Employee Retention Is Top of Mind. Learn to Communicate With Employees in Ways That Say “You Matter” and Keep Them Working for You.
Heard of the “Great Resignation” or “Pandemic Burnout”? Whatever you want to call it, we all know employee retention is a hot topic right now. Truth is, it’s always been a big deal.
The Society for Human Resource Management estimates employee replacement costs to be six to nine months of that hire’s salary. Do the math. Depending on their income, that could be in the tens of thousands of dollars per every employee you hire.
While there are a number of great strategies around both retention and hiring, we want to focus on retention today. And specifically, we want to look at the direct relationship between retention and communication.
In MAP’s 2.5 day executive workshops, we focus a lot of communication because great communication is vital to strong, results-oriented leadership. We use the DiSC® assessment to get a profile for how, among other things, our attendees communicate. To their surprise, almost all of them need to work on communication tactics. Why?
Because, among other things, if there’s poor communication, it’s near impossible to get the message across to employees that they matter. When they don’t know they matter, they’re more apt to resign and find work in place where they do know they matter. Here a few tips to help you get it right…easy ways to lift up your employees, help them realize they do matter to you, and boost the odds they’ll want to stay!
1) Give regular feedback. Annual reviews may have their purpose and place in your organization. But monthly and even weekly accountability check-ins send the message to your hires that they and the work they do matters so much that you’re taking the time and making the effort to check in, be present, hear how things are going, provide coaching moments, and discuss challenges, solutions and successes. It doesn’t have to take a ton of time, but it does have to nurture lines of communication, ideally sending the positive message to your team members that, yes, they matter.
2) Honor victories. Research shows that the ideal praise to criticism ratio is 5:1. For some people, including those who may be more sensitive to feedback, you may find more praise is needed. Seek out ways to honor what’s going right in ways big and small. For example, pulling someone aside after a meeting to tell them how well they managed a difficult conversation and thanking them for their tact can be one small, yet impactful way of celebrating the positive.
3) Make thanks a part of your mindset. We all know that humility is a key leadership trait. Expressing appreciation on a regular basis, even making a daily commitment around this habit, can have transformative effects not just for your own leadership but the people you lead. They’ll feel appreciated, no doubt, plus be feel more motivated to take action around their goals and even take healthy risks. Just keep it real. And don’t feel you’ve got to go overboard, but do make gratitude part of how you think, speak and act.
Does your organization need communication coaching? Contact Us to unlock the DISC Assessment for you and your organization today!
