Francis Eberle
December 9, 2022
How to encourage your employees to stay — and stay productive
Photo / Jen Dean Photography
Tara Jenkins founded Conscious Revolution to help CEOs and founders build conscious businesses.
By Francis Eberle and Tara Jenkins
The Clash first recorded “Should I Stay, or Should I Go?” in 1981, but it is just as relevant today as when they wrote it.
It’s a question many employees are asking themselves right now. If you are an employer, you not only need the answer to be “yes,” you also need your people to be productive.
“Quiet quitting” is on everyone’s radar right now, and with workers in short supply you need their best work.
It can be hard to retain people from a multigenerational workforce and even harder when there’s competition for a shrinking pool of working-age people and a post-pandemic view of the workplace. We advocate three strategies: Purpose, Respect and Support.
Purpose. Engaged people have an intrinsic drive to work hard. Employers must instill a sense of purpose to foster engagement.
You can find out how you’re doing by asking yourself some questions:
- Is your company’s purpose adding value to the world and/or people making their lives better?
- Can your people at any moment say why your company exists?
- How do the tasks people work on contribute to the company’s purpose?
- Can you map your people’s competencies and their tasks?
- Do your people’s values align with the company’s purpose?
- What motivates your people to work for your company?
Respect. This is often referred to as psychological safety. You need to know your people and show you care. This includes their families, what they like to do and where they like to go. You need to recognize what it is like to be in their shoes.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you able to recall at least five things about each of your people and their families?
- Do you have ways to determine if workloads are too heavy or too light and to adjust accordingly?
- Are your meetings inclusive and does everyone have a meaningful opportunity to speak?
- Do you track how much you listen vs talk?
- When new ideas are suggested, do they get implemented or just those you like?
- Do you treat people like they want to be treated?
Support. Gallup reported recently that almost 50% of the people interviewed had high levels of worry and stress. Today’s workforce seeks feedback and support. Feedback costs nothing and pays big benefits.
Ask these questions to find out how well you support your people:
- Do you meet with team members at least once a week, even for 15 minutes? What frequency do you meet with departments or company-wide?
- Have you moved from performance reviews to real time feedback?
- Do you share positive feedback? What is the percentage as compared to negative?
- Is your feedback specific with details?
Do you support them by matching work to working style:
- Is remote work an option for all, unless specific job criteria require a workplace presence?
- Have you made additional health and safety improvements?
- Do you have multiple ways, including incentives, for learning and advancement at all levels?
- How competitive is your compensation to others in the same industry?
- Do you recognize, celebrate, and award your people?
It is unlikely that any one company does all these things. We have clients doing many of them.
Our questions are designed to help you think about your people and how you support them. Working in the three areas here helps you redesign your culture so they’ll stay… not go.
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