Subscribe to my feedPosted by Jaylyn Schumpert on Mon, May 07, 2012
Do you know what is important to your prospective and current employees? Do you work hard to meet those needs? If you answered yes to both questions, then you probably have a low employee turnover rate. However, this is not the case for all employers and many companies struggle with the issue of employee turnover.
The average employee tenure at a company is approximately 4 years. This is barely enough, or not enough, time for a company to fully recoup hiring and training costs. Companies cannot eliminate turnover; however, there are some items to consider when trying to retain quality people.
The following are 6 steps that an employer can take to attract and retain top talent:
1) Evaluate Your Managers
Measure employee turnover by manager; this pinpoints the real problem. Poor managers cancel out all the good things that employers do to attract and retain the right people. Once the problem managers have been identified, help them! Use assessments or other tools to discover what these managers are doing to drive employees away and then provide training to develop them into better leaders. Good management is crucial to employee retention.
2) Create a Recognition Culture
Give your managers the responsibility for seeking out ways that employees go above and beyond. Create awards for excellent performance; this gives everyone an opportunity to be in the spotlight for doing a good job. Great examples of employee recognition include: thank you notes, employee of the month awards, newsletter recognition, service awards, etc. Positive recognition will lead to a more productive work environment.
3) Create a Healthy Work Environment
Create an environment where positive recognition seems normal. In order to achieve this there must be open communication, an attitude of cooperation, and an atmosphere of trust. Communicate with your employees; let them know where the company is going, how it plans to get there, how their jobs play a part in the grand scheme of things, and why they are the key to your success. Look for ways to show that you are willing to meet them halfway in balancing their personal and professional lives- flexible hours, childcare facilities, birthday leave, etc. Last, but definitely not least, trust your employees. If you want people to trust you, then you have to trust them. Give people a good reputation to live up to and they won’t let you down.
4) Create an Atmosphere of Continual Self-Improvement
Today’s job candidates want the opportunity to develop themselves and to continually polish their skills, abilities, and experience. Invest heavily in training and employee development and encourage employees to take advantage of the programs offered. Give everyone access to training that will enhance their self-esteem, their value, and their skills. Prove to your employees that there is no reason to leave when they can receive training and development from within the organization.
5) Put Your Best Foot Forward
This next statement may definitely throw some employers for a loop; pay employees as much salary and provide as many benefits as you can afford from day one. The goal is to reduce turnover and retain the right people, so if you scale back the initial offer by 15%, will the savings be enough to retain the employee when another company offers more money? Probably not. Put your best foot forward from the start and let everyone know that you are paying as much as you can afford for each position. As a person moves up the ladder, their pay should be adjusted accordingly. Know what each job is worth, and pay it early.
6) Match People to Jobs
Ensure people are matched to their jobs in terms of their abilities, interests, and personalities. When people are placed in positions where job demand and abilities match, where job stimulation and interest match, and where cultural demands and personalities match, turnover decreases and productivity increases. Employers can use assessments to determine the requirements of each position in terms of abilities, interests, and personalities and then use the information to match people to jobs where they will excel.
In most cases we want the quick, easy, and inexpensive fix, but unfortunately that is not always possible. Attracting and retaining the highest quality people may take time, effort, and money. By applying the 6 steps from above, companies can eliminate a large percentage of why people leave and keep the people that are essential to their success.
Do you remember your first day of school? That moment
standing at the bus stop, lunch box in hand, waving your mother good-bye, and your heart beating faster than ever. Well starting at a new job feels the same way. We’ve all been there – dressed in your finest business attire with butterflies in your stomach as you enter through the doors of a brand new job. But did you know it’s estimated that 45% of new-hires fail within 18 months?
That’s why investing in a welcoming and structured onboarding process will help reduce such turnover and increase new-hire effectiveness. An effective onboarding process isn’t just a routine checklist; it should be a comprehensive
process that makes the new employee feel comfortable and acquainted. When a
new-hire anxiously walks in the door, they need an extra boost of confidence –
and a structured, friendly introduction will help. A successful onboard leads to
a successful organization! Here are five factors your onboarding process should
have:
1. Team involvement. Onboarding a new employee should involve the
entire team. It’s not just the HR department or the hiring manager’s concern,
but all team members should be involved in welcoming new hires. Taking new
employees to lunch or assigning a mentor will help build relationships and show
the newbie that the company values them.
2. Consistent structure. Whether you’re onboarding a new secretary,
associate or top manager, the process needs to be consistent for all employees
and reflect the company values. A set structure helps the employee as well as
the team and administration. Remember, it’s all about making the transition as
smooth as possible.
3. Prepared desk and equipment. In addition to structure, make sure
that everything – from the desk, office supplies, security badges, computer
passwords, phone numbers and access keys – are prepared for the new hire. You
want them to feel at home!
4. Information. The most important part of the onboarding process is
making sure the new employee has access to all the information they need to
succeed in their position and know the company. It’s a good idea to set up
meetings with subject-matter experts so the new employee can grasp the
organization’s goals, policies and practices.
5. Check-ups. The onboarding process doesn’t stop after the first day
or the first week. It’s important to have regular “check-ups” with your new
employee, ensuring they are comfortable and offering them the support they need
to be successful.
At the end of the day, the onboarding process is the employee’s first
impression of the company culture and it should introduce the organization
values. Now that you have a successful onboarding process in place, it’s time to
focus on training and developing these new employees to succeed! Call us to access a free report
“Training and Developing Employees to Succeed”. 415-456-1990 or email us at assess@smartmovesinc.com
Top 10 Reasons Boiled Down to 1
Erika Anderson, a contributor at Forbes writes about Eric Jackson, a fellow blogger that she follows and finds both funny and astute. Eric wrote a really spot-on post last month about why top talent leaves large (and small) corporations. He offered ten reasons, all of which I agreed with – and all of which I’ve seen played out again and again, over the course of 25 years of coaching and consulting. The post was wildly popular – over 1.5 million views at this writing.
So why do we find this topic so interesting? I suspect it’s because we’re genuinely curious: What would make a very senior executive – someone who most certainly has been courted by his or her organization and then paid huge sums of money to join – decide to pack it in? Is it greed (an even richer offer down the street)? Hubris? Short attention span? Or do 1%ers actually leave jobs for the same reasons as the average Joe or Josie?
According to Jackson (and, again, I agree with him) top talent does indeed leave for the same reasons everyone else does. If I were to distill his ‘top ten reasons’ down to one, it’s this:
Top talent leave an organization when they’re badly managed and the organization is confusing and uninspiring.
About half of Eric’s ten reasons are about poor people management – either systemically, as in poor performance feedback, or individually, as in, my boss sucks. And the other half are about organizational lameness: shifting priorities, no vision, close-mindedness.
It really is that simple. Not easy, mind you, but remarkably simple. If you want to keep your best people:
1) Create an organization where those who manage others are hired for their ability to manage well, supported to get even better at managing, and held accountable and rewarded for doing so.
2) Then be clear about what you’re trying to accomplish as an organization – not only in terms of financial goals, but in a more three-dimensional way. What’s your purpose; what do you aspire to bring to the world? What kind of a culture do you want to create in order to do that? What will the organization look, feel and sound like if you’re embodying that mission and culture? How will you measure success? And then, once you’ve clarified your hoped-for future, consistently focus on keeping that vision top of mind and working together to achieve it.
I’ve worked with client organizations that do those two things, and people stay and thrive. I’ve worked with and observed client organizations that don’t – and it’s a revolving door. And that’s true at all levels – not just for “top talent.”
It’s fascinating to me: Why don’t more CEOs and their teams make sure these two things happen in their organizations? What do you think?
The 7 Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives 
Eric Jackson Contributor
Effective sales managers need to A.C.T. – Assess, Compare and Train
So you hired a new sales rep. He seems highly qualified: great resume, very personable, relevant work experience, and he nailed the interview. Now months go by and he just isn’t delivering the numbers. What’s going on? Is it time to let him go? Or can he be coached?
Recent research from CSO Insights‘ sales survey shows that coaching sales reps is the number one key to helping them rev up their sales. So, a greater emphasis on coaching is a necessity that will help your new sales hires become fully productive faster and more efficient.
Once you notice a potential problem with a sales rep, you want to be proactive about it before the problem gets worse. It’s important to coach early and coach often!
How do you go about effectively coaching an underperformer? Here are three fundamental steps managers must take to coach and develop underperforming sales reps:
- Assess. Before you begin coaching, you need to know and understand the individual as best as you can. You need to know their specific strengths and weaknesses, skills and attributes, and personality and behavioral traits. Most of this information isn’t found in a single job interview or resume. To fully understand them, you need to assess them! SmartMoves offers the Profiles Sales Assessment that specifically measures how well a person fits sales jobs and includes seven critical sales behaviors: prospecting, call reluctance, closing the sale, self-starting, working with a team, building and maintaining relationships, and compensation preference.
- Compare with Top Performers. After the underperformer takes an assessment, then you can compare their results to those of a top performer. In doing this you will be able to see the areas where the individual is struggling. The differences will show where the underperformer needs to improve to succeed.
- Train and develop. Once you know the areas the individual is struggling in, you can give them appropriate sales training aimed to improving those traits or behaviors. Let’s say an individual scored lower in the area of assertiveness, then the sales manager can cater training to specifically improve the sales rep’s ability to not take no for an answer.
When sales managers “A.C.T.” they can effectively coach their sales reps to improve their numbers and reach their full potential.
By Kyle Lagunas, HR Analyst at Software Advice. Guest Post
Business leaders invest a lot in their organization, and expect to see a tangible return on their investments. But as organizations search for opportunities to maximize the ROI of their workforce, they one process is often overlooked: onboarding. Sadly, the onboarding experience is often reduced to little more than a checklist of tasks to be completed in the first week. But the fact that many leaders fail to leverage is that an employee that experiences a smoother onboarding process will be better trained, more connected to the organization and quicker to produce.
Your decision-makers need to know their resources are being put to good use, and with the right metrics at your disposal, you can deliver the information they’re looking for. After all, the key to making the case for future resource allocation lies in being able to illustrate the effectiveness of your onboarding process.
Establish a Baseline for Measuring Onboarding ROI
The biggest obstacle many HR departments struggle to overcome is establishing a baseline for how their organization will assess ROI. Fact: Evaluating the value of an enhanced HR process is not always a straightforward process. As such, spending time with leadership to establish a baseline for measuring ROI is invaluable.
There are a few key concepts to keep in mind when establishing your baseline to measure ROI:
- Onboarding should be consistent. All of your fancy data gathering will be for naught unless you can roll out a universal process for onboarding new hires.
- The onboarding process is more than a checklist. Though checklists are great for staying organized, your new hires’ success depends on your ability to get them connected to your organization and keep them connected beyond their first day.
- The onboarding process goes beyond the first week. Though the normal probationary period for new hires is 90 days, The Wynhurst Group reports 22 percent of staff turnover occurs in the first 45 days of employment.
How to Brave the Metrics Madness
After identifying what information will be most valuable, you can implement tracking strategies. Keep in mind that some of the data you measure won’t be cold, hard facts that fit nicely into a spreadsheet. That said, there are three areas you can focus on for information: performance, experience and effectiveness. Also, broaden your scope beyond your new hires to measure the impact at various levels (team, department, organization).
Here are a few ideas of what you can measure (as well as how frequently):
| Employee(30, 60, 90, 180, 360 days) | Team(Quarterly) | Organization(Semi-annually) | |
| Performance | Progress milestones | Change in overall productivity | Headcount vs. output |
| Experience | Employee satisfaction | Impact on team morale | Cultural fit vs. retention |
| Effectiveness | New hire time to proficiency | New hire time to proficiency vs. team average | Impact on retention (both quits and terminations) |
For Maximum ROI, Take Engagement Beyond Onboarding
The best metrics should be forward-thinking analytics tools. According to Dr. John Sullivan at TLNT.com, “They tell you who’s going to win the Superbowl next year, not who won last year.” Furthermore, they should provide the information you need to win the Superbowl every year.
At the end of the day, your ROI is answering one question above all: What is the value of onboarding new employees more effectively? Here’s a hint: Take a look at your metrics and note improvements in employee performance, time to proficiency and increased retention. Once you can answer that question, move onto the next question: “How can we maximize the value of a better-onboarded employee?”
One way you can maximize this value is to keep the momentum going. Many organizations leverage the tools and technology found in talent management systems to better manage the process of engaging and motivating their employees. Beyond core talent management functionality, these systems also offer reporting analytics and dashboard elements that provide the information you need to support your ROI analysis.