3 Lessons in Low Turnover

The last few years have been a rollercoaster when it comes to employee security and company turnover. On the one hand, we’ve seen the Great Resignation, on the other, rounds of layoffs. Even in uncertain times, employee retention and maintaining low turnover rates manages to be a top priority for many companies. Many in leadership assume that a competitive salary is enough to make a difference in employee retention. Studies show, however, that employers need to take a comprehensive approach to keeping their best employees happy in other ways.

Inc.com has a great new article with three suggestions for these comprehensive measures. The first centers around building trust among employees and management/leadership. Cultivating an environment in which everyone feels heard is essential to building this trust. If an employee feels as though they are not being heard, as though their ideas are not valued, that employee is much more likely to seek a more supportive and trusting environment.

The second tactic is to promote community by holding employee-led events. These differ from the traditional team-building exercises in that employees are able to promote something that they are passionate about. Whether it be weekly yoga sessions, daily meditation breaks, or annual events that are important culturally such as Pride celebrations or International Women’s Day; when employees can share their passions with the team, everyone grows together as a community.

The third strategy is something that some businesses are learning about the hard way. One thing that we have seen from the COVID pandemic is that employees are largely demanding more flexible schedules. This is especially important if that employee is a caregiver to someone outside of work (children, aging parents, an ill relative, etc.). Those who have to keep working once they leave the office (or clock out if they work from home) need more flexibility with holiday time to actually feel like they are able to take a break. The more flexible a holiday schedule/PTO is, the better employees can support their own individual needs in this area. Check out the full article here for a deeper dive and in-depth examples from companies across the country.

A Trick to Reduce Turnover

Turnover. The dreaded subject no one wants to spend their precious time on. There’s been a lot made of this topic in the past couple years, what with the Great Resignation and all. Even if resignations might be slowing a bit, no one in leadership wants to deal with having to replace valuable lost employees. In a new piece by Maurice Schweitzer, Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and Professor of Management at Wharton, he shares one intervention management and leadership can take to help reduce turnover rates.

If leadership wants to retain employees, simply reorder their assigned tasks. In the largest field study of it's kind, Schweitzer and his colleagues found that employees are far more likely to quit when given many difficult tasks consecutively. When they are given a more balanced workflow of difficult tasks followed by less challenging tasks, morale remains higher and employees are far more likely to stay. Seeing as there is always difficult work to be done, this can be a bit of a challenge in and of itself, but maintaining a balanced workflow can be one of the most powerful tools in retaining and motivating workers.

This study explains how employees associate their satisfaction with their job with the “Peak-End” rule. Most of us follow this rule for any experience. We tend to remember the “peak”, meaning the best, worst, or most extreme moment, and the “end”, the most recent moment associated with the event. Therefore; if an employee is constantly having to deal with extremes in their workload, they will associate more negative feelings with their job in general. The original paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, connects the behavioral psychology of the findings with practical steps management can take to make sure employees maintain this balance. Give it a quick read and see if the practical tools can help leadership with employee retention at your company.

Not to Worry About Quiet Quitting

By now most everyone has heard the new trendy term “quiet quitting”. This in fact, has nothing at all to do with quitting, it simply indicates when employees choose to do the bare minimum that their job requires. Never going above and beyond, never putting in unpaid extra hours, never responding to emails past COB. Some may see this as employees setting healthy boundaries in the quest for work/life balance, while some see it as laziness and a detriment to the company. Over the last month the term gained a lot of traction thanks to one TikToker, whose video on the subject quickly went viral, garnering over 8 million views in just a few weeks. But does this new concern have staying power? Is it actually something that businesses and leadership need to be concerned with? The brains over at Wharton give a resounding ‘no’.

Matthew Bidwell, a management professor at Wharton, has a new quick read (and quick listen on Wharton Business Daily) about what the real issues are that management needs to be worried about. While leadership is of course always interested in getting the highest performance out of their employees, the much bigger issue these days is keeping employees, period. Let’s go beyond the “no one wants to work anymore” mentality here. There has always been those who do not want to be defined by their labor and seek more freedom in their chosen lifestyles. In August, however, 4.3 million workers voluntarily left their jobs, setting a new record. So who has time to worry about quiet quitting when actual quitting is so much more detrimental to a company? Take a few minutes to give Professor Bidwell’s article a quick read, and listen to his discussion on the wider labor market, and where this trend may be going.

Feedback That Builds Confidence

Wharton’s blogs have been shared here many times for their science-based insight, fascinating interviews, and wide array of topics. One of the more interesting series are their “nano tools”; brain hacks that leaders can use to immediately impact team motivation and success.

The newest nano tool to be featured concerns performance reviews and feedback, and the ethos “they can because they think they can”. Like the Little Engine that Could, employees are inspired by leadership’s confidence in them and will more often than not rise to the occasion. The new article contains not only action steps, but real-life examples of how those in leadership use them. Read up and see how inspiring words can drastically increase productivity, foster a growth mindset, and result in more overall employee retention.

Operation: Talent Retention

The so-called “Great Resignation” has been a major topic of conversation in the latter half of 2021, and with good reason. There are major changes occuring in the labor market, with one study showing that there were over 10 million open positions at the end of July. So what is a company to do in the face of so much uncertainty?

HBR’s new article lays out some sound advice on how to retain your company’s talent. Ron Carucci spoke to HR departments in many companies who are not experiencing employee attrition and laid out some steps anyone can take to maintain a close business environment. These employers and HR leaders can attest to exactly what it takes to keep your top talent and build a sense of company community. Give it a read and see what you can inspire in your company.