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Why Employees Think The Grass Is Greener Elsewhere

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

(And What To Do About It)

A recent Workforce Management Magazine article stated 19 million employees, or 13 percent of the workforce, are planning on changing jobs this year. Two thoughts come immediately to mind:

Why do employees want to change jobs?
Why now?

Let’s start with the second question: why now? After the past five years of recession-related working conditions (i.e., reduced staff numbers, employees expected to do more with less, fewer rewards, little or no pay increases, little or no development for job improvement), employees are tired with the way things are. Though they may understand this happens in a recession, there is an innate need to seek out better conditions.

Abraham Maslow illustrates this in his Hierarchy of Needs. When our fundamental needs (physiological, food, safety) are not met, we are fixated on improving them. But this also means we’re distracted, in a way, focused on finding ways to improve our situations before we can advance to self-actualization (great performance). And if we are unable to make any change or improvement, we move. We seek out other places. The slight improvements we’ve seen in the economy has been just enough to empower today’s workforce to think they may find something better out there, and they think it will be worth the effort. After all, the grass is always greener, right?

So this gets to the real reason why employees want to change jobs – beliefs: they no longer believe management is leading effectively. They no longer believe in the mission, or the work, or the people. Employees want to change jobs because they don’t have the confidence that their management can make things right for them.

Before your teams head out to search for greener grass, win them back. Show them your company and you as managers are the best. Here are some suggestions to do this successfully:

1. Increase the communication about everything. When times are difficult, many managers feel that sharing the difficulties will be a sign of weakness or ineffectiveness. But sharing this information lets employees have context on what’s true in their workplace, empowering them to be regularly involved in identifying the solutions that exist. Get their input on how to keep work meaningful, valuable and important. Excluded employees check out, then they leave. Keep them in the know.

2. Focus more on what you can do for your employees (not on what you can’t do for them). The employees that stick around have weathered a tremendously difficult period. You know it, and they know it. And they’re getting tired. So what can you do to show your appreciation for their decision to stay, show up and tough it out? What does this show them about your belief in them? How can you use this moment to show your gratitude, humanity and personal interest in each employee? We are quick to share what we can’t or no longer offer for employees. What if our focus changed to what we can do instead?

3. Give them a reason to stay. One of the reasons our best people leave is that we don’t have a discussion with them on why they should stay. We just imagine that employees will stay and be loyal, but that is a naïve belief. Even before the recession, employees changed jobs every 18-36 months. Despite the recession, the underlying problem still exists: we don’t have career conversations with our employees on where they are going and why they should stay. Start a development discussion with employees once or twice a year that connects what employees do best with high value applications in the company. Help them see a reason to stay that is built around their talents, values and interests. Make it personal.

It is human nature to always think there is something better in some other place. Why not make that “something better” in your place? Reconnect with employees in a meaningful way to encourage them to choose to stay – to rekindle their belief in their company, their work and their management. Not only do you build a more powerful and engaged team, but you also show great continuity and consistency to your customers as they see the same team here today, here tomorrow.

To learn more about creating a greater workplace culture to help retain your best employees, visit FireUpYourEmployees.com or sign up for our free 1-hour teleseminar titled, Your People Are Your Profits. We’ll show you how we guide organizations and their managers in how to engage and inspire a superstar workforce.

Tags: change jobs, employee exodus, employee loyalty, employee retention, fire up your employees, jay forte, management
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

3 Ways To Make Every Job Interview A Great Job Interview

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

I ask this question to all of my business audiences, ”Why do you interview?” The answer is always the same – to hire someone. Actually, you interview to gather enough information to be able to hire the right person. And that small difference in definition can change your entire interview process.

Most of the time, managers see the hiring process as an interruption in business, and something that just has to be done to get a new employee. But a well-done interview using the three steps below helps to create an open and safe environment that helps the job candidates share their honest perspectives. This is the way to gather enough of the right information to be able to make a sound hiring decision.

Consider these ways to go from good to great with your job interviews:

1. Develop your interview team. Successful interviewing takes practice. Just asking questions does not make an effective interviewer. My recommendation, depending on the role, is to have a team of 3 people involved in the interview (and never host a group interview). Select people who are effective at listening and connecting with others. Develop a list of questions that each interviewer will be responsible for. Practice asking the questions, and determine what successful answers will sound like. Not everyone is a good fit for interviewing. Determine who is, and practice to develop the skill.

2. Be clear how this job must add value and make a difference in the organization. I find most interviewers haven’t taken the time, or the company has defined, the real value of the job. Review the job’s core responsibilities and impact. The purpose of the interview is to assess the candidate’s ability to add value. Verifying that someone has done the job before, doesn’t mean he will add the right value. Clarity about value building and performance expectations will change the entire approach to interviewing.

3. Ask talent- or behavioral-based questions. This is critical. Today’s workers are paid to think their way through the situations the workplace creates. Since not everyone thinks the same way, the interview questions must look to assess how the candidate thinks (to see if his thinking matches the thinking needed to be successful in the job).Talent-based questions are successful because they are non-standard (this forces the candidate to respond in the moment), they are looking for a particular behavior (one of the behaviors required to be successful in the job), and involve actual workplace events (this is so the interviewer can see how the candidate would respond to a true life situation). The power of the interview is in these questions – these are how enough information can be gathered to make a sound hiring decision. Notice that having a trained team and knowing the value of the role are required to be able to create and ask talent- or behavioral-based questions.

So back to my opening question, “Why do you interview?” To gather enough of the right information to be able to determine whether the candidate will add value and make a difference in your workplace. If at the end of interviewing the candidates, the answer is no, the process must continue. Not all interview processes end with hiring. They may require a revision to the requirements and start again. The goal is to hire the right employee, not to hire just any employee.

Contact me to learn about our program on talent-based interviewing – how to write talent-based questions and to train your employees to be exceptional at determining how (and whether) a job candidate will add value and make a difference in your workplace. More tools at FireUpYourEmployees.com. Be exceptional at interviewing.

Tags: fire up your employees, great job interview questions, hire the right employee, hiring, how to interview, jay forte, job candidate, job interview, talent based interviewing
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »

Performance = Personal Energy X Engagement

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

“Personal energy is the single most valuable asset in business today.” Robin Sharma

Your people are your profits. Your business is successful (or not) because of the energy and engagement level of your employees. And as managers and leaders, you have the ability to influence this. You can’t control your employees’ energy and engagement, but you can inspire both.

Consider that “energy” is the degree of effort, and the attitude and outlook that an employee chooses to bring to work (it is a choice). Consider that “engagement” is the degree of interest, willingness and ability that an employee has in his work. So performance is then equal to the energy times the engagement – or, the effort times the interest.

Notice that we as managers have a greater ability to affect engagement more than energy because we can realign employees into roles to better connect them to their abilities. Employees, however, choose their energy levels. Improving this takes more specific effort than improving engagement.

To see how these attributes impact performance, draw a graph where the horizontal line is labeled “energy” and mark it low on the left, high on the right. Label the vertical line “engagement” and mark low on the bottom, high on the top. This is the engagement and energy grid that can be divided into four quadrants.

Quadrant 1: low energy, low engagement. These employees bring little to the job. They show up with neither effort nor interest – they have low energy about the job and don’t have the right abilities to do the job well. This is generally due to a job and culture that doesn’t fit the employee, and an employee who may be more negative, cynical and complaining – not just about the job. Which of your employees are here?

Quadrant 2: high energy, low engagement. These employees have a positive outlook and bring great energy to the workplace but they don’t succeed because their abilities don’t fit the abilities of the job (right attitude, wrong talents). Employees become disengaged when they don’t feel capable and competent (this can move them back to Quadrant 1 – low energy, low engagement). Realigning this employee to a job that better fits his abilities can make a significant different in performance. Which of your employees are here?

Quadrant 3: low energy, high engagement. These employees still have average performance because their effort level is low, though they connect with the work – they are interested in and likely good at it. These employees fit the job, but don’t have strong powerful personal energy. As in Quadrant 1, these employees are more negative, cynical and complaining – despite the fact that they like their jobs. Coaching is a sound response for these employees as it has the ability to help the employee change his energy level. Which of your employees are here?

Quadrant 4: high energy, high engagement. These are actively engaged employees. These employees have an anabolic and positive attitude, energy and personal standard of excellence, and are a good fit for the job. They show up ready to make a profound difference and should be coached to support their need to constantly learn, improve and add value. Which of your employees are here?

Working with employee energy shortages requires a different response than with an engagement shortage. Because employees choose their energy level (in work and life), many times the primary way to help a low energy employee is through coaching (with the manager or an outside coach). Coaching looks to identify and create responses to blocks to positive energy; an employee must see the need and commit the effort to change.

Engagement, on the other hand, can be addressed by realigning employees to roles that better suit their talents, strengths and passions. Engagement increases when employees feel capable, competent and interested in what they do.

Energy times engagement equals performance. Know how to help your employees increase their energy and their engagement. Increase both and performance rises.

Contact me to learn how coaching can help move your employees to Quadrant 4. More tools and ideas are at WorkFiredUp.com, your resource for hiring and retaining an A-level workforce.

Tags: employee engagement, employee fit, energy, fire up your employees, jay forte, people are your profits, performance energy, realign employees, right job, right person, robin sharma, role fit, workplace
Posted in For Managers | 2 Comments »

The Best Employee Holiday Gift – Ever

Monday, December 3rd, 2012

Are employees on your shopping list?

Your employees are the heart and the performance power behind all that happens at your organization. How could they not be included in some holiday appreciation, celebration or gift?

But before you feel more overwhelmed by the additional names that just got added to your holiday shopping list, let me help. I have a suggestion for the best holiday gift ever for your employees. Here it is: clearly-defined 2013 performance expectations. Happy Holidays!

Wait. Hear me out. Let me tell you why working with an employee to clearly define his performance expectations is the best gift you can give him.

Clearly defined performance expectations:

1. Give an employee a roadmap of how to be successful – because knowing how to succeed in your job is a great gift.

2. Allows an employee a voice in how to complete his work so he feels capable, competent and confident – because feeling the 3 Cs in the workplace is a great gift.

3. Build time together with the employee and manager – because feeling connected to and important in the eyes of your manager is a great gift.

4. Show employees how they help the organization improve and grow – because feeling like you matter at your company is a great gift.

So, it’s not a Starbucks card, a tower of fruits and nuts, or a bottle of Cabernet. Those gifts, to me, are nice but are not a gift that keeps giving.

Since the gift is to be more about her receiver than the giver, what is it that employees want from the workplace?They want to know where they are headed, feel successful, have a good relationship with their manager and feel like they matter. When they achieve these, they create the potential for promotions, development and incentives because they drive the organization’s results and influence its success. A gift that is good for them and good for you.

What if this year you give your employee a success plan for the holidays? This plan would share expectations and would provide the support for the employee to excel at what he does (the feeling of being great at what we do is powerful – and last longer than a $10 Starbucks gift card).

You don’t have to take my holiday gift idea – but as you get your employees ready for 2013, at least consider spending time with each to clearly define the daily, weekly and monthly expectations so they know how to step up and stand out. In the absence of this clarity, the new year may start out with a bang, but fizzle very quickly.

For help in creating Performance Expectations, get a copy of Fire Up! Your Employees. I devote an entire chapter to showing the performance expectation process (including the hands-on forms), so that all employees can show up each day at work clearly understanding what has to be done and have a voice in determining how to do it.Confidence, clarity and success in the workplace – all great gifts. And every manager has the ability of sharing these gifts with each employee.

Tags: company performance, employee gift, fire up your employees, great managers, holiday gift, jay forte, management, performance expectations. fire up, success plan, value your employees
Posted in For Managers | No Comments »