Five Ways to Improve Talent Retention- What You Can Do

Creating a highly engaged workforce is one way to improve talent retention.  Here are five strategies designed to enhance employee engagement, along with increasing the commitment individuals experience to their work.

Last year, employee engagement at work in the U.S. declined to a 10-year low. Less than one-third of employees (31%) were engaged, a figure last seen in 2014, and 17% were actively disengaged in their work, also a number not seen since 2014.

These were driven downward by declines in many factors, including a lack of clarity of expectations, feeling someone at work cared about them as a person, and someone encouraging their development.

Retaining talent is a critical priority. Even more so during a time when there is an attractive job market. People are also reflecting on where work fits in their lives and questioning the purpose associated with all the hours they are investing.

Losing skilled staff can be a significant setback to productivity, along with negative implications for budget and profitability.  We risk burning out staff with additional tasks while endlessly recruiting for open positions. As more people leave, this cycle can become a downward spiral, jeopardizing the organization’s morale and the very ability to deliver.

So, what’s to be done to improve talent retention and engagement?

Here are five strategies we see that can best positively impact and enhance employee engagement and improve talent retention.

1. Evolve the social compact. Recognize the social contract has evolved over the years as have employee expectations. This was altered even more so as many people pivoted to remote work during COVID. It is time to update the social compact between employer and employees, adapting management’s role while doing so.
2. Connect work to meaning. People are more likely to expend discretionary effort when they believe their contribution and the mission matter.
3. Communicate what’s important.  Communicate what work is important and communicate in a way individuals know their work and their well-being are important.
4. Coach more.  Coach individuals to create trusting relationships with colleagues, instill appreciation for what they do well, and support opportunities for people to learn and know they are valued.
5. Cultivate an inclusive environment. Make sure teamwork, collaboration, and the ability to openly share opinions are the norm.

We’ll now explore each strategy in more detail.

Evolving the Social Compact

Gallup has long documented in numerous employee engagement reports why employee engagement is important and the drivers of employee engagement. In the historical social compact, the individual would spend 40 hours a week on the job in exchange for a paycheck. Work was a place you went. The supervisor or manager would be in charge. Your annual review lets you know how you were doing.  People are more interested in the purpose their work is contributing to, along with the potential for them to continue to grow.
 

During the past decade, there have been some fundamental shifts in how people think about the part work plays in their lives. Prior to COVID, most people thought of work as a place. You commuted to work on a set schedule. Today, work is defined for most knowledge workers as an activity. The age-old question, “What time are you leaving for work?” has been replaced for many today with, “What time do you need to be online today?”

During these past several years, many people have had the flexibility to figure out when they will accomplish their work. As employees worked remotely, they also experienced far greater autonomy while proving they could be as productive or better than before. Eliminating time spent traveling to and from work gave people back as many as 10-15 lost hours during the week. It also reduced the stress associated with commuting.

Connect Work to Meaning

Meaningful work makes a difference. As a past Tuesday Reading by Laura Patterson outlined, people are looking for meaning in the work they sign up to do. “Purpose is the belief that you are working toward something larger and more important than yourself. Purpose is believing that what you do has an impact.” Finding purpose in all the hours people toil has risen on the list of what individuals are looking for in their work.

At MIT during a professional development series, participants from finance had an opportunity to visit other parts of MIT. In one instance engaging with faculty in a lab, in another instance listening to Ph.D. students doing research on the brain, and in another sitting in a session where senior leaders were presenting. These employees who spent their days doing journal transfers, procurement and accounting saw how their efforts were supporting MIT’s mission. This exposure let them connect the dots and see how their efforts contributed to the Institute remarkable contributions to research and teaching.

Clearly Communicate What’s Important

Many employers have already redefined the manager’s role to underscore the need to communicate more consistently given a more distributed workforce. In early 2020, nearly half of employees strongly agreed that their supervisor kept them informed about what was going on in the organization. This figure has since slipped all the way to 27%. During the extended uncertainty accompanying the pandemic, people were anxious to know what was going on. Now years later, the need still exists to consistently and clearly communicate with staff.

During COVID there became a greater awareness of the need to be more empathetic when interacting with individuals who are going through different and in many cases difficult situations. Employees appreciate this understanding from the manager/coach. Speaking of which…

Increase Coaching in the Workplace

Doing less traditional managing (the ‘what’) and adopting a coaching approach (the ‘why’) helps engage individuals and demonstrates an interest in their well-being. Coaching is an essential mindset change, where the manager moves away from reviewing to-do lists and action items and focuses on the individual’s contribution, offering encouragement, providing feedback, supporting their growth, and personal well-being. 92% of employees want structured feedback more than once a year. Employees who receive daily feedback from their manager are three times more likely to be engaged than those who receive feedback once a year or less. A person’s manager is THE primary factor in an employee’s engagement and, ultimately, their performance. Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement.

The pivot to remote work proved most people are quite capable of being self-managed. Yet all these years organizations have had managers assuming the responsibility for seeing that the work was planned, and results delivered. With the right work design, communication and focus, people will accomplish the needed outcomes under their own self-direction.  This work design functions most effectively when managers realize their value is taking on the communication and coaching role. People still need to know the direction and the priorities.

Coaching involves far more inquiry than giving direction. Questions serve to engage employees.  In the current environment, it is recommended that coaches spend time listening and learning about what is important to each staff member to better appreciate what they find rewarding and what contributes to their staying. Questions such as:

• What do you find most interesting about the work we are doing?
• What do you personally enjoy the most in the work you do?
• What do you find challenging about the role or the work?
• Are there things you would like to learn?
• How can I support your success?

Cultivate an Inclusive Workplace

To improve talent retention, leadership needs to create a climate where people feel welcome. Where they feel they belong. Where they can be their authentic self while doing their best work. As leaders, it is our responsibility to create an environment where everyone feels respected, and we can employ our diversity as a strength.

The need to improve talent retention in order to fulfill the mission and goals your organization has signed up to deliver is on the critical path, and it is never a box that can be checked and deemed complete. What can you do to ensure people experience meaningful work they see as connected to a greater purpose? What steps are needed to develop the mindset, skillset, and toolset managers need to be effective in this constantly evolving and increasingly challenging environment?

[Brian McDonald is the Founder of MOR Associates.  Brian may be reached at [email protected] on on LinkedIn]