Keep employees engaged to help stave off turnover

QUESTION: What have you found is the best way to decrease turnover among employees?

ANSWER: It’s a two-pronged strategy. First, hiring top talent is key. At ProService we use a rigorous method called TopGrading that helps us ensure we hire the top 10 percent of the available labor for any given role. Second, you need to work to decrease the most likely reasons for staff turnover. Disengaged staff are twice as likely to leave their company than engaged employees.

Q: What is an example of employee engagement that you would recommend?

A: Making sure employees feel "heard" is critical. Feedback loops that give all employees a voice to share their concerns and suggestions for improvement help employees feel connected to their work. At ProService our "tiny pulse" staff survey gets a quick pulse on employee satisfaction. Each week, staff receive an email with a single survey question and the opportunity to provide their anonymous feedback. Our entire leadership team reads all feedback.

Q: Why is employee engagement worth it?

A: Engaged employees actually care about their work and their company. They don’t work just for a paycheck or just for the next promotion, but work on behalf of the organization’s goals. When employees care — when they are engaged — they use discretionary effort.

Research shows companies with high levels of engagement have:

» 65 percent lower turnover.

» 22 percent higher profitability.

» 21 percent higher productivity.

» 10 percent higher customer ratings.

Q: What is the most important thing you would recommend to decrease staff turnover?

A: The old adage that "people don’t leave companies, they leave people" is still true today. Developing skilled people managers should be a top priority of any business that wants to keep their people. Rich development opportunities that allow managers to grow their leadership skills, connect with their staff and drive business results require time and investment.

Q: What are some ways to get the staff to work together as a team?

A: Connecting with the mission or purpose of your business is important for your staff. Over the long term, the emotional connection employees feel to their work is at least as important as the paycheck. Make sure you have a clear, compelling reason for being in business and share that with your staff regularly. Make it the rallying cry for staff that unifies their efforts.

Q: How do you keep staff motivated?

A: Understand what motivates individuals. The most common mistake is to use a broad brush and assume all staff are motivated by the same thing. Some staff like public acknowledgement; others value handwritten notes, time off or a cash bonus. Through personally connecting with your staff, you’ll better understand what they value and what will drive them to continue to deliver results.

Q: What are some practices managers can use to connect with staff that you have seen work?

A: The best way for managers to connect with their staff is through frequent (daily) informal discussions about immediate work. Quick daily check-ins about things that are happening now help staff feel like someone is listening and that their manager is part of their daily life. Weekly check-ins about progress on long-term projects are also important, but they are most effective when backed up with frequent daily interactions.

Q: If an employee has a recommendation for engagement opportunities, what is the best way he or she could recommend that to a manager?

A: To get a boss’s attention and make a winning case for implementing engagement opportunities, you need to connect the anticipated "people results" to the bottom line. Do your homework. Connect the dots between what problem you’re trying to solve with the recommendation you’re making (investing in manager certification). Using the language of revenue and business impact eliminates the "squishiness" of employee engagement and speaks to business leaders in the language they relate to and value.

Interviewed by Kathryn Mykleseth