5 Things You Could Be Doing To Avoid Scrambling To Fill Openings
With quit rates hovering around a 10-year high, 55% of people in the workforce likely to look for a new job over the next year (https://www.bankrate.com/personal-finance/job-seekers-survey-august-2021/), and unemployment rates down to their lowest point (5.4%) since the start of the pandemic, why is this happening?
First: ask why.
Why are people so much more likely to consider new positions? Though most hiring managers and C-suites want, more than anything, for it to be the quick fixes of paying more money or providing more competitive benefits, it’s not nearly that simple.
Put simply, culture is the way people treat one another at work, and each organization has a unique cast of characters, a unique story, a unique mission, vision, values, and goals, a unique way of dealing with one another, and a unique way of handling challenges. Yes, money can motivate people to stay or leave, so absolutely adapt to the market, but the differentiator that only you can offer is your culture. No one else can offer your culture as an incentive.
So you have job openings because people left those positions, and, while you can’t keep everyone forever (unless you employ a witch whose job it is to curse your employees to work for you for eternity — which isn’t great for morale), imagine looking across your organization and seeing nearly all positions filled with enthusiastic, driven people, and a line of applicants wrapped around your building like you’re releasing a new iPhone tomorrow.
What could you do with your time?
Better question: what would you be doing in order to create this reality? This employee-driven market isn’t going anywhere. As industries evolve along with the exponential rate at which technology is developing, over the next few decades, many jobs will disappear and many more new jobs will emerge in the vacuum. You need to get ahead of the next “Great Resignation,” otherwise, you’ll feel like Sisyphus day-in, day-out. That’s no way to work.
5 Things You Could Be Doing Instead Of Scrambling To Fill Empty Positions
1. Emphasize your people’s humanity first
Burnout and mental health are two of the most prevalent negative side effects of the pandemic. Balancing work and life has been a challenge many HR departments are struggling with, but there isn’t a lot of time for conversations with your people about what they’re really going through. Sometimes, the simple task of approaching them to ask about them — what they care about, how their family is doing, what they’re concerned about, etc. goes a long way to help them change their story when they see you from “Uh oh,” to “All right!” Building personal connections like this will reframe their focus when there’s conflict or adversity, and will create deeper buy-in when a better offer comes across the table. The x-factor here? Asking the question, “How can I/we help?” And yes, even ask this question if they’re looking for another job. This simple gesture could inspire them to stay, or refer someone they know to come work for you.
2. Build a recognition program to reward desired behaviors
I send out surveys prior to each presentation I give, and one of the top 5 answers to the question, “What do you wish your leadership would do more of/better?” is to “recognize the hard work we’ve been doing.” Saying thank you is one of the first things we learn to do as kids, so taking the time to appreciate the positive contributions of one person every single day makes them feel wanted, cared about, and appreciated. Emphasizing a desired behavior provides intrinsic motivation for them to keep displaying that behavior, so not only does recognition feel good, it drives us to chase that feeling. It’s biology, baby.
3. Create an open forum with the c-suite
When c-suites open meetings by asking questions, addressing concerns, and listening to ideas, it gives employees a sense of ownership in the organization. This sense of ownership shifts the paradigm from employee to stakeholder, no matter their position. Be genuine in accepting ideas, have follow-up conversations where you ask clarifying questions, and please, for the love of God, don’t respond with the “I’ll send it up the flagpole.” Be careful: if you hear ideas and concerns and do nothing with them, the effect could be even more demotivating than if you did nothing at all.
4. Reframe your company’s values to be more tangible and actionable
Take your company’s values and frame them as actions so that their meaning is more tangible and clear. “Think outside of the box,” “do the right thing,” and “treat others as you want to be treated,” are way more actionable than “innovation,” “integrity,” and “community.” I’ve seen those exact words emblazoned upon many a corporate website or painted across a wall in an office for all to see… but what the hell do they mean? Your values should center around actions so that you and your people can continually check their behaviors.
5. Allow for chance encounters and opportunities for genuine human connection
One perennial top workplace that recently became a publicly traded company leaned into working remotely to set up chance encounters between team members, regardless of position. Periodically, they would randomize Zoom meetings so that you’d be in a room with folks you may have never met, all the way from the CEO down to the newest intern. Then they’d be presented with a unique, outside-of-work conversational prompt like “Tell us about your senior prom” or “What was the crappiest car you’ve ever had?” This creates a human bond, which strengthens ties to the company, leading to lower turnover.
Based off of the above, what’s one thing you can do to build deeper connections, increase the feeling of being appreciated, improve rapport, develop more meaningful work, or a sense of ownership in your organization? All you have to do is inspire one person at a time to stay.
One at a time.
I’ve just launched a 9-week course, “7 Steps To Reframe Retention And Create A Killer Culture,” and am offering the first week FOR FREE on Friday September 3 at 11 EDT. Sign up and begin the first steps of your cultural transformation today.
