Why?  Because of bad leaders.

According to a Gallup poll of more than one million U.S. workers, 75% of workers who voluntarily quit their jobs said they did so not because of the job or the company, but because they had a bad boss.

With so many people heading toward the exit these days that’s a whole lotta bad bosses.

Why is that?  What’s the impact? And what can organizations do about it?

Let’s start with the why.

47% of new leaders do not receive any leadership training.

People are often promoted to leadership roles as a reward for their individual performance or company loyalty rather than because they demonstrate the personal qualities that will help them develop into effective leaders.

All too often new leaders are put in a “sink or swim” situation – thrown into the deep end of leading a team and left to figure out for themselves how to stay afloat. Without leadership development early in their transition from individual performer to leader, new leaders may simply mimic the behaviors of a leader they’ve had in the past, and not necessarily a good one.

Research shows that the bulk of leadership development dollars are spent on senior leadership development. Yet by the time leaders reach that stage any bad habits developed over the years (or modeled after other bad leaders) are ingrained and difficult to correct.

What’s the impact?

It costs one and a half to two times an employee’s salary to replace them.

The tangible costs include recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and training the new employee. Add to that the intangible costs of decreased productivity, revenue loss, customer attrition, knowledge loss, and lowered morale of those left behind (who often have to pick up the slack).

What can organizations do about it?

Train your new leaders! Teams that have talented managers realize a 48% increase in profitability, a 22% increase in productivity, and a 30% increase in employee engagement scores (Gallup).

New leader training needs to be a key component of every organization’s learning and development plan. And it needs to give participants time to apply their learning, receive feedback, and get the ongoing support necessary (mentoring, coaching) to grow into the next line of senior leaders and executives.

Build and nurture a strong culture with clear values, open communication, and growth opportunities.

And be sure that every employee feels valued, connected, challenged, and recognized.

Till next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Are Bad Leaders Pushing Your Good Employees Out the Door? appeared first on PeopleThink.

In our pre-pandemic world of work, when (if you recall) people gathered in person for meetings and workshops and hallway conversations, new hires had myriad opportunities to assess the culture they’d just signed up for.

Today, not so much.

Many employees who have been hired in the past two years have never met their co-workers or even their leader in person. They haven’t received the welcome basket in their cubicle, asked for help in locating the coffee station, checked out the cafeteria, smiled for their employee badge or done all the other things that new hires typically do.

Many are feeling adrift and unconnected.

So how can leaders – and seasoned employees – help news hires get connected and engaged in the culture? Remember – employee retention begins on Day 1.

Develop a clear and consistent definition of the culture. A great culture is more than fun after-work events, casual dress, and catchy slogans. It’s how employees, customers and the outside world perceive an organization based on its attitudes and behaviors.  It’s where all employees feel valued, connected, challenged, and recognized. And it stems from leadership behavior at all organizational levels.

Communicate the culture. Make it easy to describe. Make it real. Do a periodic check-up to ensure that all parts of your culture are healthy and if not, review, adjust and get back on track. Every new hire (including remote ones) should receive an orientation that includes a discussion about company culture, vision, mission, and values. Consider having long-term (positive) employees/leaders describe the culture and give examples of how they’ve seen it demonstrated in their experience.

Demonstrate the culture. Make it an expectation that all interactions leader-leader, leader-employee, employee-employee align with the company values and promote the culture. Give new hires a strong start by helping them understand how their role contributes to the overall success of their team and the organization.

And last, but certainly not least, remember that it’s about the PEOPLE, PEOPLE, PEOPLE. Hiring the brightest and the best does you no good if you don’t take care of them. Be clear about their roles and responsibilities. Help them understand the values and the culture. Keep developing them, provide them with new challenges, and develop a work environment where every level of the organization is valued, connected, challenged, and recognized.

Till next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post Boost Retention with a Strong Culture appeared first on PeopleThink.

Yet here’s the thing. Incentives may get candidates to sign the offer, but it’s leadership and company culture that determine whether they’ll stay.

So, what exactly is company culture, and how do you go about creating a “best-place-to-work” caliber of culture when there’s so much other stuff to get done?

First of all, a great culture is more than fun after-work events, casual dress, and catchy slogans. It’s how employees, customers and the outside world perceive an organization based on its attitudes and behaviors.  It’s where all employees feel valued, connected, challenged, and recognized. And it stems from leadership behavior at all organizational levels.

To build a great culture, start by becoming really clear about who you are as a leader. Are you demonstrating the behaviors you want to see in your employees?

The next steps are:

Be sure everyone understands the Vision and Mission of the organization. Define them. Communicate them. Post them. Refer to them in employee meetings and other communications.

Establish and communicate clear Values. Model them with employees, customers, vendors, job candidates, everyone. Recognize employees who go above and beyond to model the values.

Ensure that expected leadership behaviors at all levels align with the Vision, Mission and Values. Coach leaders who do not meet these expectations.

Develop and communicate a clear and consistent definition of the culture. Make it easy to describe. Make it real. Test the definition with employees, with customers.

Recruit and hire great people who fit the culture. Use your tested definition in job postings and interviews. As part of your hiring process, determine what a “fit” is, and what it isn’t. Train hiring managers, and develop behavioral interview questions that will help determine fit.

Ask for feedback and adjust accordingly. Once you feel you’ve developed a great culture it’s easy to get complacent. But workplace cultures can shift – changes in leadership, business downturn, overly rapid growth, or external pressures, etc. Do a periodic check-up to ensure that all parts of your culture are healthy and if not, review, adjust and get back on track.

How would you currently rate your company culture? Here’s an idea: Interview a cross-section of your employees and see whether they all describe it the same. If not, go back to the steps above.

Till next time, keep it real.

Karen

The post A Great Company Culture Starts with Leaders appeared first on PeopleThink.