Employees are not happy. In 2015 over half of employees in America reported that they were not satisfied by their job. That is a measly 0.6% increase on the year before even though in that time the Economy has added an impressive number of jobs. That should set off warning lights for most employers. After all, if there are more jobs from them to choose from and they’re not happy where they’re at, the chances are ever greater that they’ll look somewhere else. The numbers back that up. Over half of employees report they are looking for a different job.
That is neither effective nor a good place for employers to be. After all, turnover is expensive; as people with knowhow of both the job and your corporate culture go elsewhere you’ve got to invest significant resources in finding new staff. That’s not optimal.
But where some people see trouble it’s possible to find opportunity. For if so many people are looking for a new job, could you not be the one to benefit? This could be a fantastic chance to find the people that will turn your company from good to great. All you need to do is have the right pieces in place.
You need an employee first mentality
If your employees feel that they come before the customer and before the shareholder, then they will reward that loyalty by being loyal – and enthusiastic – in return. This means more than paying lip-service to the idea, however.
As Charles Duhigg covers in his book ‘Smarter Faster Better’, Toyota famously did this by empowering employees, listening to their suggestions and guaranteeing no layoffs among employees. They then stood by their word when bad times hit by first having management take pay cuts and then reassigning workers to different jobs rather than firing them when the pain continued. The result? Employees were more motivated than ever and productivity rose by such astounding amounts that management books still talk about ‘the Toyota model’ today.
Similarly, when scientists measured the different cultures of startups in Silicon Valley, they found that those companies that had a commitment culture, as in a culture committed to their employees, outperformed every other type of culture, including star cultures (with famous high preforming members), bureaucratic cultures and engineering cultures. By how much? Where other models had numerous companies startups bite the dust (startups fail at a rate of about 90%), not a single commitment culture company went under.
In other words, caring about your employees is effective and can make a huge difference.
Things change quickly
The third thing to be aware of is that employees don’t decide if they like a job from year to year or even quarter to quarter. Things can change in the space of weeks, even days. And if you measure only in terms of months and years, these warning signs can be missed entirely. That can lead to you sitting on your laurels, even as a person – and from there an entire department – becomes unhappy and considered gainful employment elsewhere. And that can cost you some of your most valuable employees. Even if it doesn’t, it can lead to periods of lowered productivity as people focus on the problems in the department instead of on advancing the desires of the company.
Have you considered having a daily survey of one question? At the end of each day, consider asking them ‘how satisfied were you with today?’ on a 10 point scale (do make sure employees understand information is supplied anonymously). Give them space to comment if they want to, but don’t require it. This will immediately allow you to see if there is a problem, when for example a department suddenly dips as a whole. It will also immediately give you feedback about how new managers are doing, and how changes and announcements are being received.
You need to understand that it’s not just a job
It is vital to realize that today people are looking for far more than a job. They want a vision, they want a culture, they want to feel like they’re making a difference. You can thank the millennials for that. They have certain expectations about their life, including fulfillment and satisfaction, that weren’t as present in past generations. And this has been translated over into their jobs. They want to be certain when they start a new job they will fit into a new workplace environment.
For this reason it’s very important that you stay true to your corporate culture. Take what Zappos does. The first thing they do when they want to hire a new employee is to find out if they fit the culture and the vision of the company by having a cultural interview that weighs for half of the hiring process. Then, after the first week of training, they offer them $2000 if they decide to leave.
This means that they avoid having one rotten apple spoil the barrel and make sure only those people that want to work there and share the vision of the company stick around. Yes, in the short run this can be expensive. In the long run, however, it means that they protect the atmosphere and make absolutely certain everybody is on the same page and heading in the same direction. In this way the strategy is far more effective. After all, can you put a price on motivation?
Effective employees need respect
Our modern day society is all about giving people the ability to express themselves. Employees need to be able to do the same. For this reason, make certain that you give enough possibilities for people to make suggestions and make it clear that their suggestions will not simply be dismissed. If you can create a culture where people feel they are being listened to, those employees who are the most proactive are far more likely to stick around – and those are exactly the people you need to find out where the problems are.
Also, don’t assume that a manager has the best ideas as to improve job performance. It’s far more likely that the person actually doing the job has that knowledge. After all, they’re dealing with the job every day! So be sure to listen to them and try to implement what they suggest when possible. In fact, as a whole cut red tape and empower employees to make the calls about how to effectively do their job.
You need to focus and carry through
Don’t plaster over the cracks. Instead, invest serious effort in dealing with a problem before moving on to another one. This is the only way that you can actually eradicate it and increase how effective your employees are. This means not loading the plate of HR too high and means giving them enough funds to actually carry through with what they’re supposed to be doing.
Yes, a 30% increase in spending on HR might sound like a lot, but is it really that much if you’re getting higher employee engagement and all the benefits thereof? So make certain that HR has the resources it needs to deal with the problems employees may have.
Effective employers try to raise the effectiveness of their employees
Nothing is as valuable to a company as employees who love what they do and are willing to do what it takes to keep the jobs they have. These people, rather than complaining and whining when things get difficult, will tighten their belt and increase their efforts. They will communicate with customers in an enthusiastic and motivated manner. They will tell you about problems and come up with solutions all on their own.
And so any investment in employees will come back to you many times older. All you need to do is make certain that you’re not just papering over problems but giving the impression that you truly care and want to make things better. And that you make certain you ask them how the problems might be solved, seeing as they are the ones suffering through these problems in the first place.
All human beings want to be respected and shown trust. So give it to them and watch them become the effective workers you want them to be. And if you don’t give it them? Then you belong to the over 50% of companies where employees are not happy and looking for another place to work. Is that really what you want?