As the Economy Turns: A Wake-up Call for Managers

The Gantz-Wiley Workforce 2004 report states that 41 % of the workforce are looking to take their talents elsewhere. Can you afford to take the blame for losing your best talent? Now that the economy is turning around, this should serve as a wake-up call for effective managers to focus on their retention strategies. What are you doing? Here are some things to consider.

Although most managers still believe that money is the number one reason employees leave, the research does not support that false belief. Unless your organization is paying below the average wage for the work being done in your locale, there are other more serious reasons for employees to abandon ship. These “hidden factors” are mostly under the control of the individual manger. The research does show that the direct manager plays the key role in employee retention. This applies to all levels of management in the organization.

Consistent with the Workforce 2000 report, employees complain about recognition and communication with their direct manager as being the key elements in determining employee motivation and retention. Although these two factors may seem simplistic to understand, good managers often struggle trying to make sense of them with their work teams. What does it mean “to give recognition?” For one thing, it means that the manager have the ego strength of acknowledging to both the individual and upper management the good ideas that are contributed. Too often I still hear in many of my trainings, that a manager claims the idea for an improvement, or a better process, or product as his/her own. The manager in these situations obviously fears for his/her own career. Recognition also means that even when ideas are not implemented, that the manager explains in a more cogent manner why the idea was not implemented. This means going beyond the superficial “they didn’t accept it” response and take the opportunity to put the response into a larger perspective. This type of feedback is not only more helpful to the employee, but also serves as a learning opportunity. Understanding the “big picture” is not something that all employees do well, but a manager can develop. But often the manager doesn’t even understand either because of thinking style, or poor communication from higher levels, or the manager’s own level of stress and burn-out.

Closely related to recognition is communication. As mentioned above, most managers are swimming over their heads today’s workplace environment, trying to keep themselves afloat. Communication is often “cut to the chase” and becomes a one way interaction. A recent manager I worked with was worrying about her future success, stating that her employees seemed to be turning on her. We examined several of her weekly memos that she distributed to her staff. Clearly she was demonstrating in her memos that she was setting direction, something a manager must do. But when she complained of not getting any feedback, her memos were written in a manner that did not invite real feedback, or give a useful structure for her staff to really contribute. When I suggested she try to this in a meeting so that the rapport could be developed face-to-face, she convulsed about useless meetings and that she didn’t have that time. She built her success by her directing and pushing. We worked out a system where she could continue her memos, but added space for ideas and comments. She then selected the best 3 or 4, announced those through her e-mail memo system, and acknowledged those who contributed (all ideas). Instead of the manager arbitrarily deciding amongst the ideas, she had the group decide which of the group to implement. The staff became more involved.

Another major complaint of workers in the study is work/life balance issues. Recently a technical manager reported to me that she made a decision 2 years ago. Of course, her health was causing her problems. Or, was it the job? Although she now works for about the same money, she works 40-45 hours a week – a reasonable amount of time compared to the 60-70 hours previously. As managers, you probably have your own work/life balance issues. Your team has them as well. They will be choosing soon, as the economy continues to grow. What are you going to do?

If you found this article helpful, you may want to explore a unique opportunity to explore more of the “hidden factors” mentioned with your staff. Click Here to Learn More

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