People don’t leave jobs; they leave cultures and managers. If leaders are not listening, supporting, and developing staff and addressing conflict, then people will leave in their droves.
Talent loss impacts an organisation on many levels. It hinders productivity and reduces profits and is detrimental to employee morale
The “great resignation” has been coined as a term to highlight the significant challenges facing organisations presented by the new expectations from the workplace, and what hybrid working might look like.
Pre-pandemic, statistics from recruitment companies often showed that there would be a surge of people looking for other job opportunities on Christmas day, the festive season being a particularly reflective time.
The pandemic turned out to be a similarly reflective time. People have been re-evaluating their careers, relationships and values. The prospect of a long daily commute to possibly deal with people that they may have been able to avoid, coupled with a lack of acknowledgement for their needs from a manager or organisation resistant to change, has resulted in huge talent loss.
A Microsoft survey of more than 30,000 global workers showed that 41 per cent were considering quitting or changing professions, while four million Americans quit their jobs in July, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics.
Talent loss impacts an organisation on many levels. It hinders productivity and reduces profits and is detrimental to employee morale. The staff left behind become bottle necks for information and decision-making, which impacts on company culture and innovation while at the same time making talent attraction more difficult.
The key to talent retention is listening to employees when it comes to their concerns about returning to the workplace. These may include work-life balance, flexibility, childcare, unresolved team conflict, safety, workload and many more.
When it comes to motivating people, research by Daniel Pink, the American author, highlights that pay is not always a key motivator. Instead, the key factors are mastery, autonomy and purpose.
Am I developing in my role? Do I have the autonomy to choose what way I work? What is my purpose and how does my role in the organisation or the organisation itself fulfil that?
People don’t leave jobs; they leave cultures and managers. If leaders are not listening, supporting, developing people, engaging under-performers and addressing conflict, then people will leave in their droves.
Organisations have several options available. They can offer supports as people adapt to returning to the workplace in the form of mentoring or coaching and they can design for flexibility based on the company’s strategy, context, resources and team members.
Cali Yost William, a hybrid workplace expert for over 20 years, suggests the factors of flexible working should include place, space, tech, time, process and pace.
This is where organisational design and facilitation come into play. There is no cookie-cutter template, so it is imperative that organisations focus on the needs of the organisation while striking a balance with employees.
The mother of invention is necessity, so companies should ask themselves about their current set-up, and what they need to do to redesign their teams and organisational structure. How can they fill in the gaps in relation to resources and what are the emerging opportunities?
Negotiate on expectations with employees and, should conflict arise, deal with it “early, directly and constructively”, as Luke Monahan of the Mediation Foundation of Ireland puts it.
There are no short cuts. To be a credible leader it is vital to demonstrate that you are willing to do the work and lean into conversations that normally would be avoided.
Share This!
Related Posts
People don’t leave jobs; they leave cultures and managers. If leaders are not listening, supporting, and developing staff and addressing conflict, then people will leave in their droves.
Talent loss impacts an organisation on many levels. It hinders productivity and reduces profits and is detrimental to employee morale
The “great resignation” has been coined as a term to highlight the significant challenges facing organisations presented by the new expectations from the workplace, and what hybrid working might look like.
Pre-pandemic, statistics from recruitment companies often showed that there would be a surge of people looking for other job opportunities on Christmas day, the festive season being a particularly reflective time.
The pandemic turned out to be a similarly reflective time. People have been re-evaluating their careers, relationships and values. The prospect of a long daily commute to possibly deal with people that they may have been able to avoid, coupled with a lack of acknowledgement for their needs from a manager or organisation resistant to change, has resulted in huge talent loss.
A Microsoft survey of more than 30,000 global workers showed that 41 per cent were considering quitting or changing professions, while four million Americans quit their jobs in July, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics.
Talent loss impacts an organisation on many levels. It hinders productivity and reduces profits and is detrimental to employee morale. The staff left behind become bottle necks for information and decision-making, which impacts on company culture and innovation while at the same time making talent attraction more difficult.
The key to talent retention is listening to employees when it comes to their concerns about returning to the workplace. These may include work-life balance, flexibility, childcare, unresolved team conflict, safety, workload and many more.
When it comes to motivating people, research by Daniel Pink, the American author, highlights that pay is not always a key motivator. Instead, the key factors are mastery, autonomy and purpose.
Am I developing in my role? Do I have the autonomy to choose what way I work? What is my purpose and how does my role in the organisation or the organisation itself fulfil that?
People don’t leave jobs; they leave cultures and managers. If leaders are not listening, supporting, developing people, engaging under-performers and addressing conflict, then people will leave in their droves.
Organisations have several options available. They can offer supports as people adapt to returning to the workplace in the form of mentoring or coaching and they can design for flexibility based on the company’s strategy, context, resources and team members.
Cali Yost William, a hybrid workplace expert for over 20 years, suggests the factors of flexible working should include place, space, tech, time, process and pace.
This is where organisational design and facilitation come into play. There is no cookie-cutter template, so it is imperative that organisations focus on the needs of the organisation while striking a balance with employees.
The mother of invention is necessity, so companies should ask themselves about their current set-up, and what they need to do to redesign their teams and organisational structure. How can they fill in the gaps in relation to resources and what are the emerging opportunities?
Negotiate on expectations with employees and, should conflict arise, deal with it “early, directly and constructively”, as Luke Monahan of the Mediation Foundation of Ireland puts it.
There are no short cuts. To be a credible leader it is vital to demonstrate that you are willing to do the work and lean into conversations that normally would be avoided.