About this time, people are wrapping up Q1, performance reviews, and finally solidifying their goals.
Now is when we get going. But before you push down on the gas pedal, you need to know some important data around the hot topic: retention & employee engagement.
According to a recent survey and featured in an article in Forbes, 2021 is going to be the year of decreased company loyalty and the employee break-up.
After surviving 2020, a lot of companies believe that their employees are just grateful to have a job. While it might be true, that those who did not experience layoffs or furloughs, are thankful to have not gone through that—what we are hearing from employees is a completely different tune.
“I’ve never felt more disconnected from my team”
“I am extremely burnt out and don’t know how much more I can take”
“I am at the point of just quitting”
“Something has to change”
“I’m just waiting to see if anything changes, get my bonus, and then I’m out”
“I’m just keeping my head down and doing my work, but I’m already looking for something else”
I can guarantee you, 2021 is going to be the year of turnover. People went through hell and back during 2020 and many are struggling to stay positive. They understood we were all just trying to figure things out and survive last year, but now they are looking to their companies to see how they are going to intentionally fix the disengagement, increase resources & support, and redesign culture & the employee experience in a post-covid world.
If this is not on the company’s agenda, they are going to find themselves with an expensive problem, regrettable turnover:
Backfilling their best employees
Training new colleagues
The cost of new employees ramping to full productivity
On average, it takes a new employee 8 months to reach full productivity. This means, you will spend the majority of 2021 hiring and training new colleagues it you don’t make the investment in keeping your most valuable asset: your people.
Here are some best practices that are shaping the future of being a best place to work:
Embrace remote and flexible work: People are looking for options and if you are not talking about changing your previous expectations of being in an office 5 days a week, then I can promise you, most of your people are looking for a new job. Even with a vaccine and offices reopening things are not going back to pre-covid days. There are those with health issues or other reasons that they don’t feel comfortable coming back to an office or getting the vaccine. Their kid’s schooling may have changed or need to care for family members, the list goes on. One of the top priorities for people right now is the ability to have flexible work options. Flexibility of when to come to an office, able to work from a different location, or being able to work different hours than 9-5. Companies that can explore ways to do this efficiently and keep engagement high, will be the places people are begging to work for. If not, you can be sure that you will lose a significant portion of your workforce over the next year.
Find ways to cut down on meetings: People are tired of zoom and meeting after meeting. Look to implement tools and software that allows people to get glimpses into the work being done without having to go to another meeting. There are amazing tools out there like Slack, monday.com, Asana, and lots more. Look for ways to streamline and drive connection without needing to be on video all day.
Create ways for people to connect and engage that are meaningful: People miss the human connection. So find ways to create fun during the day and as you begin to open up, do it with the human approach before work productivity. Encourage colleagues in the same town to do socially distanced lunches, if they are comfortable. Host small gatherings or small group working sessions that can be socially distanced and make sure fun and connection is included. Host happy hours, that people can join virtually but with no other agenda but fun and getting to know each other.
Prioritize development: One of the best ways to keep employees is to show them they have a future there and a way to grow with the company. Many coaching clients have come to us saying they are wanting to look for a new job because their company doesn’t seem to have ways for them to get promoted any time soon and they feel they have reached their ceiling. Take the time to create truly transformational leadership development and career pathing programs, that show people you are serious about keeping them and making them part of the company’s future.
The future of work is shifting at the speed of light, but one thing is for certain, it doesn’t look like going back to pre-covid workplace culture.
The future of workplace culture is exciting and probably has the ability to be more authentic than ever before, but we have to be willing to leave our previous ideas behind and create something new.
If you need help on how you can practically implement any of these best practices, reach out.
Here at Brave Leaders Group, we have been helping fully remote and dispersed workforces design brave cultures & build engaged, high-performing teams for the last 6 years. We understand the unique challenges and create customized solutions for companies that are serious about growth and having strong cultures.
We’d love to learn more and help you design a place where people love to work and thrive.