Transform Your Workplace

3 Keys to Keeping Top Talent with Joe Mull

Tue Jul 11 2023

Employee RetentionWork-Life BalanceGreat BossesCoaching SkillsEmployee Experience

Description

The episode discusses how to retain top talent in the modern workplace by creating a destination workplace. It explores the concept of the great resignation and the factors contributing to employees reevaluating their work-life balance and career choices. The importance of meaningful work, belonging, and enhancing the employee experience is highlighted. The role of great bosses in improving retention and engagement is emphasized, along with the significance of coaching and leadership skills. The episode concludes by emphasizing the need for organizations to provide upgrades to attract and retain devoted employees.

Insights

Retaining top talent requires creating a destination workplace

By focusing on ideal job conditions, meaningful work, and great bosses, organizations can retain top talent and improve employee commitment.

The great resignation is driven by burnout and work-life balance concerns

Factors such as burnout, stagnant wages, increased workloads, and the pandemic have contributed to employees reevaluating their work-life balance and career choices.

Belonging and purpose are key to employee retention

Nurturing a sense of belonging and purpose in the workplace leads to higher employee satisfaction and retention.

Enhancing the employee experience improves metrics and reduces turnover

Creating a more humane employee experience leads to improved metrics such as quality, service, safety, reputation, and revenue, while reducing churn and turnover costs.

Great bosses play a crucial role in employee retention

Trust, coaching, and advocacy are key behaviors for great bosses. The direct supervisor has the most influence on an employee's experience and commitment to the organization.

Coaching skills are essential for effective leadership

Managers should shift from micromanaging to coaching by asking open-ended questions. Enhancing coaching skills through training and practice improves retention and engagement.

Leaders who gather with peers improve performance

Leaders who regularly spend time with other managers overcome challenges and improve their performance.

Upgrades to quality of life attract and retain devoted employees

Organizations that provide upgrades such as better pay or better bosses find it easier to attract and retain devoted employees.

Summary

Transcript

Introduction

00:00 - 07:16

Zenium HR is sponsoring the episode and promoting their HR+ payroll solution at ZeniumHR.com.
The annual What People Want from Work survey is now open, offering a free report to participants. One representative needs to sign up for the survey and follow the provided instructions.

Retaining Top Talent

00:00 - 07:16

Joe Mole, author of 'Employee-alty,' discusses how to retain top talent in the modern workplace by creating a destination workplace.
Employee-T is defined as the commitment an employer makes to a more humane employee experience.
Three essential aspects for retaining top talent are ideal job, meaningful work, and great boss.
These three areas were determined through a combination of social science research, analysis of studies and articles on job retention, and simplifying complex ideas into actionable concepts.
The concept of the great resignation has been building over the past 13 years, with an increasing number of Americans voluntarily quitting their jobs each year.
Burnout, stagnant wages, increased workloads, and the pandemic have contributed to employees reevaluating their work-life balance and career choices.
The statement that nobody wants to work anymore is an inaccurate generational trope. Evidence shows that people do want to work; however, they are seeking better working conditions and opportunities.

Creating a Destination Workplace

06:47 - 13:49

There is not a mass of people who have chosen to sit on the sidelines; the narrative of laziness is false.
There are 10 million unfilled jobs in the United States, even if every unemployed person were to find a job.
Business owners and leaders need to shift their mindset and become a destination workplace.
The core components of an ideal job are compensation, workload, and flexibility.
Salary transparency is important for attracting applicants; hiding salary suggests something negative.
Employers should evaluate their expectations of what one person can reasonably accomplish in a work day.
Staffing up and dispersing workloads across more people improves quality of life and retention.
Four-day work weeks can be as productive or more productive if parameters are set around hours and outcomes.
Creating a more humane employee experience leads to improved metrics such as quality, service, safety, reputation, and revenue.
Churn and turnover have hidden costs that impact productivity and require time-consuming recruitment efforts.
Elevating wages may be necessary for organizations that have been behind for decades; finding the money can come from shareholder revenue.

Meaningful Work and Belonging

13:21 - 19:57

Meaningful work is comprised of purpose, strengths, and belonging.
People will forego new opportunities to stay with a group they like working with. Belonging starts with connection and camaraderie but evolves to include diversity, equity, and inclusion.
When employers nurture purpose, strengths, and belonging, employees find their work fulfilling and want to stay.
Employees who feel belonging and purpose in their work talk about it with others, which can attract organic interest from potential employees.
A software company has enhanced belonging by implementing employee resource groups (ERGs) for different affinity groups such as women in tech or LGBTQIA community members.
Driving ongoing conversations about ERGs can have a powerful impact on belonging within an organization.
A healthcare clinic reframed their job posting by removing unnecessary requirements like high school diplomas or specific skills. They focused on finding candidates who wanted to work in healthcare.

Enhancing Employee Experience

19:36 - 26:09

A healthcare organization reevaluated their job description and removed unnecessary requirements like a high school diploma and specific skills, focusing instead on the desire to work in healthcare.
They created a cohort program and changed the wording of the job posting to attract more applicants.
The organization provided paid training, shadowing opportunities, and allowed employees to have some influence over department selection.
This approach demonstrated a commitment to caring about the humanity of employees.
Many organizations struggle to find and retain devoted employees due to outdated beliefs about what people need and want in terms of compensation.
There is a disconnect between what bosses believe makes them good leaders (often citing pay as the main reason) and why employees actually leave (rarely citing pay).
The three dimensions of being a great boss are trust, coaching, and advocacy.
Great bosses grant trust, engage in coaching by asking open-ended questions, and act in the best interests of their direct reports beyond just their job duties.
Employees often feel like they're treated as cogs in a machine or experience toxic workplaces due to poor boss behavior.
The employee's direct supervisor is the most influential factor on their experience and commitment to the organization.
75% of people who leave a job indicate that their boss is part or all of the reason why they left.
Leaders should respond with curiosity over judgment when faced with troubling employee behavior, asking open-ended questions to better understand what's going on with them.

Coaching and Leadership

25:42 - 29:58

Creating a neutral environment is important to better understand someone's situation.
Trust, coaching, and advocacy are key behaviors for leaders.
Managers should shift from micromanaging to coaching and asking open-ended questions.
Training and practice are necessary to develop coaching skills.
Organizations that invest in enhancing the coaching skills of their leaders see improvements in retention and engagement.
Leaders who have high levels of engagement gather regularly with other managers.
Time spent with peers helps leaders overcome challenges and improve performance.
People do a great job when they believe they have a great day at work.
Employees seek upgrades to their quality of life, such as better pay or a better boss.
Organizations that provide upgrades will find it easier to attract and retain devoted employees.