I speak a lot on employee engagement and retention issues and yes, they are still areas of concern despite all the layoffs. In fact, it’s even of more concern given that the people left behind are needed more than ever. So in preparing for a talk to the Central Ohio Human Resources Association, I’ve brushed up my list of 79 Ways to Keep Employees Engaged and thought you might be interested in seeing a portion of it. I’ll be making a downloadable ebook available in the near future and will feature the link on this blog later this month.
So see if anything jumps out at you as being “right on” or is a personal bone of contention. (You don’t have to take everything I write as the gospel truth!) Sent me your thoughts and I’ll add them to the list if you’d like!
HOW TO KEEP EMPLOYEES ENGAGED
1. Only begin employee rewards/recognition/incentive programs that can be maintained long-term. Consider the administrative overhead and “soft costs” before beginning so you don’t have to stop it and risk impacting morale.
2. It’s the “unwritten rules” or the “way we do things around here” that catch people by surprise every time. It’s not fair to be unclear. Build transparency and clarity into the reasons WHY we do the things we do around here.
3. Avoid the “Nice Guy Syndrome”. These are high amiable, steady, collaborative males who get a bad rap for being “too nice”. They keep your teams together. Don’t sell ‘em short.
4. Guard against skepticism, becoming jaded, critical and suspicious. When we regularly interact with negative people and circumstances, we are at greater risk of being “infected”. Counter balance with positive people and environments.
5. Pay attention to body language: 1. It is a constant, 2. It’s always determined by context, 3. It can never be judged based on one single signal, 4. It reveals discrepancies between what they say and what they truly believe, 5. Mastery allows you to tune into “microexpressions” – brief flashes that betray inner feelings. (The Power of Body Language, Tonya Reiman)
6. In Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive, he suggests we: build and maintain a cohesive leadership team, create organizational clarity, over-communicate organizational clarity and reinforce organizational clarity through human systems.
7. Learn what motivates each person on your team, then help ‘em get what they need.
8. Ask for their opinions about business issues, then try to incorporate some of their suggestions even if it’s only a minor thing.
9. Make sure other employees know how to make recommendations – by what method will they get you their ideas?
10. Focus on helping your people turn destructive behaviors into constructive behaviors.
11. Regularly offer Gallup’s list of 12 employee needs in survey form to take a confidential “pulse” of your team’s health
12. Communicate, then communicate some more in various methods on a regular basis. Avoid the mistake of thinking that just because the news went out via start-up meetings or on your intranet, that everyone “got” it.
13. Assess your new employee “on-boarding” or “integration” program by using fairly new employees to critique and refine. Avoid the mistake of thinking it’s working well just because no one’s complained. New employees rarely complain and by the time they’re not new anymore, it doesn’t matter to them.
14. Build “Provocative Questions” into supervisory start-up meetings or all-staff meetings to get teams talking. An example of one would be, “What did we do this week that was customer-focused?”
15. Use Laura Benjamin’s CARLA ConceptTM Model to help employees structure their thoughts and convey ideas and suggestions. Most people know what they know – they just don’t know how to say it!
16. If you’re going to use a 360 degree instrument to gauge your effectiveness (or the effectiveness of others) ensure you have a large enough sample pool so people know they can respond in confidence. Use a trained facilitator who can guarantee this process will not backfire on you. Like dynamite, 360’s can be dangerous when administered by inexperienced people and “blow” in the wrong direction.
17. Encourage team members to recognize one another for a job well done. Appreciation doesn’t just have to come from the boss.
18. Communicate expectations, then let your folks figure out how to meet them. Avoid micromanaging along the way, but check in to see if they need any guidance or help clearing obstacles from their path.
19. Make resources available so your people can do their jobs. This can range from the key to the restroom up to and including a computer system that is “up” more than it’s “down”.
20. Discuss how everyone on the team defines success. Have them write it down on paper as a solo exercise, then talk about it. That way you won’t have each person parroting one another as they report back. Ask them to be as specific as possible.
21. Banish the phrase, “It is what it is” or at a minimum, question those who use that phrase to explain why they feel that nothing can be done about the situation. Walk them through the CARLA ConceptTM Model if necessary to help them think creatively about problem-solving.
22. Strike a balance between asking employees for feedback on what you could be doing differently with coming across as “needy”. People like to feel that someone of substance is standing at the helm of the ship.
23. Identify the culture of the organization and key departments (control, competence, collaboration, cultivation) then engage team members in discussion about your department/function and whether it’s effective or needs to align differently with internal and/or external customers. (Visit Corporate Development Group at http://www.cdg-corp.com/ )
24. Introduce rituals to give folks something to look forward to. These could include spring planting flowers around company grounds, monthly birthday celebrations, “crazy hat day”, outdoor athletic events, adopt a need family, put $1.00 in the party fund pot when late for meetings, etc.
25. Enlist employees to create problem-solving guides, tips booklets or “how-to” guides to make the job easier on everyone. They’ll be more involved in problem solving, feel like they’re contributing and be thinking more about how to make improvements.
26. Put together a voluntary “Who’s Who in XYZ Company” guide with employee photos, brief little-known facts about each person, goals, career history, fun stuff, etc.
27. Make feedback respectful and reciprocal. Build in multiple ways to create dialogue among and between teams, frontline leaders, senior leaders, partner groups and customers.
28. Track the success stories. Ask for volunteer “historians” who document the big achievements, small successes and positive outcomes. Use written, audio and video to archive these moments. Compile the info and make available in a public place.
29. Know HOW people want to be recognized based on their preferences and personality styles. Not everyone wants to get a certificate in front of 400 people with the cameras rolling. Then there are others who absolutely love the limelight!
Writing from 6711 ft. above sea level
3 comments
February 19, 2009 at 7:12 am
Laura Benjamin
Jim, thanks so much for your contributions! I’m going to add them to the ever-growing list and post in the next few days. I’ll try to organize them a bit differently this time! (Thanks so much for that tip too!) You’re right on regarding the bell-curve limits we place on our supervisors and managers when it comes time to rate our people. What can be particularly frustrating is when you have a supervisor who clearly inflates ratings for folks who don’t deserve it and then you have another team where people really ARE superstars. Your experience upon leaving the organization is just wild!
February 9, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Jim Wood
Laura:
I agree that you have a fine list of 29 items. I find, however, that 29 items is rather more than my limited memory capacity can handle. I don’t know how you could collapse them, but maybe there is a top-level structure that could be imposed so that they could be thought of in groups.
Since 29 is already too much for me, I hate to offer #30 and #31, but I’m going to do so anyway!
30. “Give employees some control over their time.” Some employees feel that all prior commitments have to be broken when a last-minute meeting or teleconference is announced. I did not. I found someone to listen in for me, and I kept my prior commitment. But I cannot convince today’s employees that my strategy is an option for them. Perhaps it isn’t. And that disappoints me.
31. “Ensure that employees are evaluated according to what they have achieved, and not by some arbitrary quota system.” I have always felt that the rating for a manager should be the average of the ratings of his/her employees; and that every employee should have the opportunity to be “outstanding.” Being permitted to give “outstanding” to only 10% of my group, drove me out of management. And when I retired from the company, I was told “You have achieved your usual outstanding rank. Would you mind if I rated you lower, since you are leaving, so that I can rate on of my remaining employees higher?” I said I didn’t mind. But I DO object to the system that forces that kind of juggling.
Oh good! I have finally dumped my pet peeves onto someone else!
Thanks for your newsletters — Jim Wood (FACCMasters Toastmasters, if you’re wondering where we’ve crossed paths!)
February 9, 2009 at 5:39 am
David Zinger
Laura:
You wrote a fine list of 29. I also appreciated some other posts on your blog. All the best with your engagement work.
David