Is Money Enough for Retention?
If only it were that simple. If you want to retain your top talent, you must first know that leaders cannot buy employee engagement. Winning the hearts and minds of employees is much more complex.
As long as total compensation is fair and competitive, salaries and bonuses are only tickets to play the talent management game. Today’s employees expect more from the overall employee experience than just money.
What the Data Tells Us
We have learned from our annual employee engagement surveys that employee engagement is not for sale. In other words, benefits, special offers, and employee conveniences have only short term value. In fact, such perks consistently have the lowest correlation to the discretionary effort, intent to stay, and advocacy that mark true employee engagement.
Why Do Employees Leave?
A recent study on attrition found that there were four most, and equally, important reasons for leaving:
- the lack of caring, effective leaders
- the lack of meaningful, sustainable work
- the lack of opportunities to learn and grow
- the lack of following through on employee engagement survey actions
How Leaders Can Maintain High Levels of Employee Engagement
- Value Each Employee
Does your team feel valued? It’s important that you know your workers as individuals. What are their strengths? What are their ambitions, their interests outside of work, their communication styles, and their preferred mode of recognition for a job well done?
Until you have meaningful relationships with your workers, you are apt to treat them all the same. You should know better.
Employees want to know that you care about them and understand what makes them tick. They do not want to be treated as a bloc but as individuals.
Do your leaders truly value their employees as their most important resource? - Build a Trusting, Caring Team
Quality relationships are a major part of why employees look at work not as something they have to do but as something they want to do.
Workers with an overall positive work experience (much influenced by the team environment and leader) are 8 times more likely to stay and 4 times more committed than employees whose work experience is negative.
Are your leaders building great teams at work? - Invest in Career Development
Even with a positive current experience, workers want to know there is a compelling path forward. Do your leaders have the career development mindset required to help their employees to learn, grow, and advance?
Do your leaders offer targeted training, expanded responsibilities, and stretch assignments that help design an exciting future with the company? - Focus on Well-Being and Sustainable Working Models
Too many organizations focus on results to the detriment of the well-being of their workers. While all high performing companies expect results, how you get there matters. The consequences of long-term employee burnout can be severe.
Do your leaders foster a work-life balance and provide additional support during times of stress and work overload?
The Bottom Line
All leaders want to engage and retain their talent that fits. Just don’t expect financial rewards alone to create high levels of engagement. Remember that leaders cannot buy employee engagement. Earn their loyalty and commitment to the job through meaningful work, a positive work environment, caring leadership, and opportunities to learn and grow.
To learn more about how to engage and retain top talent, download Research Report – Relationship Between Employee Engagement and Manager Effectiveness
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