By Kaitlyn Whiteside
According to a recent report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of people quitting their jobs is the highest it’s been since 2001. Employees are so confident in the state of the economy that they’re leaving their current jobs to pursue better opportunities. As a result of this rising number of job seekers, employers must take steps not only to make their company attractive to prospective employees, but also to retain current ones.¹
1. Provide educational and training opportunities.
Elvis Ha, Director of Product Management at the cloud-based talent management company Cornerstone OnDemand, described employer-provided educational opportunities in a recent episode of the HR Happy Hour podcast as “new forms of equity that companies can provide to employees.” The promise of educational classes and skills training attracts prospective employees and also encourages current ones to stick around and gain skills to prepare them for future career moves.²
2. Give “feedforward” instead of “feedback.”
Feedforward is a more positive way to provide constructive criticism. Tim Sae Koo, co-founder/CEO of the marketing and social media aggregator TINT, implements this technique with his employees. In a separate episode of HR Happy Hour, Tim gave examples of feedforward questions he uses in meetings with employees, including:
• What worked in the past that you’re excited to work on again?
• What didn’t work well that you learned from that can be applied to future situations?³
3. Practice transparency.
Practicing transparency is another way to improve the employee experience. Employers should share ideas with employees, check in with them, and most importantly, listen to them. Cultivating an environment in which employee input is valued provides the basis of a strong company culture while also holding leadership accountable.³
4. Give employees recognition more often.
While a good idea in theory, “Employee of the Month” awards only recognize one employee at a time, which can cause other hard-working employees to feel left out. To be more inclusive, employers should take a cue from TINT, where they give weekly “Value Shout-Outs” to employees who demonstrate the company’s core values. This creates a positive environment in which employees feel encouraged and appreciated.³
5. Don’t be afraid to tweak company values.
Company values can evolve. Tim Sae Koo found that his employees were interpreting TINT’s tenet of “better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission” in a way that was not positively contributing to the company. So management tweaked it to say “Trust yourself and trust others.” While this seems like a minor adjustment, it goes to show that improving company culture doesn’t have to mean making sweeping changes to an entire organization.³
1 http://fortune.com/2018/07/10/jobs-report-bureau-labor-statistics-bubble/