You Are Only as Good as the People Who Work for You

Walter Rogers
President and CEO
Baker Communications

For more than three years now, a major focus of the economic crisis has been on the disturbingly high unemployment rate. At the worst, it was officially measured at more than 10%, with the actual rate suspected to be much higher. However, it seems the worst is over now, with recent reports indicating that the official unemployment rate has come down almost 2% off its highs, and economic activity is picking up.

While this is mostly good news, there is a cloudy lining that could soon hit employers hard. Many of their employees who have clung ferociously to their jobs during the economic turmoil may be getting ready to jump ship.

Consider these results reported in MetLife‘s recently released 9th Annual Study of Employee Benefit Trends:

• Only 47% of employees today say they feel a strong sense of loyalty to their current employer. This is down from 59% three years ago.
• Yet, the same survey reports that 51% of employers believe their employees are still strongly loyal, which is unchanged from three years ago.

And here is the most shocking statistic in the report:

• More than one-third (36%) of all employees hope to be working for a different employer within the next 12 months! This number skews even higher when only the data for workers in the 18-34 age group is considered; upwards of 85% of the employees in this category expect to change jobs in the future, with many hoping it will be sooner rather than later.

What has triggered this drastic rise in employee instability? It is almost certainly connected in large part to the stress employees have been under over the past 3-4 years. Despite the slump in the overall economy, companies of all sizes enjoyed significant productivity gains during this time, proving that many were able to "do more with less." At least 43% of larger employers (with 500 or more employees) and 38% of smaller employers (with fewer than 500 employees) reported productivity gains in 2010. It now seems that this productivity has come by pressing employers to work longer hours at flat pay rates while accepting reduced benefits or no benefits at all. Employees are apparently exhausted and ready for a change. It seems this short-term productivity gain may have come at the expense of employee loyalty.

"Worker loyalty has been slowly ebbing over the last several years, and it is important that employers take action to turn the tide around. The short-term gains employers realized from greater productivity appear to be short-lived and now pose bottom-line challenges as key talent considers other employment opportunities that have arisen as a result of the improving economy," said Anthony J. Nugent, executive vice president, U.S. Business, MetLife. "There is no doubt that the rebounding economy will bring more opportunities for employees, especially the high performers."

Certainly, this poses a dire threat to any company that has invested a lot of time and money in their employees to help them develop the unique skills and experience required to deliver the exceptional branded services that help the company succeed. The cost to replace these employees – not just the cost of hiring and training replacements, but also the cost of the lost opportunities due to a lack of skilled personnel to drive new business – could spell disaster. However, the MetLife survey did uncover one difference maker that seems to inspire employees to remain loyal and be less prone to wander: 71% of respondents who are satisfied with their benefits continue to feel loyal to their employers, compared to a mere 25% of those who are "very dissatisfied".

So, it seems clear that one of the best ways employers can stave off the talent drain is to ramp up the perceived benefits their employees receive. However, when considering benefits, it is important to find out what benefits employees really care about. It may not always be about money.

For instance, the 2011 Work Stress Survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Everest College finds that a whopping 77% of Americans are stressed at work, with low pay the most common reason cited (14%).

Other reasons cited include:

• Commuting (11% of workers)
• An unreasonable workload (9%)
• Annoying coworkers (8%)
• A bad boss (5%)
• Poor work-life balance (5%)

This follows on the heels of news from the American Psychological Association that 36 percent of workers report experiencing chronic work stress and almost half say low salary has a significant impact on their workplace stress. The APA survey also found that employees cited lack of opportunities for growth and advancement, heavy workload, unrealistic job expectations, and long hours as significant sources of workplace stress. Anything employers can do to mitigate the issues above may be just as important as items like salary, healthcare, and retirement plans when it comes to retaining existing employees

Employers Must Become Proactive NOW

Employers are about to face a double-whammy. First of all, as we have made abundantly clear above, employees who are feeling exhausted, unappreciated and unfulfilled are ready to jump ship for any opportunity that is more rewarding and less stressful. However, the rising economy is already creating a host of new job opportunities across almost all industries, and that means companies are also about to embark on a round of aggressive new hiring, and many of them may soon be making attractive offers to your key personnel. If you want to protect your company‘s ability to be competitive going forward, it is urgent that you begin to pay as much attention to the care and feeding of your employees as you have been paying to product development, marketing and sales. In the end, your company isn‘t your products; your company is only as good as the people you have working for you.

Here are two areas employers must address immediately in order to address these new workplace challenges:

1. Make an effort to understand what goes into the satisfaction matrix of your employees. - Understand the difference between the "satisfiers" and the "dissatisfiers" of employee motivation. Dissatisfiers go to maintenance issues like salary, workplace conditions, poor management, etc. Companies with a high dissatisfier quotient will have a hard time holding on to employers during any economy. Satisfiers, on the other hand, are the true motivators, and they go to the content or challenges of the job itself. If the job does not offer the employee a chance to grow and have a sense of ownership or accomplishment, many employees will eventually drift away anyhow, because they simply don‘t care enough about what they are doing.

MAINTENANCE FACTORS DISSATISFIERS — JOB CONTEXT	MOTIVATORS SATISFIERS — JOB CONTENT
Pay	Growth
Physical working conditions	Achievement
Benefits	Responsibility
Supervisory practices	Recognition
Status	The work itself
Company policy

Now is the time to deal with the dissatisfiers like salary, health and retirement benefits, long hours and work-life balance issues, and management dysfunctions if you want to keep your star players. But more than that, you must come up with a strategy for tapping into the motivators your employees really care about and give them opportunities to grow, to contribute, to make a difference, and to do something they are passionate about. This might very well include special training programs to help overcome skill gaps and open the door for employees to enjoy more success across the board. Keep in mind that in the coming months, people who feel they are stuck in a dead-end job will have plenty of options to leave.

2. Begin working now on a focused, comprehensive onboarding and training program for new hires. – By making the adjustments suggested above, you can definitely mitigate a possible employee exodus, but it is inevitable that as the economy picks up speed some employees will be leaving for greener pastures. This means there will be gaps to fill and staffing challenges to meet. Also, in addition to replacing employees who have moved on, you will probably also need to grow the overall workforce to meet the opportunities created by an expanding economy.

The most important thing you can do to take the sting out of the experience drain and get ready for new growth is to development an effective onboarding program that can quickly and effectively bring new hires up to speed, as well as provide important new skills for existing employees who will be called upon to step up to new positions and responsibilities. This onboarding plan should include:

• A hiring strategy that defines the qualifications, experience and characteristics of the ideal candidate for the roles
• A careful review of the skills, tools and processes needed to get new hires up to speed
• A comprehensive training, enablement and support program that accelerates productivity and helps new employees quickly gain critical skills
• A structured system that integrates new employees into the company culture and helps them feel at home as a part of the team
• An ongoing coaching and development program that supports new employee as they continue to refine their skills in the context of their relationship with your company

Of course, you are very busy now working at the tasks that are necessary to help your company remain competitive in this still uncertain economic climate. However, you must get out of survival mode and start taking talent management issues seriously. Every sign points to a drastic increase in employee churn over the next 12-18 months. If you don‘t take steps now to change your corporate culture to accommodate the needs of employees who have remained loyal and worked selflessly during the past going on four difficult years, the next notice you receive will come from those employees, letting you know you have two weeks to find someone else.

Action items:

• Can you identify the employee satisfiers and dissatisfiers at your company?
• Do you know what benefits your employees value other than money and health insurance?
• Do you have any policies in place at your company to help employees address issues related to stress, management dysfunction, or work-life issues?
• Describe the 5 most important things you will include in your employee onboarding program that will help you address the coming employee exodus.
   

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Walter Rogers is the President and CEO of Baker Communications. Baker Communications is a sales training and development company specializing in helping client companies increase their sales and management effectiveness. He can be reached at 713-627-7700.

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