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.

Addressing Office Culture in Returning to Work

With more and more companies (actually) returning to the office this fall, many in leadership are having to face up to a difficult reality: employees largely do not want to go back. The push to return to the office seems to be coming from those in leadership across all industries. So how do these competing wishes stay balanced? What does leadership do when employees are pushing back against change? Kellogg’s own David Schonthal and Loran Nordgren have identified four “frictions” that companies can come up against when attempting to implement change.

The first step in this process (as in many processes) is acknowledging that people do not generally like change or appreciate being told what to do. Seems simple enough, right? Often recognizing these feelings is enough to open minds to changes. Second, is to seed ideas early and often. Mentioning that changes are coming down the pipeline long before they are actually implemented can help soften the blow. Third, involve employees in the process of designing change - but to a point. Too many ideas will be detrimental and time consuming. Working collaboratively, however, allows everyone to have a stake in the company wide change. And lastly, they pose the idea of framing changes as an experiment. Flexibility to keep what is working and lose what is not goes a long way in making people feel comfortable with changes.

While Mr. Schonthal and Mr. Nordgren post these tactics as relating to an office environment, they are easily applied in any walk of life. If your employees are returning to office work this fall take a minute to give this an in-depth read. You’ll be glad you did.

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.

Meet Your Newest KPI

As we wrap up the first quarter of 2022, it’s clear that the “brave new world” the pandemic has thrust us into isn’t going quietly into the night. There’s no doubt that after the last several years, all of us could use more compassion in our lives. Compassion for others, compassion for ourselves, compassion at home, compassion in our social circles, and even compassion at work. So it’s a pleasure to introduce you to your newest KPI, and you can probably guess what it is.

While traditional KPIs will measure more quantifiable things (revenue growth, client retention, etc.), incorporating the less tangible things should be - and largely is - a priority in modern office culture. In these days of the great resignation, employees have the upper hand in choosing a workplace culture that aligns with their personal values. Potential employees will often seek out a workplace in which kindness and respect is demonstrated toward everyone. Check out Chief Executive Magazine’s new article on how this metric is just as telling as any other. Once it’s on your radar, see just how much better your company operates.