10 Strategies to Increase Retention and Engagement

There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only two ways your employees can leave an organization. Sometimes it is physically, as in moving on to a competitor, which is manageable; at least you know the employee is no longer on your team. You are clear on the next step; hire a great employee to take over the job.

The second way is the one that strikes fear into the heart of every manager: the employee who mentally quits, but stays with your team. There are five warning signs to help you determine your employees’ level of engagement and give you a “heads up” that an employee has mentally resigned.

Evidence of a “whatever” attitude. The employee is not confrontational, but clearly is not engaged or motivated.

Minimal contribution that produces a mediocre level of performance. The employee shows up right on time, leaves right on time, and does just enough to keep his or her job, and no more.

Absenteeism: The employee uses every hour of PTO and is often overdrawn in the PTO account.

Loss of enthusiasm: The employee is withdrawn, tries to fly under the radar and contributes the bare minimum.

Little or no interest in the future. The employee has little interest in the organization’s vision and puts little or no thought into improving how work is done or customers are served.

We recently interviewed an employee who displayed all of these symptoms. When I asked the employee what his plans were moving forward, he said he was planning on leaving the organization. I interjected, “So you are planning on resigning?” The employee responded, “No, if I resigned, I would have to tell someone. I am just planning on leaving.”

Are your employees planning to leave you in 2019? Here are 10 strategies to create an environment where employees are motivated, engaged and love coming to work.

1. Create a compelling positive vision for your team. A vision is a clear mental picture of the outcome. Team members want hope that tomorrow is going to be even better than it is today. Involve employees in creating the vision for your workgroup so they feel they have ownership.
2. Set clear goals: Each year, set goals for your workgroup that are in alignment with your organization. Then, each team member needs specific goals that are in alignment with your team goals. With clear vision and goals, employees have hope for a better tomorrow and they are crystal clear on what they need to accomplish. Employees like reading mysteries; they just don’t want to work in one.
3. Work on cool stuff. Cool stuff is all about innovation, continuous improvement and change. When employees know they are expected to think, test and eventually implement new and better ways to improve the organization and team, they know they are working on meaningful work. They are engaged and want to stay because they realize they are learning, growing and becoming an even more valuable employee.
4. Create growth and development plans. Most employees want to know they have a brighter future ahead of them. A growth and development plan helps team members know they are growing and will most likely be a more valuable asset to the team and organization. Meet four times a year to discuss the employee’s goals, create a plan and ask how you can support them in their future growth and development.
5. Trust your team members: If employees are clear on their goals and how they align to the department’s vision and goals, trust them to get the work down. If the team member is hitting their goals, as well as providing outstanding internal and external service, the only question you should be asking them is, “How can I support you even better?”
6. Recognize and reward excellent performance: If you want your best and highest performing employees to stay, recognize and reward them accordingly. If we reviewed the performance appraisals of each member of your team, we should be able to see a significant difference between your highest and lowest performing employee.
7. Select the right people for the job. Would your team members or peers say you hire the best possible candidates for your jobs who are an asset to your team and organization? When we review our engagement benchmarks based on over 300 organizations, the Best of the Best organizations are 20 percentage points higher than organizations in the Overall Benchmark at hiring the right people for the right job. When you hire someone who is not the right person, coach, counsel and educate them. When that does not work, share the employee with a competitor.
8. Accountability counts. Hold all team members equally accountable to meeting their goals in the timeframes established and for being a team player who has the reputation for outstanding internal and external service.
9. Celebrate success: Demonstrate your gratitude daily by thanking employees and the team for the great work they do and the value they add to the team and organization.
10. Own retention and engagement. When employees leave, it is easy to place the reason on external factors like compensation, benefits or promotions. Leaders need to recognize that very seldom will an employee tell their boss the real reasons they are leaving. Reasons like: they don’t feel valued or appreciated; they are not working on meaningful work; they have no hope for their future in this job; the lack of teamwork makes the job a grind; they feel micro-managed and not trusted; or some of the most difficult people in the department get the best rewards and promotions. Managers need to internalize engagement and own the fact that they create the culture in their department or organization. As a leader, what is the culture you want to create?

Right about now, it would be easy to not internalize retention and engagement and blame it on money. What is important to note is that when we review our benchmarks, there is only a 6 percent difference between the Best of the Best Organizations and the Overall Benchmark Organizations when employees are asked if they are competitively paid. Would you leave your organization for 6 percent more money? If you work for a leader who has built a culture with the previous 10 engagement and retention strategies, the chances are you would not leave for a mere 6 percent. When you own it, you can move forward and create an environment where employees love to come to work.