Why is it so important to keep top talent? Well, aside from the obvious (that they are high contributors to your success) these employees are rare and in demand, they cost more to replace, and they often take other top talent with them.

So, what can you do to keep ‘em?

To be engaged and loyal, employees need to feel valued, connected, challenged and recognized. Today, unfortunately, many are feeling overextended, under-appreciated and exhausted from trying to meet ever-increasing productivity expectations. And…with more opportunities out there, many are just a phone call away from leaving…

If you want your employees to be loyal to you, give them a reason to stay. Demonstrate that you value and appreciate them. Make them feel…

Valued by listening to them, and acknowledging their need for work/life balance.

Connected through ongoing communication about the direction of the organization and their role in it. Show them that they are a community and have a purpose bigger than themselves in it.

Challenged through growth opportunities and a clearly defined career path (NOT by more work, more hours…).

Recognized by frequent, sincere appreciation – both monetary and non-monetary – for their efforts.

Don’t let valuable mindshare and talent walk out your door. Start working to keep them today.

For more tips on how to keep your top talent, and some specific examples of actions that work, listen to my podcast “How to Keep ‘Em.”

Till next time,

Karen

The post Want to Keep Your Top Talent? Give Them a Reason to Stay! appeared first on PeopleThink.

If you don’t already have something on the calendar, I encourage you to take a few minutes right now (well, after you finish reading this) and pencil in a week or two weeks or whatever your schedule allows. You need a break. It’s good for you, and it’s good for your employer.

Taking vacation has been shown to:
• Reduce stress
• Contribute to better physical and mental health
• Improve relationships

When companies encourage their employees to take vacation, they benefit through:
• Higher employee productivity
• Stronger workplace morale
• Greater retention
• Healthier employees

Whether you take an exotic vacation or a low-key “staycation,” get something on the calendar before the summer gets away from you!

Once you’ve scheduled your vacation, don’t stop there. I highly recommend that you pick a day this summer, and in fact, maybe once a month or once a quarter, that is just…for…you. One day that is your day to do whatever you want, except work! Go to a spa, take a hike, play a round of golf, or just sit by the ocean…whatever feeds your soul.

Just like you need to give your body a break from your workouts, you need to give your brain a break from your work. Thinking, managing your emotions, making decisions, creating new ideas, interacting with others, all require mental effort that can wear your brain out. You need to give it a rest.

In the words of Maya Angelou: “Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future. Jobs, family, employers, and friends can exist one day without any one of us, and if our egos permit us to confess, they could exist eternally in our absence. Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”

Till next time,
Karen

The post What Are You Doing This Summer? appeared first on PeopleThink.

That’s why employees leave. Let’s talk about how you can get them to stay. Employees need to feel valued, connected, challenged and recognized. They want to use their strengths – every day – and know that they’re contributing to the success of the organization. They also want to have time to spend with their families and/or to pursue interests outside of work. And they want to be fairly compensated for the work they do. It’s not rocket science.

Help your employees feel valued by communicating how their goals align with team and organizational goals. Provide them with opportunities to build on their strengths, learn new skills and prepare for the future needs of the company. Development can happen in many different forms: on-the-job training, personal development, cross-functional projects, coach and/or mentor, special projects, stretch assignments, training courses, reading and personal study, online courses, peer coaching, job shadowing… The important thing is that it is available and encouraged.

Help them feel connected by communicating with them clearly and consistently. An HBR article, “The Top Complaints from Employees About Their Leaders” noted that communication issues top the list, including: Not recognizing employee achievements, not giving clear directions, and not having time to meet with employees. When leaders communicate regularly, and build a sense of connectedness with their employees, those employees are happier and more productive.

Do you have career roadmaps and succession plans in place? If not, what are you waiting for? Help your employees feel challenged by communicating the next level in their career path and what they need to do to get there. Give them temporary assignments that will stretch their skills and comfort level.

In the leaner work environment today, most employees are feeling the brunt of doing more with less. Recognize their efforts by saying “thank you” early and often. Don’t wait until review time to tell them what a good job they’re doing. And be specific – what was the situation, what did they do, and what was the impact. Applaud the behavior you want to see repeated and emulated.

Organizations need to acknowledge that their people are the lifeblood of the business. Don’t take your employees for granted. As the economy continues to improve and there are options for them elsewhere, you want to keep those employees in your organization. Find creative ways to develop and challenge them. Let them know they are valued, and that they are a critical component to the business moving forward. Build succession plans to ensure that your bench strength is available and ready to grow the business.

And most of all, don’t forget the old adage…treat your employees the way you want to be treated. It will pay off in leaps and bounds in the future.

Till next time,

Karen

The post Why Employees Stay appeared first on PeopleThink.

But what about the health of the organization – the company – we’re a part of? Since so much of our time is spent at work, how does our work environment – healthy or unhealthy – impact our personal health, and how does the collective health of an organization’s workforce affect its health?

The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” More recent definitions describe health in terms of adaptability – “the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of social, physical, and emotional challenges,” (Machteld Huber) or simply, “the ability to adapt and to self-manage.” (British Medical Journal).

In the past few years there have been a bazillion articles, surveys, studies, blogs, etc., written about employee engagement – but that’s only a small piece of the bigger puzzle – organizational health. Think about this. Someone could be very engaged in their work and by extension, in the company. So engaged in fact, that they spend many late nights at work, to the detriment of their family life and their personal health. Stress and exhaustion finally take their toll, family life is kaput, and soon this “engaged” employee is out on medical leave, resulting in a huge gap on the team.  Talk about a broken engagement.

It’s time we looked at the bigger picture. It’s time we thought seriously about the work environments we’re creating and how those environments are impacting employees at work, at home and in their communities. They’re all connected.

Leaders, how healthy is your team? Have you created an environment in which each employee feels valued, connected, challenged and recognized? Do you recognize when someone is overextended and then provide the support, resources or coaching they need to dial it back?  In your hiring decisions, do you consider both the person-job fit and the person-organization fit?

An organization is only as strong, or as healthy, as its people. If you want an organization that can adapt and self-manage in the face of the many challenges today, you’ve got to start paying attention to the health of your team. Yes, engagement is part of it. But just part.

If you’d like to learn more about how to assess the health of your organization and what that means, please contact me. kcolligan@PeopleThink.biz or 415.440.7944.

Till next time,

Karen

The post Let’s Talk about Organizational Health appeared first on PeopleThink.

To get a closer view on what’s happening in corporate today, PeopleThink interviewed human resources professionals across a variety of industries – hi-tech, biotech, professional services, architecture, nonprofit and healthcare. Despite differences in their core businesses, when it comes to the people component, there were a number of common themes that emerged:  keeping employees engaged and motivated, retaining top talent, having the right people in the right positions, and ensuring that there is sufficient “bench strength” for the next line of leadership.  Here are some of their comments.

“We need to continue to invest in the people infrastructure. Our employees need to have development plans in place so they can see there is a future with the organization.”

“We have to put the needs and future of our organization first, and then plan backwards: provide development and promotion opportunities; recruit the right talent.”

“Build the talent road map. What will the organization’s people needs be one to three years out? What competencies? What level of employees? Build the talent plan to move, grow and flex with the organization’s business needs.”

“It’s important to maintain company culture. One of the things I hear on a regular basis is that people want to work here because of the culture and how employees are treated. It comes from the top. How we treat people is how we keep our people.”

“Each leader of the organization needs to have a successor they are training and preparing for the next role. Leadership can be viewed as a second-tier component of the business; however, what we know is that without strong leadership, the organization will not be able to sustain its growth.”

The clear message is that organizations need to recognize that their people are the lifeblood of the business. Don’t take your employees for granted. As the economy continues to improve and there are options for them elsewhere, you want to keep those employees in your organization.  Find creative ways to develop and challenge them. Let them know they are valued, and that they are a critical component to the business moving forward.  Build succession plans to ensure that your bench strength is available and ready to grow the business.

And most of all, don’t forget the old adage…treat your employees the way you want to be treated. It will pay off in leaps and bounds in the future.

Till next time,

Karen

The post Invest in Your People – Invest in Your Future appeared first on PeopleThink.

It is the Age of Peanut Butter. And like with peanut butter, the more pressure you put on individuals to spread their time and efforts across a bigger slice of the workload, the thinner and thinner the coverage (and their patience, and their engagement, and their loyalty) will be.

Leading in this environment is challenging because we get caught up in “checking the boxes” and focusing on the management side of our role versus applying those key leadership skills that help keep employees engaged – coaching, inspiring, developing. There’s just no time. We’re just too busy. There are too many boxes still to check. And yet, at what cost do we keep spreading ourselves and others thinner and thinner?

Stop for a minute and think about this. Are you spending most of your time telling your team what needs to be done rather than asking them how things could be done better? Is your door closed more often than open these days? Have you stopped scheduling one-on-one meetings because you kept having to cancel them? If you want to keep your employees on board and engaged it’s time to get back into leadership mode.

Here’s an exercise for you. Put a picture in your head of the best leader you ever had. What were the characteristics of that leader that made them so great? Now visualize the worst leader you ever had. What were the characteristics that made you dislike them?

Now think about how you are leading today. Which of your two past leaders are you most like?

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

Till next time,

Karen

The post Leading in the Age of Peanut Butter appeared first on PeopleThink.

Till next time,

Karen

The post So You Think Your Employees Have Nowhere to Go? Think Again! appeared first on PeopleThink.

Oh the Places is about the opportunities and obstacles that show up in our lifetime and how to navigate them.

“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.”

Life is a series of choices.  Choices about career, relationships, where to live, the list goes on. And you can either sit back and wait, and wait, and wait for the choices to be made for you, or you can choose to be bold and explore. You never know what opportunities might await, and what you might learn in the process.

“It’s opener there in the wide open air.”

Will there be occasional difficulties and setbacks? Of course. The true question is, how will you handle those setbacks?  Will you retreat back into the “waiting place?” Or will you look at the positive side, see the best in the situation and forge ahead? There is learning everywhere – especially in the bumps along the road.

“On and on you will hike.
And I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.”

All too often we get caught up in the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” cycle of regrets and self-doubt that not only limit our thinking, but also immobilize us from moving on to all the new experiences and opportunities that await.

“Life’s a Great Balancing Act.”

So acknowledge the past, but focus on the future. Take it all in, learn from it and enjoy every minute. The road is not always smooth, but the journey is an amazing gift that we need to cherish and give it our all.

“And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)”

Till next time,

Karen

The post Oh the Places…Navigating Life with the Wisdom of Dr. Seuss appeared first on PeopleThink.

As leaders, we often get so caught up in our day-to-day responsibilities that we forget to think about how we come across to the people around us, and how their actions, communications and concerns may be driven by their perception of the persona we put forward. When was the last time you took a long gaze in the leadership looking glass? Are you showing up at work as your authentic self or is there a mask that gets in the way? In honor of Halloween, let’s look at some typical masks a leader might wear. Do you recognize yourself in any of them?

The Super Hero

You have confidence, boundless energy and can seemingly handle any problem that comes your way (“Bring it on, tall buildings!”) You are protective of your team. In your need for speed you often charge ahead with activities that could be delegated.

While your team may admire your ability to “handle it all,” they’d like the chance to solve issues and take on more responsibilities and, perhaps, risks themselves. They may be hesitant to give you honest feedback or make alternative suggestions as you appear to have it all under control.

The Alien

You’re distracted right now – could be the job, could be personal issues – and your mind seems to be on another planet. You’re communicating less frequently with your team, and you appear out of touch with their projects and issues.

Your team is wondering where you parked the UFO. They miss their leader, and are frustrated with the gap left by no clear direction.

Your lack of communication has made them stop trying. Some are considering
abandoning ship.

The King

You may ask for ideas and input, but in the end you like things “your way.”

You have tendency to redo your team’s work rather than discuss or give them constructive
feedback because it’s faster and, well, you know how it should be done. You sing “I Did It My Way” in the shower.

Your team is beginning to lose confidence in their skills and ability to make an impact. They’re hesitant to make suggestions because they know they’ll be rejected or ignored. Some are beginning to wonder why they show up at all.

Angry Bird

You’re not happy at work right now and it shows in your attitude. You snap at team members and colleagues, you have no patience for work that is less than what you expected or later than when it was due, no matter the reason. You delegate as much as possible. You’re frequently unavailable.

Your team is feeling overworked and underappreciated. You appear unapproachable so they’re afraid to communicate their thoughts and feelings to you. The less you communicate with your team, the less they communicate with each other. The silos have been built, and collaboration is not a priority.

At Halloween you can put on a mask and be whoever you want to be. But Halloween is one day. The rest of the year you need to remove the mask and be a strong, dependable, and visionary leader. Only then will you be able to move yourself, your team and your organization forward.

Till next time,

Karen

P.S. We have launched our new website!

The post The Leadership Looking Glass – What Mask Are You Wearing Today? appeared first on PeopleThink.

There have been two surveys providing us the data. The first one, Right Management’s snapshot survey, showed the satisfaction of the U.S. and Canadian worker: 19% Satisfied; 16% Somewhat satisfied; 21% Somewhat unsatisfied; 44% Unsatisfied.

YIKES…that means 60+% of employees are not happy!
Mercer’s What’s Working survey showed that a third of employees throughout the U.S. and Canada are looking to leave their organization. To translate, this means 1 in 3 employees are thinking about moving to another company.

No matter how you slice and dice the above numbers, it’s not looking good for business. Think about this – if you are leading an organization of 9 people, 3 of them at this very moment are thinking about jumping ship. Do you know who they might be? Can you afford to lose 3 of your team members? Now, ask yourself this question – are you one of the team members who would like to jump? If yes, are you showing signs of dissatisfaction to your team or to your leader?

I think we all have a pretty good idea of “why” employees are dissatisfied. Let me provide a short recap: Since the global economic downturn that started in 2008, there have been layoffs; more work with fewer people to do the work; long hours with expectations of availability 24/7; cuts in pay and benefits; reduced job security – uncertainty of position and job; fewer advancement opportunities; limited training and development; colleagues throwing team members under the bus; tempers flaring; leaders demanding more and more; less appreciation; stress off the charts. You get the idea…

We have become a fear-based, working-wounded culture. And, how will we move an organization forward and build a first-class employee base if we are coming from a place of fear and stress? We won’t.

Here are 4 things employees need and want. Leaders, pay attention. Employees need to feel:

1. Valued: Treat your employees with respect. Let them know that what they bring to the organization is appreciated, needed and valued. Say “thank you” and mean it. Look them in the eye. Have their back. Let them know they can count on you. Smile. Laugh.
2. Connected: We all need a community. Build your group so they want to be part of the team. Create a team environment of trust and accountability. Hold everyone to the same standards. Build loyalty and be loyal. Smile. Laugh.
3. Challenged: People want to grow and learn. Provide your team members with stretch goals that help build their skills. Sit down with them and “ask” what they want to do. They are responsible for their career growth, and you are the one who can provide accessibility to growth opportunities. Have a conversation and help them attain their goals. Smile. Laugh.
4. Recognized: Pay your employees competitively. Duh!!!! And then, ask how they want to be recognized outside of salary/benefits, etc., when they have done something above the call of duty. Do they like to be called out in an email to the entire organization; do they like a pat on the back; do they like one-on-one recognition? Do not assume everyone likes to be recognized in the same way. Smile. Laugh.

There are endless formulas for calculating turnover costs. Let’s just use the one that indicates turnover costs equal 150% of annual salary for a mid-level employee. You do the math and decide whether your organization can handle having dissatisfied employees who want to and will leave your organization.

Most of us are not trying to find a cure for cancer (and if you are, thank you). We need to pay attention to the human aspect of our business. People will stay in their organizations because they are intrinsically motivated. And, right now people are cranky!

Did I say…smile…laugh…

Till next time,

Karen

The post Cranky Employees Rule! appeared first on PeopleThink.