Employee Retention: The True Cost of Losing Your Best Talent
How do you spot a great manager? It’s someone who fosters a culture of productivity and excellence. Someone who’s fun to work with, and connects with their teammates on a personal level. Someone who knows how to inspire and lead their team to success. In short, someone who makes people want to show up — and stay. Low turnover on your team may make you feel like a successful manager. After all, if you only lose a handful of people on your team each year, you must be doing something right. But what if that high employee retention rate is actually a negative—an indication that you’re failing to challenge employees and creating a culture of complacency? What if the few people you’re losing are actually your best and brightest? Employee turnover already costs US companies $160 billion a year. Replacing an employee can set your company back as much as 2x their annual salary. And with high performers delivering approximately 400% more in productivity than the average employee, losing even a few of your star workers can have an astronomical impact on your bottom line. Not only do high-performers cost more to replace, new research by SAP and Oxford Economics shows that less than half of them are satisfied with their jobs, and 1 in 5 say they're likely to leave in the next six months. Source: HBR It’s time to redefine successful employee engagement and retention. There are many questions to consider when it comes to employee retention, especially when using professional services to hire: are salaries direct costs for professional services firms? Do professional services have to provide proof of workers' compensation? Let’s examine the true cost of losing an employee, beyond the obvious hiring expenses, and uncover the real reasons high-performers and high potentials leave their jobs. Got $13 Billion? The Real Cost of Employee Turnover According to the US Labor Department, the number of Americans who quit their jobs is now the highest it’s been in nearly a decade: 3.1 million people voluntarily left their jobs in January 2017. That employee turnover is expensive. From advertising and recruiting to training and lost productivity, costs add up quickly for organizations that fail to actively invest in their workforce. Hiring costs: Between advertising open positions, screening applications, and interviewing candidates, the recruiting process alone represents a significant expense for companies. It costs $4,000 and takes 52 days on average for US businesses to fill an open position, to the tune of $13 billion a month. Onboarding costs: On average, businesses spend the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary to locate and train their replacement, not including valuable time spent by management and supervisors during on-the-job training. Lost productivity: These "soft costs" are trickier to quantify, but still have a significant impact on a business' bottom line. New hires simply aren't as productive as the person they’re replacing, and may take a year or two to get to that level. Not to mention potential errors made by new employees who are unfamiliar with your company's processes, tools, and policies. Poor engagement: When a teammate leaves, the rest of your employees are bound to wonder why, and may even consider leaving as well. This ripple effect can lead to a significant uptick in disengaged employees, which costs US companies up to $550 billion a year in lost productivity. To put these figures in more relatable terms: for a salaried worker earning $60,000 a year, your company will likely spend $45,000 to replace them. Warning Signs Someone is Ready to Quit Just as a poker player's “tell” hints at the content of their hand, a team member's behavior can tip you off that they're looking to leave. A new study by researchers at Utah, Florida, and Arizona State Universities defines a set of 13 “pre-quitting behaviors” that managers can use to identify those at risk for turnover—and possibly intervene in time to convince them to stay. These behavioral cues include: Decreased productivity A reticence to commit to long-term timelines Dampened enthusiasm for the organization’s mission Less willingness to act as a team player Stereotypical signs of an employee's impending departure, like wearing a suit to a casual office or a sudden rise in the number of doctor's appointments, did not show as strong a statistical correlation with employees who quit soon after. Researchers have also found that job hunting jumps by 6% around an employee’s work anniversary, increases 12% around birthdays, and spikes to 16% around non-work-related gatherings like school reunions, when people are more inclined to reevaluate the state of their life goals. With these figures, it’s tempting to accept employee turnover as a fact of life. But many of the reasons employees quit are surprisingly simple, even for high performers, and managers who fail to ask why their workers want to go may be needlessly losing people who are costly to replace. The New Employee Retention Model While competitive pay and benefits packages remain an important part of the equation, it’s no longer enough to retain your top talent. Recent years have brought about a significant shift in the employee/employer relationship dynamic: today’s young professionals expect to work for many companies over the course of their career, and require a sense of purpose and personal growth at each stage. This shift belies a need for a new employee retention model that begins with hiring, and extends to creating an enriching work environment. Effective employee retention strategies start with hiring the right person. One of the most common reasons people leave their jobs within the first 12 months is a poor fit, so don’t oversell the position to candidates. Be honest about what the job really entails and how success will be measured. Lori Goler, Global Head of People at Facebook, shares her favorite interview question with The Wall Street Journal: "'On your very best day at work when you go home and you think, I have the best job on the planet, what did you do that day?' I want to be sure that whatever job or role the person is coming into is something that has a lot of whatever that is in it. That is how you get someone to play to their strengths from the very beginning." Job fit isn’t the only thing to consider when hiring; culture fit is more important than ever. Millennials now represent over half of today’s workforce, and the who of their daily work matters to them just as much as the what. They want to work alongside people they like and enjoy collaborating with. And if they’re not finding that at your company, they’ll look for it somewhere else. So how do you create that culture of camaraderie? In an article published on LinkedIn Pulse, Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin by Deloitte, urges managers to apply Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs when cultivating a vibrant workplace culture that meets high-performing employees' expectations. Once people are “safe” (paid well) they want their work to be meaningful, apply to their personal skills and interests, to feel appreciated, and to work for a company they're proud of. Recognition and rewards remain an important and practical way to create a positive culture, so raises, promotions, and public recognition for your star employees are critical to keeping them engaged. As Jean Martin and Conrad Schmidt explain in an article for Harvard Business Review, “Even employees who haven’t been dubbed high potentials work harder in a place where good things happen to those who deserve them.” While public recognition remains a key element of a thriving company culture, high performers also require more frequent feedback and recognition from their own managers. 50% of high performing employees expect at least a monthly sit down with managers, but only 53% say they are getting the feedback they want from their superiors. Busy managers must make the time for frequent one-on-ones with their top team members, or risk them feeling that they're under-appreciated or stagnating in their careers. Another crucial aspect of a company culture that retains high performers is that of ongoing education—which is not only a benefit for your workers, but good for your organization. High-performers and high potentials represent future company leadership, and that process should start early in their careers. But it’s no longer enough to send people to conferences, workshops, or 3-day certification programs. Today’s top employees demand continuous learning opportunities, delivered through innovative platforms that fit their individual schedules. Ongoing education must be woven into the everyday priorities and schedules of your best performers. Even managers with limited funds for training can frame new projects and assignments as learning opportunities to keep high performers engaged. Implementing all of the above employee retention ideas doesn't guarantee that you'll retain your top talent, however. At the end of the day, people simply won’t stay with a company where they feel stuck. Even after controlling for factors like pay, job title, and industry, a study conducted by Glassdoor found that workers who stay longer in the same job without a title change are significantly more likely to move to another company for the next step in their careers. Keeping your best employees means giving them clear paths to advancement, and acknowledging them as future leaders early on. One large company profiled by Glassdoor solves this problem by giving high achievers access to exclusive online discussion boards, led by the CEO, that are centered around the company’s most pressing challenges. High achievers share their solutions and volunteer for new assignments, which not only ups transparency and involvement, but gives the executive team a direct line to the company’s rising stars. Solutions to Employee Turnover Companies are now experiencing a shift towards what Deloitte terms the “new organization,” characterized by highly empowered teams and workers. To retain top employees and stay competitive, companies must go beyond traditional engagement strategies like competitive pay and benefits packages. Smart managers will recognize the need to create an engaging workplace based on a strong learning culture, and define a new model of leadership and career development for their teams. As Josh Bersin writes, "High-performing companies serve their employees just as well as they serve their customers."
Avoid the Domino Effect: Help Your Team Members Understand Their Impact
It’s easy for people to miss the forest for the trees and have a severe lack of understanding about how their own individual work fits into the larger picture. Failure to understand these interdependencies leads to a frustrating domino effect of delays and failure. Here's how to ensure that doesn't happen.
Growing Pains: How Do You Manage a Team That Keeps Growing?
With your company expanding at a rapid pace, you can no longer employ the same management tactics you used when your entire team could share a single pizza. Here are 5 tips to effectively lead and manage a growing team — without the stress, drama, or chaos.
6 Strategies for Dealing with a Toxic Work Environment
Constantly chewing on Tums to get through a bad day at the office? Sounds like you may be dealing with a toxic work environment. All joking aside, negativity at work can have serious consequences for your health and personal life. If you think that you're dealing with a toxic environment, you need to come up with permanent solutions to make your office a better place to work. Ignoring the problem or telling yourself it will sort itself out eventually isn't good enough when your health is involved. Here are some tips to help you toss the Tums in the trash and turn your situation around: 1. Anticipate problems and solutions If you are regularly stressed at work, learn to predict what creates the problem. Is it that daily 1:00 PM meeting that always causes arguments? Is it working with a specific person? If you can anticipate stressful situations, then you can walk into them prepared to engage extra willpower in order to remain calm and collected. 2. Talk it out If there is an identifiable problem, create a constructive environment with someone who can help remedy the situation. Micromanaging boss? Underperforming teammate? Set up a meeting to exchange feedback. To make sure it doesn't feel like a one-sided attack, share what you think is working well, what you think could be improved, and allow them to do the same for your performance. Since you expect them to take your feedback seriously, take theirs seriously too. And pick your battles carefully — not everyone will be open to your mature conversation. 3. Don't complain in the office Fruitlessly venting can put you in one of a few situations: (1) your boss overhears you complaining, (2) your team thinks you're whining or dislike your negative attitude, which makes it harder to work together, or (3) your coworkers also start engaging in the negativity, which just feeds the toxicity of your environment. When you're in the office, the best thing you can do is to remain positive in the face of hardship. If your coworkers are the ones who start complaining, try not to engage. Put on headphones or take a well-timed bathroom break. 4. Find an outside support system Finding that "talking it out" is too difficult, either due to the person you're having a problem with or your own shyness? That's fine. Always closing your eyes to prevent yourself from rolling them while you're in the office? We can't always help it. If you're boiling in the negativity, release your emotions outside of the office. Confide in your patient spouse, a friend and a glass of wine, your dog, a counselor, or your diary. Finding a supportive outlet for your frustration — not someone you work with — will help you tame the itch to lash out at your toxic colleague(s). 5. Learn to let it go You can't control other people, their actions, or the outcome of a dinner with multiple cooks in the kitchen. When things go awry, learn to take a deep breath, tell yourself that things could be worse, and help yourself move on. Holding onto negative thoughts builds up in your brain and can make a bad situation feel much, much worse. Remember to let go of the negativity, and you might realize your environment is not as toxic as you thought. 6. Make sure you're not the problem This is a hard one to confront. Before you throw up your hands and quit your job, make sure that you aren't the main source of toxins at work — or the negativity could follow you forever. A good way to do this is to ask your boss or a trusted colleague for specific feedback on ways to improve your performance. If they seem to think that you have significant room to improve, it might be time to reflect on how you can improve your work demeanor. Is it time to move on? Not every job is a perfect fit, so if you have already tried our tips above and nothing is working, it's time to move on. Learn what you can from your current company and go find a job that makes you feel healthy again. Make sure to let your contacts (outside of your current company, of course) know that you are on the market, update your LinkedIn profile, and start searching for an escape. Ever worked in a toxic work environment? What did you do to improve the situation? Share your wisdom in the comments and help out everyone who is struggling right now. Related Reads: How to Communicate Like Super Bowl Champions Team Conflict & Resolution: The 2-Minute Guide 4 Strategies for Dealing with Difficult Stakeholders Top image credit: Nicolas Raymond on Freepik. Changes made. Some rights reserved.
Wrike Joins the Top 25 Great Places To Work
Ping-pong tables are great, and snacks are nice to have. Competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits packages are wonderful. But what really makes a workplace great? There’s no one tried and true recipe, but there are a few commonalities that great places to work share. One is a mission you can get behind. Another is being surrounded by people who bring out the best in you, and you from them. For short we’ll call this, culture. The value of culture can’t be overstated and for many of us, a good cultural fit is a driving factor in whether or not we’d like to bring our talents to a particular organization. Once you join an organization, feel part of the team, and enjoy the work, you want to tell others so they can enjoy the benefits, too. That’s where the Great Places To Work index comes in handy. And, by the way, Wrike recently received its top 25 Great Places To Work®! Wrike is one of the top 25 Great Places To Work® for 2021 Great Places To Work® is the definitive source to gauge company culture and employee engagement. Their annual survey uses the Emprising™ employee experience software, trusted by thousands of the World’s Best Workplaces™. The results of an independent survey determined which companies made it to the list. Here’s what Wrike employees say: When compared to the typical U.S.-based company, the survey results tell the story: Wrike is a great place to work and to start or advance your career: We’ve come a long way, and our team and product have grown tremendously since our founding in 2006. This year is already on pace to be our best yet as we accelerate our mission to be the leading platform for the enterprise, bringing all departments together into a single digital workspace. On a bit of a winning streak Along with the Great Places To Work® certification, last December, Forrester honored Wrike as a Leader in collaborative work management (CWM) for the third year in a row. Then, 2021 went off to a roaring start with GetApp naming Wrike a category leader for CWM. Next, Capterra put us on the shortlist for project management software, followed by Software Advice tabbing Wrike as one of the five most popular project planning tools. Everything capped off last week in the biggest moment of our company’s history with Citrix completing its acquisition of Wrike! Why work at Wrike? Lots of reasons! Our team continues to innovate and push the boundaries of what’s possible in collaborative work management, and that passion starts with having a cohesive, global team focused on shaping the future of work. To begin, this year’s survey showed that 93% of employees felt welcomed when joining Wrike: Wrike employees’ comments summarize what it’s like to work with our fast-growing team. Culture, people, fun, and leadership all top the list: Aside from the high marks and team members’ pride in their work, Wrike offers a comprehensive benefits package plus the following items to those who join the team: Welcome box with company swag Monthly social events (even during the pandemic) including movie nights, chocolate tasting, virtual escape rooms, virtual cooking and mixology classes, fitness classes, trivia night, and many more Monthly snack box deliveries 401k with company match Department swag boxes Beyond the perks, Wrike celebrates diversity. Within our offices, we’re committed to celebrating the various identities and cultures of our staff through dedicated groups and events. We’re committed to creating and maintaining a diverse and inclusive space where our employees can thrive. For example, we’ve hosted events to celebrate Black History Month and International Women’s Week, and established a community titled “Wrikers of Color.” At the end of the day, we aim to make work fun and continue to push the industry forward as the leader in collaborative work management. Join Wrike and help shape the future of work Our team has an aggressive, ambitious product roadmap and we’re excited at what lies ahead. That’s where you come in! Wrike is hiring across the board in all locations — Prague, Dublin, Tokyo, Dallas, San Diego, and our company headquarters in San Jose, California. Of course we’re open to remote team members, too, especially in this hybrid work environment. Open opportunities range from customer success to sales to marketing, engineering, and many more. Check out all of Wrike’s open positions here.
Leadership: The Keys to Instilling Autonomy, Mastery, & Purpose In Your Team
Want to build a great place to work? Instill autonomy, mastery, & purpose in your team. A lengthy, science-backed discussion on why these 3 factors increase job satisfaction for your workers, making your firm a magnet for top talent, and ultimately boosting your bottom line.
How Buffer is Redefining Company Benefits (Work Management Roundup)
Welcome back to the weekly Work Management Roundup where we share the latest, greatest reads from the web regarding work and productivity. This week we find Buffer doing something innovative regarding worker compensation, we learn more about Uber's recent rebrand, and we discover a reason some people hate open office layouts: germs. Read on for the good stuff! Why We Support Teammates with Dependents (and Why it’s No Longer Part of our Salary Formula) (Medium): Buffer started out paying teammates more money if they have dependents or family members who rely upon their income. But after receiving feedback, they've instead created a new "dependents grant" as a part of their benefits package. How's that for a perk? Seven Strategies For Managing Remote Tech Talent (Forbes): Seven members of the Forbes Technology Council share their best advice for getting the most out of your remote team. Tip: get the right tools and have the right processes in place. Is Your Open Office Making You Sick? (Motherboard): Sure, open offices are not always ideal for quiet productivity, but are they also inadvertently harming our health? According to a few published studies, yes! They're associated with employees getting sick more often. The Inside Story of Uber’s Radical Rebranding (Wired): It's the story that's all over this week's news in the Silicon Valley. Uber's CEO personally took it upon himself to rebrand their logo and portray the evolution of both the founder and the company. The big question that remains: does the logo communicate the brand? 7 Pieces of Wisdom That Will Change the Way You Work (99U): Here's a great piece — seven gems of wisdom regarding work from such luminaries as Kurt Vonnegut, Martha Graham, and Steven Pressfield. More Work Management Reads Think About This: Ask the Market Experts: How Do You Stay Productive and Mindful? (Business.com) 26 Blogging Mistakes That Are Costing You Time, Money, and Credibility (ProBlogger) The Biggest Wastes of Time We Regret When We Get Older (LifeHacker) Siri, Alexa, and Other Virtual Assistants Put to the Test (The New York Times) Go Try This: The Power of Power Naps: Salvador Dalí Teaches You How Micro-Naps Can Give You Creative Inspiration (Open Culture) Running a Remote Blog Network? Streamline Your Processes With Wrike (Blogging Pro) Browse Productivity Works on Flipboard If you use Flipboard on your laptop or mobile to keep up with news, then you may enjoy our magazine full of productivity advice. Check out Productivity Works, or click on the widget below: View my Flipboard Magazine.
Engagement Survey (Infographic)
Engagement is a hot topic for many business leaders today, and for a good reason. Studies show that companies with engaged employees lead to greater productivity and higher profits. Our infographic illustrates what drives employee engagement and how engagement relates to productivity.
Working for a Workaholic: 10 Strategies to Save Your Sanity
Ever had a workaholic boss? You're glued to your phone, compulsively checking email notifications at 3 AM, and have long given up making weekend plans you'll only have to cancel last minute. While some people love giving their all to their jobs and thrive off of setting and achieving aggressive goals, that always-on mentality isn’t for everyone. If you’re the type of person who needs a firm separation between office and home, working for a workaholic can be stressful, as you feel obligated to adopt their mindset and habits at the risk of your own sanity. If you're feeling pressured to skip your lunch break, answer emails at midnight, and take stacks of work home with you, skip the Irish coffee and read our 10 tips for working for a workaholic instead. 1. Remember that your work style is valid. Even if you give 100% when you’re at the office, you can start to feel like you’re not doing enough just because you’re not answering emails at all hours, or because you leave your work laptop behind when you go on vacation. Remember that your value is based on the quality of your contributions, not just the quantity, and that you don't need to put in 80 hours a week to be a good employee. 2. Don’t assume that just because your manager is a workaholic, they expect the same from you. Chances are, they understand their work style isn't for everyone. So communicate! Talk about how and when you can be reached when you aren’t in the office and under what circumstances. If your manager knows they can get ahold of you when it really counts, they might feel less anxious about having you available all the time. 3. Decide what your limits are and communicate them. If your boss really does expect you to be available 24/7, you'll need to be proactive about protecting your personal time. A good manager will understand that if the work (and worker) is suffering, a change needs to be made. If you’re taking on so much that you can’t be effective at your job, tell your boss that you're spread too thin, and come prepared with solutions to propose. Have a list of projects you think a teammate would be better suited to handle, or suggestions for how to improve processes and make tedious work less time consuming. 4. Once you've set your limits, stick to them. Even if you’ve had “the talk” about work/life balance, old habits die hard, so you may have to remind your boss a few times about your agreement. If you're still regularly getting assignments on Friday evening that are due Monday morning, don’t be afraid to say, “I’m sorry, but I have a prior commitment this weekend.” 5. Schedule an after-hours commitment. Sign up for a 6 PM spin class, or make it known you have to catch the 5:25 train. By having a definite "hard stop" scheduled, you won't end up staying progressively later because you feel pressured to, or because you keep getting handed tasks to complete. Plus, your co-workers and boss will learn to anticipate and accept when you’ll be off for the night. 6. Consider shifting your hours. Will working 10 AM to 7 PM get you more face time? People are more likely to notice those who stay a few hours late more than those who come in early, even though the number of hours worked is the same. 7. Be willing to step up when it counts. It's good to set healthy boundaries, just don't be stubborn when your team really needs you. Chances are, you'll have a few late nights at the office or a big project that eats up a Sunday evening now and again. As long as it's not every weekend, be willing and gracious about stepping up to help out your team when it's important. 8. Keep track of your achievements and productivity. Every time you cross an item off your to-do list or successfully complete a big project, make a note so you can prove that you’ve earned your evenings and weekends. If you’re committed to your work, efficient, and deliver good results, eventually your hours will become a non-issue. 9. Ask for advice. Workaholics spend a lot of time at the office and have likely learned all the ins and outs of your field, which makes them a valuable learning and mentoring resource for you. Take advantage of their knowledge by asking them for advice, particularly on projects that you find challenging. 10. Focus on the positives. Working for a workaholic boss can be a good thing — it can push you to pick up new skills, give you the opportunity to tackle high-profile projects, and put you in the spotlight for promotions. If you’re willing to buckle up and put in a few extra hours, you could be along for an exciting ride! Reclaim Your Work-Life Balance The good news is you don't have to work 24/7 to impress your workaholic boss. Browse our archive of productivity tips and tools to get more done from 9-5, then check out our Q&A with Overwhelmed author Brigid Schulte for the secret to a healthy work/life balance. Sources: Forbes.com, Fortune.com, TheProductivityPro.com, The Wall Street Journal
Generations Engagement Survey
Despite the differences between generations, employees of all generations and backgrounds collaborate across the world to build amazing companies, products, and services. It’s more important now than ever to build an engagement strategy to empower your team across all generations. Read more about our full survey report.
Employee Engagement Statistics to Kick Off 2020
High employee engagement is crucial to greater productivity and profits. As you execute your 2020 strategies, make sure to factor it into your success. Check out our article, where we round up some of the top statistics from our eBook on engagement and productivity across company size, gender, role, personality, and more.
