits:

1. Speed to Hire

Sourcing new talent often requires substantial time from your team. But by tapping into an existing talent pool, the process can be as fast as running an advanced search in your freelancer management system database to find the best fit among available people.

A good platform can provide granular details about anyone in your talent pool. For example, you should quickly be able to find someone in your extended organization who has demonstrated the skills you need on another project. You may also see a note or ranking about this person’s contributions, so with only a few clicks you can determine the strength of the individual’s qualifications.

2. No Training Downtime

Your existing talent is already familiar with your organization, its operations, and its work practices. This means you don’t need to spend extra time continually onboarding and training new people.

3. Leverage Talent Across Your Business

By extending access to existing talent across your organization, you can improve cross-functional business performance and reduce overall hiring spend.

4. Grow Your Internal Talent Pool

Freelancers don’t exist in a vacuum. They all are connected with other skilled people. You can expand your internal talent pool by tapping into these networks. It’s as easy as sending emails requesting referrals.

Experienced freelancers won’t refer you to people they don’t trust because they know it could damage their own reputation. But many will happily refer viable colleagues.

You may decide to incentivize referrals – or not. Either way, existing contractors can be a highly effective and efficient source of network growth.

For example, with an internal talent network platform like Worksuite, you can use the Marketplace module to post and share opportunities for upcoming work. You can also vet new candidates, assign work opportunities to individuals, and invite them to submit RFI-style proposals for upcoming projects. In addition, you can maximize your reach by sharing new opportunities with both internal and external sources.

Where to Look for Contingent Talent

Freelance marketplaces and job boards aren’t the only way to find great contingent talent. Consider these alternatives:

Social Media — Outreach on platforms like Twitter and Facebook can attract candidates from members of your global brand community.
LinkedIn — You can search and contact freelancers directly or spread the word more broadly with posts on your LinkedIn company page or in specialized groups.
Referral Campaigns — Offering “finders fees” for referrals from employees and contractors can generate significant interest.
Alumni Talent Pools — Adding former employees and contractors to your database of on-demand resources is an easy way to maintain ties with qualified people.
Networking at Industry Events — Gathering profile data from participants at key professional conferences and other events can help you easily develop an extensive pipeline over time.

Developing Talent Network Trust and Loyalty

Sourcing is vital when building a high-quality freelance talent network. But that’s only the beginning. It’s also vital to keep people onboard and engaged with your organization.

Freelancers (especially in the Gen Z age bracket) know many opportunities are always available online. All it might take to land the next assignment is a single email or application. To keep potential candidates connected with your company, you’ll want to develop trusted relationships with valued contractors.

For example, these tactics are often effective:

Assign a steady, interesting flow of work opportunities
Communicate regularly and directly with active members
Gather ongoing feedback with periodic surveys
Offer new assignments that expand on relevant skill sets
Provide loyalty incentives
Host annual awards to recognize excellent performers
Increase pay rates to ensure top members are appropriately compensated

Worksuite: A Talent Network Solution

If you want to develop and manage your own talent pool, a specialized solution like Worksuite can make the process much easier. This platform includes essential features and metrics employers need to build and maintain a compliance administration and quickly identify top candidates whenever contractors are needed. Here’s how customers use Worksuite to support freelance talent strategies:

1. Customize Onboarding Workflows

Worksuite partners with you to create an onboarding process that meets your exact needs. This includes capturing all the contracts, documents, tax information, and banking details needed before new freelancers are assigned to any project.

2. Add and Invite Freelancers to the Platform

Use sourcing and onboarding tools to reach out to prospective talent, and add qualified individuals to your detailed, searchable internal talent pool hub.

3. Ensure Contractor Compliance

Before assigning work to a freelancer, you must ensure they’ve received proper background checks and are compliant. This prevents costly legal problems down the road, especially when hiring global talent.

With Worksuite, background checks are managed through our partner, Checkr. This saves time for you as a hiring company while giving you peace of mind that every contractor you hire is legitimate. Worksuite also coordinates compliance administration. So, whether you’re working with 10 freelancers or 10,000, you know all NDAs, contracts and tax documents are in place to meet local and international regulatory requirements.

4. Publish a Searchable Talent Directory

Posting profiles of everyone in your talent pool gives your team a highly accessible overview of every contractor in your database. You can dive in deeper to see more details for any individual. Also, freelancers can access and edit their own profiles to be sure their information is always up to date.

5. Assign Groups, Tags and Rankings

In addition to using the platform’s overview capabilities, you can easily organize freelancers in your dashboard. This gives HR and hiring managers full transparency into a member’s work history, background information, experience, skills, and abilities.

You can also segment members into custom groups that make sense for your business, so you can easily search and select ideal candidates for any assignment at a granular level.

6. Rank, Rate, and Review Freelancers

Talent rankings, ratings, reviews, and internal notes help your hiring team easily find any freelancer’s performance record at a glance. This helps you quickly decide who should be assigned to an opportunity (and who would not be an ideal candidate).

7. Track Key Metrics

With Worksuite, you can set up metrics that reflect the quality and quality of deliverables your contractors produce. Here are some examples of metrics that help customers identify attractive candidates:

Highest-rated members
Most engaged members
Talent active on multiple assignments (vs. only one assignment)
Percentage of assignments canceled prior to the start date
Percentage of assignments rejected by members
Average number of assignments per member
Individuals who have not been assigned to any projects within the last 12 months

8. Communicate Regularly With Network Members

You can manage all communication with network members directly from the Worksuite platform. Also, you can send personalized bulk messages using your organization’s filters. This helps freelancers stay engaged with your business, and keeps them up-to-date with your news and job opportunities.

9. Archive Talent Records

With Worksuite’s archive feature, you can remove access to the platform for freelancers who haven’t worked with you in more than 12 months. This helps keep your talent database current, so you know who’s still interested and available to work with your organization.

EDITOR’S NOTE:
To learn more about how Worksuite tools and services can help you start or grow a high-quality freelance talent network, contact Worksuite directly.

7 Employee Appreciation Ideas People Love

November 15, 2022/Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Recognition, Leadership, Talent Retention, Winner: Impact Award for Content Excellence /by Patrick Sipp

Employee appreciation is naturally top-of-mind for employers during the holiday season. But employees actually prefer recognition throughout the year. In fact, according to a HubSpot survey, 39% of employees don’t feel appreciated, and nearly 7 in 10 think better recognition would boost their performance.

So, what can you do to help your workforce feel more deeply appreciated?

Some organizations rely on standard, old-school methods like plaques. But a more personalized approach is far more effective. A thoughtful token of appreciation is worth much more than its monetary value, alone. It tells people they matter. And that kind of message lasts long after it is received.

Here are some meaningful ways to show your team members just how grateful you are for their contributions.

7 Ways to Elevate Employee Appreciation

1. Give Hard Workers a Break

When you recognize employees for an extraordinary effort on a project or success in achieving an important business goal, don’t just say thank you. Reward them with some well-deserved time off.

In going above and beyond, employees often put in extra hours working on weekends, at night, or in the wee hours of the morning. Along the way, they’re likely to lose precious sleep or family time. By letting them redeem some of that time you can help them relax and recharge after an intense work effort. Even one day away can make an impact.

Providing time off is easy. And if you toss in a bonus gift card or cash for these employees to spend on activities they enjoy, that break is likely to be especially memorable.

2. Spotlight Your Stars on Social Media

Want people on your team to feel like stars? Showcase top performers on social media for the world to see. Share photos or video clips of them on your organization’s accounts and express your gratitude for their unique contributions in an uplifting caption.

Invite your leaders and others to congratulate featured individuals in the comment section. Your “stars” will love the attention as it spreads across social media for others to see. These interactions also increase visibility for your business in all the right ways.

This kind of public recognition is personalized, community-minded, and compelling. Above all, it can boost an employee’s pride, confidence, and morale in ways that private recognition can’t touch.

3. Create Customized Rewards

Are you thinking of giving top performers a framed certificate, a trophy, or maybe a cash reward? Instead, why not appeal to their particular interests? How do they spend their free time? What hobbies or passion projects matter most to them?

For example, do you have fitness freaks on your team? Reward them with a gym membership, a network pass, or a subsidy.

Maybe some of your people are into group activities. Why not share experiential rewards with them? For instance, you could arrange an outing at a local bowling, bocce, or Topgolf venue.

Or for those who love outdoor adventures like hiking, fly fishing, or river rafting, you could go all out and book a fun vacation package like this: White Water Rafting Montana.

Imagine how thrilled people will be with rewards that fit their interests. Whatever your budget, this is a highly effective way to keep employees motivated and reinforce your relationship with them.

4. Treat Your Team to a Tasty Meal

Everyone loves to eat. And there are endless ways to show employee appreciation with the gift of free food. You could send each employee a gift card to their favorite restaurant. Or to celebrate as a team, why not organize a surprise lunch out?

If your people work remotely, you can arrange to have a meal delivered to everyone’s door at the same time on the same day. Contact a restaurant each employee loves and order their favorite menu item. Or send a gift card to everyone in advance. This is an easy, cost-effective way to bring people together for a casual meetup. And don’t forget to send a heartfelt thank you note to each recipient, as icing on the cake.

5. Celebrate Everyday Efforts

To build and sustain a thriving workforce, look for ways to celebrate individuals and teams on a frequent basis. Ask for your workforce to be your eyes and ears to nominate people who deserve recognition for everyday accomplishments, little wins, and hard work, as well as big achievements. And encourage everyone in your organization to celebrate others, as well.

Genuine, ongoing praise is a powerful employee feedback tactic that drives engagement and job satisfaction. It also models the kind of spirit you want to see at the core of your culture.

Also, don’t forget opportunities to celebrate birthdays and other personal milestones. Let your employees know these aren’t just “checklist” items, but heartfelt gestures. You’ll see them smiling more often and sharing appreciation with peers.

6. Highlight Employee Excellence in Internal Newsletters

Internal newsletters and intranets are great for informational updates, but they’re just as powerful for employee appreciation. It pays to think creatively about how you can acknowledge your best performers through these channels.

You could dedicate a regular column in one of these vehicles to highlight stories about the hard work and accomplishments of top performers. These stories are an excellent way to boost morale and inspire top talent to remain engaged and keep aiming high.

7. Make The Most of Anniversaries

Some organizations treat anniversaries as just another day. But wouldn’t it be great to work for a company that celebrates every year of your employment as an important milestone?

The average employee turnover rate remains 20% higher than pre-pandemic levels. In this tough talent market, why would any employer let an anniversary go to waste?

Each year matters in the life of an employee. Whether they’re new to your organization or they’ve been on board for a long time, every member of your team deserves a celebration dedicated to their service. This kind of recognition can take many forms. But whatever you do, be sure to sincerely acknowledge people for their loyalty and their role in helping your organization advance its mission.

Final Thoughts

Great companies embrace employee appreciation as a crucial way to boost motivation, minimize turnover, and set their organization apart from competitors. Appreciating employees doesn’t need to be difficult, but it should be timely, sincere, and relevant.

Even if your budget is limited, there are endless ways to acknowledge people while reinforcing your organization’s goals, values, and culture. Why not think outside the box and show your appreciation in a truly unique way? All it takes is your commitment, consistency, and some thoughtful planning.

What caregiving benefits do modern employers provide? 6 business leaders share their answers

Which Caregiving Benefits Do Modern Employers Provide?

November 14, 2022/Company Culture, Elder Caregiving, Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, Talent Retention /by Brett Farmiloe

What benefits are top-of-mind for organizations that want to attract and retain great talent in today’s challenging talent market? Many are finding it pays to step outside the standard benefits box with creative options that meet diverse employee needs. For example, caregiving benefits are gaining strong momentum.

To learn more about this, we asked business and HR leaders to describe one caregiving option they believe is essential in supporting employees as they move through various life stages — from family planning and fertility to childcare and eldercare. Their recommendations cover a spectrum of solutions:

Childcare Benefits
Tuition Assistance
Sabbatical Leave
Unlimited PTO
Nutritional Support
Family Medical Leave

To learn more about why these options are so helpful, read the responses below…

6 Caregiving Benefits for the Modern Workforce

1. Childcare Support

One “do-everything” benefit can’t cover all the complexities involved with each stage in life. To ensure higher utilization and satisfaction, focus on stages with the most impact on employees and find the best option for each stage.

Certainly, fertility and family planning are good benefits to consider. However, childcare has the biggest impact on employee retention and productivity.

Childcare costs are soaring. In fact, in most states, the average annual cost of childcare is more expensive than college. This expense means many working couples are considering whether they can even afford to have kids, or if one parent must resign from work to care for their children at home.

Childcare also has a direct impact on employee attendance. On average, parents who must respond to childcare needs miss 9-14 days of work each year. And more than 65% leave work early or arrive late because they lack access to care. This is nearly 3x more productivity lost than from employees who are managing healthcare issues.

Kevin Ehlinger, VP Product Marketing, TOOTRiS

2. Tuition Assistance

Higher education and vocational training open up a wide range of opportunities for employees. They equip workers with the skills and knowledge to pursue additional career options and improve job mobility.

Tuition assistance makes education more accessible, empowering workers and their families to plan for their future. Offering tuition assistance as a benefit helps attract high-quality candidates and helps them hone their skills while helping employers retain top talent. In addition, government education assistance programs in the U.S. let employers deduct sizable reimbursements for employee tuition contributions.

Ben Travis, Founder, HR Chief

3. Sabbatical Leave

Although sabbatical leave was traditionally offered only in academic settings, it has started to gain strong traction over the past few years in the private sector, in response to a rise in employee burnout and the Great Resignation.

Private employers are looking for generous perks to attract new employees, keep them engaged, and help them maintain a healthy work-life balance. Sabbatical leave is the perfect benefit to check those boxes.

In short, sabbatical leave is the option to step away from work for an extended period (usually 6 to 12 months) for any purpose whatsoever. This is a perfect way to accommodate employees at every stage in the employee lifecycle, from cradle to grave.

Individuals can take a sabbatical to de-stress and get pregnant, care for a new child, fight an illness, spend time with a dying loved one, or just travel the world. It is a flexible, practical benefit that allows for a range of uses. Whether paid, partially paid, or totally unpaid, any employee will appreciate the flexibility that sabbatical leave offers.

John Ross, CEO, Test Prep Insight

4. Unlimited PTO

As a business, we are committed to helping our employees maintain a work-life balance. We’re also committed to creating an environment that supports our employees’ personal goals and lets them prioritize their families. One way we do this is through a generous personal time off (PTO) policy.

We offer unlimited vacation time as well as unlimited sick time. We encourage employees to take time off for both personal and family goals, as well as when they need to care for ailing family members.

In addition, we provide resources for employees so they can continue working from home and/or work on a flexible schedule while they are taking time away.

Luciano Colos, CEO, PitchGrade

5. Nutritional Support

One aspect of healthcare that spans the entire lifecycle is nutrition. So one benefit worth considering is coverage for prescribed nutritional supplements — not just prescription drugs. Other ways to support nutritional needs during different life stages is by providing access to educational information and expert talks about nutrition.

Optimum nutrition at each phase in the lifecycle promotes more robust immune systems and higher energy levels. That means it helps keep your workforce and their families healthier. So ultimately, these benefits ensure better performance at work and fewer illness-related absences.

Ruth Novales, Marketing Director, Fortis Medical Billing Professionals

6. Family Medical Leave

Family medical leave is one benefit every employer should consider to help employees address the full lifecycle, from fertility to family planning to elder care.

Family medical leave helps protect an employee’s job for up to 12 weeks if they become ill or they need to care for a family member. A supervisor cannot fire an employee when they rely on this benefit for a legitimate reason, so it can provide a helpful safety net if the need arises.

Lindsey Hight, HR Professional, Sporting Smiles

EDITOR’S NOTE: These caregiving benefits ideas were submitted via Terkel. Terkel is a knowledge platform that shares community-driven content based on expert insights. To see questions and get published, sign up at terkel.io.

What should employers consider about ethical AI in talent decisions? Learn the latest in this #WorkTrends podcast episode

Transforming Talent Decisions With Ethical AI

November 11, 2022/HR Technology, Podcast Recap, Podcast Recaps, Skills Development, Talent Acquisition, Talent Analytics, Talent Retention /by Meghan M. Biro

Sponsored by Reejig

Countless HR tools, applications, and platforms now rely on artificial intelligence in some form. Users may not even notice that AI is operating in the background — but it can fundamentally change the way we work, think, and make talent decisions.

This raises several big questions. What should we really expect from AI? And is this kind of innovation moving us in the right direction?

For example, what role should AI play in skills-related talent acquisition and workforce mobility practices? With stellar talent in short supply these days, this topic has never been more important for employers to consider. So join me as I look closer at key issues surrounding ethical AI in HR tech on this #WorkTrends podcast episode.

Meet Our Guest: Jonathan Reyes

Today, I’m excited to talk with Jonathan Reyes, a talent advisor and futurist who has been helping technology and banking industry companies navigate hypergrowth for nearly two decades. Now, as VP of North America for Reejig, he’s on a mission to build a world with zero wasted human potential.

Defining “Zero Waste” in Humans

Jonathan, I love the phrase “zero wasted potential.” What exactly does Reejig mean by this?

We envision a world where every person has access to meaningful work — no matter their background or circumstance. In this world, employers can tap into the right skills for the right roles, whenever needed. And at the same time, society can reap the benefits of access to diverse ideas through fair and equitable work opportunity.

The concept of sustainability is emerging in every industry. Now, sustainable human capital is becoming part of that conversation, and this is our way of expressing it.

So, with zero wasted potential, decisions aren’t based on a zero-sum game. When employers make human capital choices, individuals or society shouldn’t suffer. Instead, by focusing on talent mobility through upskilling and reskilling, we can create a new currency of work.

Workforce Intelligence Makes a Difference

Why do you feel workforce intelligence is essential for employers as they make talent decisions?

Organizations have so much human capital data. With all the workforce intelligence available, there’s no reason to hire and fire talent en masse — and then rehire many of the same individuals just months later.

Obviously, that’s an emotional and human experience for employees. But also, organizations are spending unnecessary money to find people and let them go, only to invest again in rehiring them.

Focusing instead on internal mobility is far more cost-effective.

Where Ethical AI Fits In

Many companies are unsure about AI in talent acquisition and management. What’s your take on this?

There are no universally accepted standards for ethical AI. This means vendors across industries can say technology is “ethical” based on self-assessment, without input from legal, ethical, or global experts.

But we’ve developed the world’s first independently audited, ethical talent AI. In fact, the World Economic Forum has recognized us for setting a benchmark in ethical AI.

The Impact on Internal Mobility

How do businesses benefit from shifting to a zero-wasted potential talent strategy?

When companies manage internal mobility well, they extend employee tenure by 2x. And we know that people who stay and continue growing and developing are much more engaged.

This can create a significant downstream benefit. It’s one of the biggest reasons to invest in this kind of talent management capability.

For more great advice from Jonathan about why and how organizations are leveraging AI to make better talent decisions, listen to this full episode. Also, be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. And to continue this conversation on social media, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

How can we help women leaders move up, not out? #WorkTrends podcast with host Meghan M. Biro and guest expert, Todd Michem

What Helps Women Leaders Move Up, Not Out?

November 4, 2022/Career Development, Company Culture, DEI Diversity Equity Inclusion, Leadership, Podcast, Podcast Recap, Podcast Recaps, Talent Retention /by Meghan M. Biro

Currently, women account for nearly 48% of the global workforce. This seems like progress for gender equality and inclusion, right? But the picture isn’t as rosy as you might think—especially for women leaders.

In fact, recent research reveals that as women move up the management ranks, they’re actually less likely to be promoted to each successive rung on the corporate ladder. No wonder women executives are quitting their jobs at a record pace!

What will it take to remove these obstacles so more women can reach top management positions?

With stellar talent in short supply these days, this topic has never been more important for employers to address. So I invite you to dig deeper with me on this #WorkTrends podcast episode.

Meet Our Guest: Todd Mitchem

Today, I’m speaking with author, consultant, and leadership development expert, Todd Mitchem, EVP at AMP Learning and Development. Todd is a future-of-work visionary who helps individuals understand and embrace the process of professional disruption and reinvention. And today we’re tapping into his expertise on key trends involving women leaders.

Work, Women, and Power

Welcome, Todd! Tell us, how can women leaders step into their power?

I teach presentation, communication, and executive presence skills for employees, often at large companies like Microsoft. And I would say about 98% of the participants are women.

Often, when I tell these women to step into their own their power, they’ll ask, “Well, how do I do that? I don’t want to seem too aggressive, or too bossy, or…”

My response is, “When you are in a room presenting, you’re there because someone believed you deserved to be there. You just need to own that. You need to step into that power.”

And the next piece is to lean on what you know, lean on what you’re good at, and step into that strength.

Executive Presence is a Skill

How are women leaders applying these lessons to engage their power?

Well, executive presence is a skill. People aren’t born an executive leader. It’s a skill.

So, if you teach them this skill, it’s amazing to watch what emerges from the process. Because it frees them to bring out all the things they’ve worked so hard to achieve.

It’s powerful. But it’s skill-based. Once you learn the skill, your intelligence, your wisdom, your knowledge all emerge, almost naturally.

Women Can Lead With Their Strengths

You say women leaders need to realize they deserve to be in the position they’re in and should claim it. But what do you really mean by this?

I think society tends to make women think they’re supposed to act like their male counterparts who are successful but may be aggressive or overly dominating.

But in truth, if women just lead with their knowledge, instead of trying to outmatch the egos of their male colleagues, they’ll find they’re in a better place. That’s because they have much more confidence.

How Men Can Help

Todd, you’ve helped thousands of women claim their power and step into their roles more fully. As a man, how can you do this?

It’s not as if the corporate world is now magically wonderful for women. It isn’t. That’s an illusion. But women are evolving at an incredible pace, and men need to help step that up.

As women step into their power, men need to step up and check our egos at the door.

Resistance, or fear, or an unconscious belief structure will destroy you. The ego’s fight to win is about wanting to be right, instead of getting it right.

But the best thing to do for the future of work is to embrace the power we have as a unified group—men and women working together.

For more great advice from Todd, listen to this full episode. Also, be sure to subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. And to continue this conversation on social media, follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Childcare Benefits: A Reckoning for Working Families

October 25, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, Remote Work, Talent Retention /by Jessica Chang

It’s not a stretch to say COVID changed everything—including the way working families think about childcare benefits. Before the pandemic, parents struggled with childcare challenges, of course. But the day-to-day realities grew much worse when the pandemic struck.

After the initial shock of schools and childcare centers shutting down, families were left to figure out how to work from home while parenting. Instead of being at school or daycare, children spent the day side-by-side with their parents. In fact, from February 2020-February 2021, the lack of childcare pushed 2.3 million women out of the labor force. And a very long time passed before these women could return to work (if they have returned at all).

While people in some jobs continued to work on-site throughout the pandemic, many workers had to adapt to the new remote work world. This is where many employees still find themselves today, either working remotely or in some form of hybrid schedule—splitting time between home and office.

Today, childcare conditions have improved slightly, but still are far from ideal. Fortunately for some working families, employers are sponsoring more childcare benefits for those who need this kind of support.

Remote and Hybrid Employees Still Need Childcare Assistance

The benefits of remote work are well documented. However, one drawback is often overlooked. I’m talking about the misconception that people don’t need childcare assistance when they’re working remotely. This notion became prevalent early in the pandemic, and unfortunately, employers still haven’t moved on from this line of thinking.

Picture a typical working mother in a remote or hybrid management role.

Compared to her in-office peers, she doesn’t have fewer deadlines, less ambitious KPIs, or a smaller staff to manage. Nor does she have extra hands to hold her baby while attending Zoom meetings or responding to email messages. There are no extra hours in the day when she can feed or play with a toddler.

The workday is still the workday—even when people perform those tasks at home, surrounded by family distractions and obligations, rather than in an office cubicle.

Families With School-Aged Kids Face Unique Challenges

Contrary to what some believe, childcare needs do not stop once kids start kindergarten. I’m a mother, myself, so take it from me! Parents of 5-year-olds are still in the thick of their childcare journey.

Historically, preschool programs (as well as before-school and after-school care) served as a safety net to support a large, productive workforce. But COVID, chronic underfunding, and budget cuts have left these programs with limited capacity, fewer teachers, and reduced hours. The safety net is frayed, at best.

And now, working parents have the added burden of anxiety about COVID risks.

Previously, when children were mildly ill, they still attended school. These days, we know better. Emergency and backup care are must-haves for working parents who are unable to stay home with a sick child.

Even when parents take precautions, they still face the risk of a COVID outbreak at school that can suddenly change the course of a day, a week, or a month—depending on mandated quarantine periods. This is a lot for working families to handle, which is why employee childcare benefits matter so much.

Throughout the pandemic, working parents have been balancing the risks of depriving their children of social interaction or exposing them to a potentially deadly disease. Some families decide to choose individual or small-group professional care, such as a nanny or nanny-sharing arrangement. But this increases overall childcare costs and isn’t affordable enough for some.

The Trouble With Workplace Childcare Centers

Some employers have tried to help working families fill this gap by investing in on-site childcare centers. While an admirable idea and a substantial financial commitment, these large centers fall short for many employees.

These facilities no longer meet many childcare needs, and simply do not work for remote and hybrid workers. For example, how many working parents would want to commute to headquarters for their kids when they may otherwise be working from home? Working families prefer caregivers who are located close to home—which should be good news for employers who don’t want to dedicate massive budgets to build and maintain large childcare centers.

Childcare Benefits Are Key to Employee Retention

No matter which childcare option families choose, it comes at a price. And it’s hard for people to keep in perspective just how unaffordable it has become.

The national average childcare cost has risen to more than $10,000 per year, per child. That’s incredibly steep. How many working families do you know with two or three kids who also have an extra $20,000-$30,000 lying around?

The increasing cost of childcare forces parents (and mothers, in particular) to make a very difficult choice: Stay employed or quit to care full-time for their children. This has pushed record numbers of women out of the workforce.

The reality facing families is stark and alarming:

Childcare costs increased more than 40% during the pandemic — and continue to rise.
The Inflation Reduction Act became law without draft provisions to expand childcare access.
66% of parents made job sacrifices last summer that compromised their household income or job security due to a lack of childcare.
48% of U.S. workers who left a job in 2021 cited childcare issues.

Current and prospective employees value family care benefits more than ever. This means employer-sponsored childcare benefits should play a key role in retention and recruitment strategies.

Final Thoughts

COVID drastically changed employment and childcare. The status quo is no longer sufficient, for both employees and employers. Forward-thinking business and HR leaders are rising to the challenge and supporting working families with employee childcare benefits that make a significant difference in people’s lives. This is a step in the right direction.

Employee Caregivers Are Quitting How Employers Can Help?

Employee Caregivers Are Quitting. Here’s How to Keep Them

October 24, 2022/Elder Caregiving, Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Health and Wellness, Healthcare and Benefits, Talent Retention, Workplace Empathy /by Dan Kraft

These days, we’re flooded with headlines about The Great Resignation, The Big Quit, and The Great Reshuffle. It’s not surprising. The desire for career advancement and better work/life balance are powerful reasons why people are resigning in record numbers. But these aren’t the only motives. Actually, a growing number of people are quitting so they can take care of loved ones. If your organization can’t afford to lose these employee caregivers, this advice can help you keep them on board.

Factors Driving This Trend

We’re seeing more employee caregivers, partially because the pandemic put older people at risk and disrupted existing family care arrangements. But also, it is the result of broader population shifts and the rising cost of long-term care. Let’s look at how this could play out over the next 15-20 years…

1) Our Population is Changing

Historically, if you mapped our population by age, the chart would look like a pyramid. In the past, many more young people were at the base. As they became adults, they helped support a smaller number of older people at the top. Today, that pyramid is inverted, with a larger elderly population and an increasingly smaller base of young people at the bottom who struggle to support the elderly. This is happening because:

Boomers are aging
Younger generations are producing fewer children
Medical advances are extending life expectancies

This inverted pyramid means that by 2040, the elderly will depend more heavily on the working population than those under 18. Put differently, in less than 20 years, more of your employee caregivers will be supporting elderly loved ones, rather than their own children. Or potentially, they could be caring for both at the same time.

That’s already the case for many employee caregivers. In fact, more than half of middle-aged Americans are currently “sandwiched” between generations.

2) Caregiving Costs Are Rising

Because care is expensive to provide, not everyone will be able to hire professionals to look after aging family members. Instead, they’ll need to provide care themselves at home. According to a recent AARP survey, there are 48 million unpaid caregivers in the U.S. and 80% of these caregivers are providing care to an adult family member or friend.

This means organizations will increasingly have employees who are juggling job performance with the burden of being a caregiver—along with all the time, energy, and emotional commitment that caregiving requires. While they may manage caregiving by missing time at work, it could also be as serious as leaving the workforce altogether.

For example, consider these statistics:

51% of employee caregivers say their family duties “negatively affect” their ability to satisfy work requirements
32% of employee caregivers have left their job to perform these family duties
53% of caregivers who resign say the cost of paid help is a key factor
40% leave because they can’t meet the demands of both caregiving and work

How to Support Employee Caregivers

What are forward-thinking HR leaders doing to help employee caregivers? Our recent conversations focus on three key action areas:

1) Provide Financial Solutions

One of the most important ways to support employees is by helping them plan for their own long-term care. While younger employees may not see the need, education and planning now will offer them more care options in the future if they’re injured or become ill.

When you create financial programming, be sure it includes discussions about the role of:

Medicare and Medicaid – Some people see government programs such as care options. However, they typically don’t cover long-term care (Medicare) and access involves significant drawbacks and limitations (Medicaid).
Retirement savings/401k – Similarly, using 401(k) and retirement savings to pay for care is possible, but this also comes with drawbacks. These investments are best reserved for funding life expenses during retirement and are not recommended for use during working years.
Standalone long-term care insurance – This coverage may be offered at work or purchased through an independent insurance provider. It can be a viable solution that can help cover some costs of long-term care.
Hybrid life insurance with long-term care benefits – This lets people purchase life insurance coverage that includes the ability to advance part of a death benefit for care needs. Many products on the market focus care benefits on professional care such as a nursing home or home health aide, but new products in this category cover family caregiving, as well.

2) Promote Your Employee Assistance Programs

Another way to support your workforce is through an employee assistance program (EAP). The right program can help employees navigate the challenges they face as caregivers. Whether it’s offering care planning tools and strategies or access to tools to help people manage complex aspects of care, be sure to consider a wide range of resources. For instance, you could include:

Care planning services
Care needs assessments
Help in finding and evaluating care
Life insurance claims support
Long-term care claims support
Home care placement assistance
Legal support for wills, trusts, and power of attorney documents
In-home loneliness solutions
Home modification services
Relocation support

Finally, it’s important to share details about your EAP program, and re-communicate the program’s features and benefits on a regular basis. Pairing this with enrollment or re-enrollment of your financial support solutions is a great way to protect your employees.

3) Pay Attention to Caregiving Legislation

Many state governments are taking notice of the need for care—the growing number of people who need a solution, the lack of affordable care, and the expected future drain on state Medicaid funds. A growing number of states are enacting legislation to address these care issues.

For example, in 2021, Washington became the first state to pass this kind of legislation. The Washington Cares Act provides long-term care financial support for state residents. The program is funded by a payroll tax. Employees with qualifying long-term care coverage could opt out of the program (and the associated tax).

Although this legislation may provide a rough blueprint, each state’s approach is likely to be different. To prepare their organizations and their employees for the future, employers should begin tracking legislative activity.

Start Planning

It’s hard to know precisely what’s in store for employers as more Boomers leave the workplace and younger employees step in to care for aging loved ones. But thus far, it’s clear that employee caregivers will need support and solutions as they navigate an increasingly challenging eldercare crisis.

HR leaders can be an essential part of the solution, but it’s important to start planning now. Workplace programs and policies need to evolve, with active involvement from employers and their employees. Start by educating your workforce about the need to plan for long-term care–whether caring for an elderly parent or planning ahead to manage their own care should they need it. Working together with employees to address their needs will help them understand your commitment to them, and encourage them to stay.

Internal Mobility Programs: The Key to Retention?

September 27, 2022/Employee Experience, Talent Management, Talent Retention /by Kyle Elliott

In response to the Great Resignation, employers everywhere are reevaluating their talent strategies. As part of this process, they’re seeking cost-effective ways to retain employees who are craving growth opportunities in today’s uncertain economy. That is why internal mobility programs are gaining momentum.

This article looks at why internal mobility is a smart talent strategy. Through the experience of several HR professionals who have launched and led internal mobility programs, we focus on how to develop a successful initiative while avoiding mistakes along the way.

The Benefits of Internal Talent Mobility

Why prioritize mobility—especially during a recession, when budget and resources are often more limited? There are multiple reasons. For example, these programs can help you:

1) Demonstrate Commitment to Your Workforce

Ginny Clarke is the Founder and CEO of Ginny Clarke, LLC. She previously worked at Google as Director of Leadership Internal Mobility. Clarke says internal mobility programs are a highly effective way to show you care and are invested in developing your organization’s top talent.

“This directly correlates with the level of employee engagement and willingness to stay and perform well,” Clarke notes. “It is also a way to give people valuable tools they can take wherever they go.” As a result, this kind of effort can build your brand, even after employees leave the company.

2) Upskill With the Future in Mind

LaRae James, Director of Human Resources for the City of Pearland, Texas, says that as roles evolve, organizations must upskill employees so they’re prepared for future opportunities. This is particularly important in a strong labor market. As LaRae notes, “Finding good talent is a challenge, so retention is vital for a sustainable workforce.”

She adds, “Developing employees results in a higher-performing organization and builds bench strength for internal mobility and succession planning.” In other words, your organization can never be too prepared for economic uncertainty.

3) Support Your Retention Goals

Angela-Cheng-Cimini, Senior Vice President of Talent and Chief Human Resources Officer at Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), emphasizes that “Career mobility is no longer in a black box. It is based on known expectations.” This kind of clarity means employees and managers can more confidently identify growth opportunities and work together toward the future.

City of Pearland’s James agrees. She says many organizations are creative about how they attract candidates, yet they don’t put the same kind of effort into retaining existing employees. This is why she recommends considering what the employee experience would look like if your organization approached its overall people strategy more creatively.

Building an Internal Mobility Program

To develop a recession-proof talent strategy, James says it is important to understand what motivates people to stay on board. Direct feedback tools help.

For example, her organization recently learned that when employees want to advance their careers, they tend to think of leaving, rather than exploring internal mobility options. The team used this insight to implement a series of events that help employees learn about various roles across the organization. They also provided career development and interview preparation courses.

Other organizations also use employee feedback to inform mobility program development. For example, HBP recently launched a robust career pathing framework. This is a response to exit interviews that revealed a lack of career advancement was the most common reason employees sought outside opportunities. HPB’s frameworks are designed to establish universal criteria for movement across the organization. “The system is grounded in core, leadership, and technical competencies,” Cheng-Cimini says.

Today, HPB offers more than 20 ladders. This provides full visibility into the skills employees need for success. It also lets them design their own paths based on their interests and strengths. As a result, “employees can now see beyond the role they currently occupy. Also, with their manager, they can plan for the experiences and skills they want to build.”

But what if your organization is just starting to build a program? Clarke thinks it’s wise to start small, even with only one business unit or with your most senior employees. She recommends focusing first on helping participants assess their capabilities and competencies. Then help them build a narrative that transcends past roles and responsibilities. She suggests that some of these steps can be scaled through online instruction, rather than relying solely on one-on-one coaching.

Internal Mobility Mistakes to Avoid

What missteps should you avoid when building and managing an internal mobility program?

1) Don’t give employees false hope

When sharing open roles, it is important not to misrepresent these opportunities. Clarke cautions, “There are no guarantees participants will get roles they are considered for.” Be intentional and transparent in how you market the program. For example, be sure to make employees aware that external candidates are also likely to be considered for opportunities. This context can help soften the disappointment employees feel if they are bypassed for desired assignments.

2) Avoid playing favorites

Internal mobility shouldn’t be a popularity contest. Clarke says it’s particularly important not to favor any particular type of person. Instead, she recommends a three-point strategy:

Take time to review those identified as ‘top talent’ to ensure broad representation.
Triangulate these recommendations with performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, and other endorsements.
Incentivize leaders to perform thoughtful talent reviews so you can identify top talent continuously and confidently.

3) Let go of seriously weak links

Don’t keep talent for the sake of ease. Clarke advises employers to proactively question the rationale for retaining some people. “If they are toxic or otherwise don’t represent company values, don’t fall into the trap of wanting to retain their intellectual capital, domain expertise, or a brand name at the expense of poor morale with the rest of their team.”

4) Don’t bite off more than you can chew

On a final note, you may be tempted to overthink this challenge. Although it makes sense to tailor mobility to your organization’s talent strategy, infrastructure, and employee needs, getting started is key. If necessary, focus first on small, achievable steps. Then build on those early wins.

How to Up Your Onboarding and Retention Game

September 23, 2022/Employee Retention, Hiring, Hiring and Retention, HR Strategy, Podcast, Podcast Recap, Talent Acquisition, Talent Retention /by Meghan M. Biro

How do you up your employee onboarding and retention game amid (yes, it is true) The Great Resignation? The onboarding process often goes overlooked until it’s too late. But with a strong process in place, you can set up new hires for success from day one.

In fact, Glassdoor research says organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by as much as 82% and productivity by 70%. Those are big numbers. And in today’s tight talent market, they make onboarding hard to ignore.

So, how can employers make sure onboarding efforts are up to snuff?

Our Guest: Laura Lee Gentry

On this latest episode of the #WorkTrends podcast, I speak with Laura Lee Gentry, Chief People Officer at Enboarder. At Enboarder, Laura Lee is responsible for talent acquisition and onboarding, total rewards, talent management, leadership development, internal communications, and employer branding.

Let’s talk about onboarding and retention. Why is it so challenging these days? And why does there seem to be a disconnect between candidate experience and employee experience, Laura Lee?

“It’s about communication and perception. The things that aren’t said can lead to a disconnect between expectations and the reality of a new job. Being less than explicit can create the wrong interpretations. Hiring managers and recruiters need to be transparent about the company and the opportunity. They also need to be super clear that business needs might call for a pivot to avoid the whole like, ‘Well, that’s not my job’ conversation.”

Focusing on Retention

It’s clear we need to rethink hiring strategies and focus on retention…

“It’s interesting that people are following the market as opposed to getting out in front of it. For example, recruiting versus retention. It costs a lot more money to hire a new employee rather than retain your best talent. It costs between 50 and 150% of an employee’s salary to replace them. Beyond the cost of losing and replacing an employee, you’ve got all sorts of additional costs, like productivity and team morale. It can even impact revenue if it’s in a revenue-generating function.”

Managing The Great Resignation Challenges

As companies shift focus from hiring to retention, they need a true employer brand. For a company to build an employer brand based on integrity, it’s important to focus on offering a fantastic experience across the entire employee journey. This helps people become more passionate and engaged in their work.

What are HR leaders investing in right now to address hiring and retention challenges during The Great Resignation?

“A lot of HR leaders are turning to technology to support their hiring, onboarding, and employee engagement needs. Trying to not only create a more high-impact experience but also to increase the impact of their HR teams without adding headcount.”

Beyond Onboarding

Onboarding never really stops. Companies must deliver great experiences in the initial onboarding phase and beyond—throughout the employee journey…

“If you think about an employee’s career journey with a company, there are many opportunities around what I call defining moments, focusing on any moment of transition. There are peaks and pits, but also beginnings and endings. We all remember the first and last day of school, the first day of a new job. These are all defining moments or moments of transition, which is why they’re so memorable.”

How can we turn defining moments for employees into absolute peak experiences?

“Transitions inherently carry an element of risk and uncertainty. So they’re often the moments when employees feel the most vulnerable, which is why they’re so powerful. Leaders have the power to turn someone’s defining moments into positive defining moments with the right training, development, and understanding of what best practices look like in those moments.”

Excellent advice from Laura Lee Gentry!

I hope you found this #WorkTrends podcast episode helpful. To learn more about effective onboarding and retention, and how to improve the impact of your people programs, visit Enboarder at: https://enboarder.com/.

Also, subscribe to the #WorkTrends Podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. And be sure to follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, too, for more great conversations!

To Boost Retention – Review for Projects, Not Performance

August 22, 2022/Employee Performance, HR, HR Strategy, Performance Reviews, Talent Retention /by Meghan M. Biro

If you’re ramping up for Q4 in your workplace, you may be anticipating a slew of quarterly performance reviews. It’s your manager’s last chance of the year to address recent performance issues, map out a plan for improvement, and set a goal for what’s next year.

But if you’re concerned with retention, you may want to reconsider. Performance reviews, depending on how they’re done, may not have the right tone to fit the turbulent world of work we’re in right now. They may not support your engagement and retention challenges. Employees are jumpy — and while feedback is always a good idea, it may all be in the delivery and the framework.

What works instead? Take a project-based approach — in which feedback and reviews are based on specific projects rather than overall performance over time. It avoids focusing on trickier metrics like behavior and “commitment” and provides a picture of a given situation and a given challenge. And it creates a clear boundary between life and work at a time when many of our workforces are seeing those lines blur. The day-to-day of a given job may be filled with ebbs and flows that didn’t exist when performance review criteria was designed. Particularly in categories like “attitude,” “willingness,” or “energy.” But a project is a project: you get it done.

Projects and Teams are Already on the Rise

The world of work is already shifting to projects as an increment of production instead of focusing simply on time. A project-based approach to the workplace is already a reality for a growing number of organizations. Of course, there are industries that traditionally lend themselves to project-based cadences of work. Industries such as marketing, advertising and content, engineering, legal firms, consultancies, and other service providers. But even high-service industries can shift to projects — framing work into initiatives, special efforts, campaigns, and quotas.

Taking this approach can bring your people together as a team. And we’re seeing the rise of teams — Deloitte’s research on the power of high-performance teams to catalyze organizational growth is pretty compelling. We divide into teams to better structure communications channels within digital workplaces, to forge accountability, to better manage, and to create a unit we can rely on. Projects and teams go hand in hand: a team executes on a project, essentially — and may interact with other teams, but they have a specific role, specific tasks. That actually frees up a manager to track a whole lot more in terms of individual input and contributions, responsiveness, creativity, and the ability to work in a group — and as reflected in the outcome of the project they were a part of.

Anchored to Specific Targets

The uneasy truth may be that many organizations wonder if performance reviews are working, but don’t have an alternative. But this is the era of transformation — like it or not, we transformed where and when and how we work out of necessity. It’s a reality right now that employees are stressed — and a bit jumpy if you look at the Great Resignation.

So consider the fact that just 14% of employees agree their performance review inspires them to improve, according to Gallup research. Further, traditional performance reviews and approaches to feedback can take a psychological toll — actually making performance worse about one-third of the time, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. No one wants to unintentionally build more resentment instead of more engagement, best intentions aside.

I’ve seen plenty of well-designed performance reviews that stay brilliantly on specifics. But one of the common objections employees have to performance reviews is that the criteria can feel vague; in that gray area may live bias, unfairness, arbitrariness, etc. Going granular may alleviate that: you’re looking at clear tasks delineated within the arc of a project: beginning, middle, completion. There’s closure. A sense of accomplishment. Finishing something feels good — and deserves credit. It may offer a tactful cantilever to other issues that need to be addressed. And there’s no question that each individual’s contribution to that project — and their own experience being a part of it— offer countless opportunities for feedback, for clarification, and for recognition.

Reflecting What’s Happening Now

Is taking a project-based approach to reviews feasible for most organizations? It could be more feasible than you think. It fits the changes the world of work is already undergoing, and: factors many organizations are already experiencing:

An increase in bringing in gig workers, SMEs, and consultants that either complement existing skills among our salaried workforces or expand them as necessary — and therefore redefining the essence of a team.
A shift from depending on the overall cohesion of a physical workplace to a remote and hybrid one, where people don’t come together organically but over the work they do.
A new emphasis on flexible scheduling and more work/life integration — seeing the job as a series of projects rather than a monolithic block of time no matter what happens.
A need to integrate faster into operations and get employees aligned before that 3-6 month period when many consider leaving: A recent survey of some 2,000 U.S. employees found that more than half (52%) were already on the hunt for a new position after being in their present one for less than 3 months.
A workforce in which teams, no matter their composition, can autonomously and independently execute, and a well-managed or self-managed team is becoming the essential engine of production (more than individual output) and a key part of the organizational chart.

A Resilient Framework

Recently the Harvard Business Review pointed to the resiliency of a project framework: instead of focusing on process and controls, it focuses on how to deliver the elements with the greatest value. It’s not a leap to see how that approach could also remove bias (such as recency) and gray areas from the equation, making the effort more about purpose, intent, strategy, goals, execution, and lessons learned. In terms of HR and talent management, that kind of shift immediately opens the door for feedback and self-reflection on the part of its participants and makes self-observation part of growth. In essence, it democratizes the review process by making it more clear.

Depending on the size and nature of your organization, performance reviews may be a critical factor in your talent management strategy. But adding project-focused reviews to the mix adds a concrete benefit. A tangible means to gauge people’s efforts to achieve real results, in real-time.

It’s also a smaller-scale way to build larger-scale results: as we know, growth happens in increments and iterations, not whole-cloth. No question, it’s easier to drive alignment and achieve collaboration across a team focused on a project. So take that sense of accomplishment, focus on it and celebrate it, and then do that over again. In terms of employee engagement, that can create a truly strong foundation — and more reason for them to stay.

Keys to Connect With Employee Purpose

1. Start by Ensuring Psychological Safety

2. Facilitate Open Communication

3. Measure What Matters

Benefits of Connecting Purpose and Work

Building a Culture of Authenticity: One Idea That Works

A Final Note on Purpose at Work

A Related Issue: Labor Market Trends

6 Ways to Manage Employee Expectations

1. Communicate Clearly and Consistently

2. Revisit and Revise Job Descriptions

3. Prioritize Performance Management and Feedback

4. Ensure Fair Business Practices

5. Provide Ample Training and Career Development

6. Pay Attention to Exit Interviews

A Final Word on Managing Employee Expectations

3 Key Profiles Behind Employee Satisfaction

Employee Satisfaction Types Up Close

1. “Enthusiastic” Segment

2. “Self-Reliant” Segment

3. “At Risk” Segment

3 Steps to Strengthen Employee Satisfaction

1. Encourage people to invest in their own development

2. Take time to craft a personalized development plan

3. Find ways to push autonomous workers to new heights

A Final Note

5 Ways to Keep Your Cool During Tough Times

1. Take Inventory

2. Take Action

3. Get Lean

4. Question Everything

5. Recognize That Talent is More Crucial Than Ever

Keep Your Cool By Embracing a More Stable Today

9 Effective Employee Retention Strategies

1. Actively Support Employee Mental Health

2. Invest in Employee Growth

3. Invite Family Members to Team Events

4. Support Employee Sabbaticals

5. Assign an Employee Partner for Each New Hire

6. Create a Culture of Trust and Connection

7. Offer a Generous PTO and Benefits Policy

8. Build Meaningful Onboarding Connections

9. Provide Professional Development Opportunities

Recognizing the Trauma of Layoffs

Learning From Covid Layoffs

How Guilt Affects Remaining Employees

Steps to Minimize Survivor Guilt

Final Thoughts

Meet Our Guest: Paul Walker

Connecting Learning With Retention Welcome, Paul! Let’s dive right in. How is training tied to workforce retention?

How to Train Employees Effectively What do people really want from work-related training?

Choose Learning Metrics That Matter

Make It a Leadership Priority to Train Employees

What is a Learning Culture?

8 Steps to Build a Learning Culture

1. Plan Effectively

2. Ensure a Receptive Environment

3. Align Learning With Business Imperatives

4. Model the Change You Want to See

5. Integrate Accessibility Into the Process

6. Invest in the Right Tools and Support

7. Customize Appropriately

8. Measure Effectively

Conclusion

The Downside of a Shorter Workweek

Why These Criticisms Don’t Stand

Reimagining the Workweek

3 Ways to Succeed With a Shorter Workweek

1. Involve Your Team

2. Focus on Outcomes

3. Stay Open to Continuous Improvement

Closing Notes

Why Lateral Moves Make Sense

1. Invigorate Professional Development

2. Improve Workforce Engagement

3. Promote Cross-Functional Collaboration

4. Increase Employee Retention

2 Ways to Support Lateral Moves

1. Develop a Transition-Specific Training Plan

2. Keep Your Door Open

Connecting Learning With Retention
Welcome, Paul! Let’s dive right in. How is training tied to workforce retention?

How to Train Employees Effectively
**What do people really want from work-related training?**