Friday, February 11, 2011
Based on a January 27, 2011 report from Towers Watson (TW), the global professional services company, employers are facing strong challenges to retaining and engaging key talent in 2011. The report based its conclusions on a 2010 survey conducted by TW in which respondents report that less than 50% of employers “do a good job retaining top talent”.
The report went on to discuss the areas that employees perceived were significant to retention of talent.
Career Path
Why should it be the responsibility of an employer to lay-out the employee’s lifelong career path? It’s not. However, understanding the opportunities that might exist within an organization can go a long ways towards retaining and developing the business’ current talent and attracting future talent. By understanding and knowing where opportunities exist, the employee and employer can both evaluate their next steps for each and the organization can plan for succession as talent moves from one assignment to another. Multi-career paths may exist within any given organization. For example, in the US Navy, it was often held that command of a surface warship was the only career path to a naval officer advancing beyond mid-grade levels. However, since 2005, the Navy has employed an alternative in its Surface Warfare Community by utilizing officers in Specialty Career Paths (SCPs). SCP has been successful by providing the Navy with officers processing critical skills, and has recently been expanded to include aviation and submarine communities.
Reward and Recognition
Reward and recognition is about more than just money. However, let’s face it; money usually gets an employee’s attention first. However, after awhile, the newness of that big raise wears-off and there has to be something in its place to sustain the motivation and engagement of the employee. It is common for most individuals to think in monetary terms, titles, benefits or corner offices when envisioning rewards and recognition. In a November 2009 McKinsey & Co. report titled, “Motivating People: Getting Beyond the Money,” noncash motivators proved to be more effective than financial incentives. In a related article, McKinsey related that often financial rewards do not yield the expected results.
Employer-Employee Communication
Everywhere communication plays a key role in getting an organization’s message across to its shareholders, customers, vendors, and employees. Crafting and it is all about “crafting” the message, will determine how bad news is perceived and how good news is accepted. The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, the UK’s counterpart to the US Small Business Administration suggests that organization’s hold regular meetings, use language employees will understand, keep the communications focused, use open-ended questions, ensure communications reach all employees, and use social events to break down barriers.
Work and Life Balance
During the recent economic downturn, organizations reduced staff, consolidated roles and responsibilities, and cutback on services whenever and wherever possible. Reductions, consolidations, and cutbacks were a natural reaction by organizations to the most severe recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Many employees found themselves performing the work of 2 or 3 former cohorts, with little or no increase in pay and maybe even a reduction in benefits. The Mayo Clinic points out that all work and no play may have a negative effect on both the employee’s career and personal life including physical and mental fatigue, lost time with friends, family, and loved ones, and increased expectations from the employee’s management.
Workforce Intelligence
Understanding how a workforce perceives their organization’s culture is of equal importance as understanding how a business’ shareholders, customers, and vendors view that organization. While opinions of line managers are certainly valuable information, it cannot and should not replace well-designed and timed surveys, and as is often noted, “one survey does not a trend make”. In Tower Watson’s 2010 Global Workforce Study, TW noted, “Confidence in leaders and managers is disturbingly low”. Understanding how an organization’s workforce perceives its leadership is vital to maintaining and sustaining an effective workforce.
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