As a subscriber of Energage Company’s retention and performance management tools, Lisa Sordilla recently wrote about what ways to ‘find and retain’ top talent for both large and small organizations.
Finders keepers is the name of the game
When it comes to attracting and retaining top talent, “finders keepers” is the name of the game. First, you need to find the right talent. Then you need to keep them. Employees generally have more choices and your competition isn’t shy about poaching your best talent. Organizations need to focus on an employee-centric culture.
Attracting and retaining talent starts with culture
Energage suggests “getting intentional” about culture, as the initial step.
Leaders protect themselves against the challenges of attracting and retaining talent by recognizing and cultivating culture, while at the same time keeping their workforce engaged. Employee turnover is expensive and disruptive. Recruiting new talent is too.
Successful organizations are intentional about culture
Every company has a culture. Companies that allow their culture to develop accidentally fall victim to the culture they inherit.
Organizations who are proactive, are about building a culture that delivers on business strategy, wins against the competition, and remains steady in turbulence. In other words, they’re intentional about culture. And it’s led by senior leadership who knows success happens when a healthy culture is a primary focus.
An intentional culture makes organizations better at finding people
Energage’s, research shows organizations that are intentional about culture, have a whopping 95% of employees refer their organization to others. They practically recruit their friends to join them at work.
This referral rate drops dramatically at average organizations where culture is accidental, not intentional; only 60% of employee will refer their friends.
An intentional culture makes an organization a better keeper, too
Culture impacts an organization’s ability to attract new talent and it also impacts employee turnover. A leading indicator of retention is intention.
Companies that leave culture to chance struggle with attrition. For instance, more than half of the employees at these organizations admit to looking for better jobs. And if they’ve got one foot out of the door, you can imagine the effects on productivity, customer service, and toxic talk.
Big Hint / Idea from Alysia:
Create a line diagram (left to right) for yourself; write down numbers from 1 to 10 on the line – think of 1 (as your disengaged employees) to 10 (as your highly engaged employees) — think of your current team / where do each of them stand on that line:
- What words describe the ‘disengaged employee’?
- What words describe the ‘highly engaged’ employee?
- What can you do to keep these employees engaged?
- What words describe the middle employees (from 5-8 on your line diagram? What can you do to keep these employees engaged?
- What can you do to move employees from ‘disengaged / somewhat engaged’ to more of the middle of the pack?
Organizations that are intentional about culture. Over 80% of employees intend to stay put. Think about it – that’s double the commitment level.
Accidental Cultures retain 4.5 out of 10 employees
What you must do to attract and retain talent – and how you should do it
Culture impacts referrals and retention, but what drives culture? How does an organization go from an accidental culture to one that’s intentional?
In Part 2 – We’ll review what organizations must do + How organizations must do it + Three steps to create a positive culture that attracts and retains people.