Optimizing hiring, engagement and retention strategies
by Darcy Bevelacqua, Managing Director, Analytics & CX
A recent Gallup report on the State of the American Workplace, is a study to help business leaders optimize their hiring, engagement and performance strategies. The study collected data from 195,000 US employees. They asked “What are top reasons you would consider leaving your firm for a different organization?”
The primary answer was “My work doesn’t have meaning and purpose.” This is what employees valued most. If employees aren’t able to link what they do best on a regular basis, they tend to quit. Add to this the fact that only 1/3 of US employees are engaged in their work and their workplace right now. It’s not surprising that according to Gallup 51% of American workers are actively looking for a different job or watching for openings right now.
Gallup says “employees feel rather indifferent about their job and the work they are being asked to do. Organizations are not giving them compelling reasons to stay.”
How do you fix the problem?
Since we know that employees need to have a purpose to have a fulfilling life, we need to think about closing the gap between work and lack of purpose.
Employees love to use their unique talent , skills and knowledge to help a company succeed. How do we help this happen?
1. Take time to get to know your employees and what their unique strengths are.
Find out what your employees are good at and find ways to bring out the best in them by assigning meaningful work that goes beyond their day to day job description.
2. Match your employee’s jobs to their strengths.
There is a need to think about matching employees with jobs to be done. The closer you can align the employee’s skills with their purpose, the less likely they are to struggle and become bored or uninterested. Help them help you by building on what they are good at.
3. Help employees in the wrong roles find another job inside your company.
Encourage your best people to move around inside your company. Get them exposed to other areas. This helps everyone and keeps the employees engaged. Let them see there are plenty of options inside the company and they don’t have to leave to get new challenges and opportunities.
4. Institute the “stay interview” method
We all have a process for exit interviewing employees who quit-but most of this information is never used to improve your company. Instead this is a formality that is left up to HR. Instead managers should be asking questions like : What do you like about your job? What don’t you like? What would you prefer to be doing that you aren’t doing now? Do you feel we are using your talent to its full potential? What could be done to align your job with your purpose?
Summary
As management it’s our jobs to engage our employees and retain our top performers before they look for other opportunities. Look for training programs, special projects, employee “internships,” community involvement, mentoring programs, etc. to get your employees involved and fulfilling their purpose. And check in with employees regularly to assure they are feeling utilized to their best and fullest potential and appreciated, recognized and rewarded for their contributions.
EC is pleased to announce Aileen Cahill has joined our client Prudential Financial – Workplace Solutions Group as Director, Customer Experience. Aileen is a Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP) & Classically-trained CPG brand marketer who blends “Big Data” analytics with marketing expertise to create engaging omnichannel CX. She began her career in CPG with such brands as Hershey, Pepsi, Conagra. She worked in consulting with a variety of companies including Peppers and Rodgers helping major brands become more digitally savvy and driving them towards 1 to 1 Marketing. She has also served as a CMO for an internet startup and global Veterinarian healthcare company. She has specialized in Customer Experience since 2009 when she became the chief customer officer at Hurley travel. In the last few years she was the SVP Client Partner Retail and Consumer Goods for Merkle, and the cofounder of a small full-service Customer Experience consulting firm called Agile Marketing. Aileen has been a professor and lecturer at Cornell, Northwestern Harvard, Chicago and the USM. She also published a book Internet Marketing -Building Advantage into a Networked Economy. She has a BA in Applied Analytics from SUNY Binghamton and an MBA from in Marketing from Cornell. Darcy Bevelacqua, Managing Director, Analytics & CX at EC, managed this exclusive search for Prudential.
EC is pleased to announce Liza Amezquita has joined our client Prudential Financial – Workplace Solutions Group as Manager, Customer Experience. Liza is a certified Customer Experience professional. She has been working at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield for the last 11 years, earning 4 promotions along the way. She worked in Customer Experience, Product Development, Underwriting, Sales, and Customer Service. Prior to Horizon Liza worked at Rapid Recovery as a project manager and sales leader. In her early career she worked in medical billing for Ortho Shockwave Consultants, Pediatric Ophthalmic Consultants and EBI. Liza has a BA in Theatre Arts from Rutgers and an MBA in Risk Management from Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City. Darcy Bevelacqua, Managing Director, Analytics & CX at EC, managed this exclusive search for Prudential.
EC is please to announce Chris McNally recently joined our client, Accenture Interactive, as Managing Director in a new role to build and expand the automotive sector business across North America.
EC is pleased to announce Tom Smith recently joined our client, Jackson National Life, in the newly-created role of AVP, Client Experience & Technologies, reporting to Emilio Pardo, Chief Marketing & Communications Officer.