The Secret Of Employee Retention – Get To Know Your People!
Written by: Katie Ervin, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Why do people keep leaving your organization? Are you focusing on the facts? Turnover is expensive on many levels. Monetarily we have expenses related to recruiting, onboarding, and downtime while the new employee gets up to speed on their job. Continuity is an issue when we lose experienced workers. We lose institutional knowledge every time an employee quits. Finally, it has an emotional impact on an organization. The higher the turnover, the lower the organizational health.
People want to feel appreciated and cared about. In my recent research on employees' perception of organizational support, I found that the more people felt supported by their organization/leadership; the higher their job satisfaction, engagement, happiness, and loyalty. I hate it when people leave an organization and the excuse we give is that they are leaving for money. They technically might have found a higher paying job but let's be honest, they would not have looked for a new job if they were happy at work. If they felt appreciated and supported, most people would not leave for an extra $100 a week before taxes. The transition of learning a new system, creating new habits, worrying about insurance costs, and just the general unknown of new leadership is stressful and my research shows that most people would prefer to stay where they are in their current organization.
As a leader, I try to listen to what is important to my people. I get to know them and understand what impacts their day-to-day happiness. I work very hard to understand what is weighing on them. I pay attention to their frustrations. It is often the small papercuts throughout our work tasks that lead us to eventually leave an organization. These papercuts can be as simple as needing a new keyboard to a broken process. We should celebrate when our people bring us their frustration. This allows us to make changes or to explain why we can’t immediately.
The most important question a leader can ask their people is how you support them. Other great questions are: Do they have the basic tools to do their jobs? Are we eliminating their frustrations when we can? Did you recognize their anniversary? Do you show that you care about your people? Take 5 minutes each day! Put a reminder in your calendar to get this done. Write a thank-you email. Make a check-in call. Find out what is going on and what support they need. It will save you lots of time and frustration when they leave. I have seen this time and time again where people leave because they don't feel appreciated. Workers are putting in their time with little to no recognition or connection to an organization. So, bottom line, appreciate your people. Love is in the little things. That is where people will notice.
Katie Ervin, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
"Dr. Katie Ervin is a vision-driven, goal-focused leader with a proven history of innovation and achievement. Throughout her career, she has established a reputation as a transformational leader who is driven by challenge, undeterred by obstacles, and committed to furthering standards of excellence. Efficiency, project management, and organizational change while building trust throughout an organization is a strength.
Her expertise encompasses all aspects of organizational administration and operations, from controlling costs and maximizing results to harnessing team strengths to improve overall performance. Further, her ability to build consensus among executive teams and stakeholders to promote transparency and influence positive change has been repeatedly proven. Throughout her career she has been successful in breaking down silos and assisting all in understanding the overarching needs of the organization."
