Employee retention numbers aren’t what they appear

Post about the great resignation: bit.ly/3rlyjoh

Remember the Great Resignation during 2021 and 2022? Employees changed jobs in record numbers when they were frustrated by work environments, lack of career growth, inflexible policies, and poor management.

Now, Gallup research reveals that the number of people seeking new job opportunities is the highest it’s been since 2015, while satisfaction with their employer has returned to a record low.

Gallup calls this era the Great Detachment. Employees want to leave but struggle to find new jobs, so they stay. They stay, but their hearts aren’t in it.

Your retention numbers may look good, but don’t be fooled.

Turnover may have tapered, but when people stay without being all-in, productivity slows and the quality of work diminishes. Plus, organization changes you have planned for 2025 will be resisted.

How would your company be impacted by reduced productivity and quality? How would your 2025 strategic objectives be impacted by employees feeling detached?

Obviously, there are significant business implications of the Great Detachment.

The good news is there are ways to reconnect with detached employees.

We talked about one of the most impactful actions in this month’s Culture Matters: Recognition.

Recognition and celebration aren’t just feel-good activities—they’re strategic investments in people. Employees who feel seen and valued are more engaged, more productive, and more likely to stay.

One of the most important elements of recognition is authenticity. When it’s phony to check a box, it can backfire.

To keep recognition authentic, so it matters for real, here are a few ways to recognize and appreciate others.

✳️ Understand what matters to your people. Ask them. Do those things.

✳️ Keep it small and consistent. Regular thank you notes are rare, which makes them matter.

✳️ Share publicly. Post Recommendations on LinkedIn and give book reviews on Amazon.

✳️ Notice people. Check in and let them know you see them every day, not just when there’s a formal ceremony.

✳️ Support their career goals. Contribute to their flow through Maslow’s Hierarchy beyond the paycheck.

Those actions cascade throughout organizations as people tell their friends, post notes publicly, and emulate the actions. They also reinforce what’s working, set the tone for the culture, and connect people with your purpose.

Being genuine about recognition impacts your leadership legacy.

People will remember how you treat them more than they will remember profit growth during your leadership.

As always, the Culture Matters conversation was robust and inspiring. Thanks to all who joined today! I can’t wait to see what the CM community does in 2025!

Beware! Your top people are being poached!

The issue most on the minds of leaders I have heard from lately is the "Great Resignation." Leaders are afraid their top performers will leave, and they have run out of ideas to inspire them to stay.

Of course, leaders always worry about their top performers, but lately that fear is reasonable. People changed during the past two years, and what entices them to choose a workplace is different for many now. On top of that change, strategies companies are using to fill vacancies have changed too.

The latest strategy to fill all those empty spots across organizations is poaching. Perhaps you have experienced it or even recommended the strategy to your company's recruiters? Going after top talent gainfully employed by a competitor used to be a subversive maneuver. Not anymore.

Now, recruiters pursue top performers like a high school kid asking a date to the prom.

There are big gestures and lots of woo'ing over time.

Poaching entices relatively happily employed people to leave for greener pastures, even when their current pasture is pretty green already. People are flattered by being pursued, and they have more confidence to speak up about what would make them leap firms. People are stating their demands, and companies are delightfully meeting them. Everything from location to hours to salary to equipment to team members and more—it’s all on the table.

Poaching is on the rise, so watch out before it’s too late.

The best thing you can do to prevent poaching is make your top performers less susceptible to poachers. Keep woo'ing them throughout their employment journey.

Companies make a gigantic mistake when they stop woo'ing people once they are on board.

Someone told me recently about her experience with her new employer. Four people who love the company were on the interview team that took her to lunch. They talked about being on her team and working with her. It turned out they are on the company team but not her immediate team. They were on the interview team because of their acting skills and exaggerated the role they would play in her job. Figuring that act out a few days into the job made her question her decision to join the company.

Another recent example was that a manager in a mid-sized company was not ready for the new hire, so the new employee sat in the lobby for an hour waiting for his boss to arrive. The manager said, “I forgot you were starting today.” In the interview, however, the manager spoke about how much he cares about his team.

Those two examples were of companies abandoning their woo practices on day one. That’s when it is most egregious and hard to overcome. It also happens when the business landscape changes and leaders are challenged. Some panic and stop taking care of their people out of fear for their own jobs.

The smart leaders have figured out they need to keep woo'ing after day one for people to stick around.

To identify opportunities to engage with employees, outline your employees' journey. Armed with an understanding of their journey, identify where you can beef up intentional connections. Where along the journey can you offer professional development (which people crave!), skill development opportunities in the work, networking opportunities, and opportunities to contribute to the local community?

Be intentional about your connection and engagement. Tie your actions to what they want.

The Platinum Rule is more important here than the Golden Rule. While the Golden Rule tells us to treat people how we want to be treated, the Platinum Rule is to treat people how they want to be treated. Put the Platinum Rule into effect in good times and bad. People really notice how you treat them when times are tough for the company or for them personally. For example, your company policy may allow for one week of leave for new fathers. How do you handle the new father whose baby needs extra medical attention at birth, so one week with the family is not enough? People > policy. Treat people with care, especially when they need help.

That's the secret to retention: care. It is really hard for a poacher to compete against a genuine relationship of care.

What a year last week was!?!

The first full work week of 2021 began with the excitement of a new year, a clean slate. Sure, many of us were a bit tired and out of our routines after the holidays, but all-in-all, the energy was upbeat. Then Wednesday’s hostile takeover of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. occurred.

The week changed. Our time management, conversations, focus, and energy in and out of work changed.

As leaders, you may have intended to kick off 2021 a certain way but had to adjust.

🔷 Did the way your company shows empathy change over the course of the week?
🔷 When you think about how the "company" shows empathy, who are you thinking about?
🔷 What have your leaders done to show empathy in the last week?
🔷 What have you done to show empathy for your coworkers? Yourself?

All of that, and more, was part of the #CultureMatters live conversation January 8th. We talk about issues and ideas that impact culture each month, and we bring them back to business.

As facilitators of the monthly Culture Matters forum, Kathy Holmes and I chose to start the year with empathy because it aligns with the values of our #culturematters friends.

When companies value empathy, it shows in how they treat people and goes further into how they make decisions, prioritize, innovate, and more.

A company that tells people to leave their emotions at home and just keep their mouths shut, for example, shows it does not care about its people. Back in the old days, that command-and-control style of leadership was rarely questioned. People did their jobs and went home.

Now, however, that company would struggle to stay alive. A company who treats people that way would struggle with collaboration needed for innovation, along with retention of employees and customers. Makes sense, right?

The research is clear: people want to work for companies and leaders who care about them. Companies who develop empathy gain a strategic advantage for retention of employees and customers.

Empathy is worth attention. Plus, it is a nice, basic value.

Join the Culture Matters conversations via Zoom each month and on LinkedIn. All are welcome!

How a McDonald's order helped a UK police officer take his division from last to first

McDonald's almost made me cry...

A few months ago, Anthony Munday introduced himself to me because we are both authors for BIZCATALYST 360°. We had a virtual coffee, and jeepers it was so interesting! Tony spent 30+ years as a Police Officer in the UK and has spent 20+ as a leadership coach/consultant. He told fascinating story after story about his experiences!

When he shared how he took his police division from last to first by killing the command-and-control leadership style, I knew VCG friends would want to hear it too!

Kathy Holmes and I are going to talk with people regularly about #CultureMatters in 2021, so we started with Tony. Below is the link to the video conversation.

Tony shares the process he took, the outcomes, and lessons learned. Among the lessons is how Tony knew what he did mattered when he ran into one of his officers years later, and the officer shook his hand and mentioned the McDonald's order.

It is so good, could be a book! Oh, and he does have a book coming out in 2021! More on that when Tony returns for another conversation.

Whether you lead a company, division of hundreds, or small project team, you can benefit from Tony's story.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

#leadershipnow
#leadershipdevelopment
#peoplematter
#humansfirst