Five things you can do to attract and retain the right people
1. Give workers a real reason to stay.
2. Encourage workers to take the time and space to grow.
3. Know, and learn to listen for, values in interviews.
4. Make it easier to move around the organization.
5. Don’t drag your feet in your hiring process.
I was chatting to a mate who is an global expert headhunter in tech the other day, about the #Metalayoff, maybe being a good thing for him, as he says, “it’s a candidate driven market”.
A candidate driven market! Now that’s in comparison to pre-COVID when 40% of digital workers were actively looking for a role. Recent research reveals that 41% (from Microsoft research) to 95% (from Monster research) of the workforce are thinking about leaving their jobs post-pandemic. (3)
And they are being picky!
What does this mean for you?
Your best people are getting job offers.
And competing job offers that are global.
Even worse, some of those will be 100% remote, so they don’t even need to shift home, social life, schools, whatever. The last stickiness is gone.
We know that retaining customers is cheaper that acquiring new ones – it’s the same with your people, just more critical. If you have the right people.
1. Give workers a real reason to stay.
When your teams really get it; they understand what the “WHY” is. (4) Not just the goals. The contribution and impact that your organization can make in their world. This is why they get up in the morning. This is why they go beyond. This is why they don’t feel burnt out.
They buy into you and the company so they don’t follow up on calls from headhunters or mates from other companies.
Question: Have you ever decided on an apartment or house because of how it felt?
You knew you had to live there, and that was it. Done. You didn’t decide on the apartment based on the cost per square meter. It was how you FELT when you looked at the view.
According to Psychology Today, most decisions are driven by emotions, even though most people think that they approach decision- making through logic. For the people getting tempted away from your scaling digital organization, that’s what is driving it. How they feel about, their work, the company, you and the team.
Ask everyone in your team, or even across your organization horizontally and vertically what is its purpose, without looking at a document, or website. If you don’t get 100% all the same answer straightaway then your organization is like a boat without a rudder. And people will not FEEL like staying.
Get clear on purpose and get your leadership team together, build a team based on trust that holds itself accountable and creates a unified goal, the one thing that they all need to be aligned with to create success this year. Build commitment to this and you will have a team with “Attention on Results.”(5)
Be clear though; one of the benefits of using a trained facilitator, with corporate experience, is that you may be unconsciously seeing everything from your perspective, rather than putting the team above all else.
If you are not sure that you can do that, then reach out, I’ll either help or give you a program.
2. Encourage workers to take the time and space to grow.
“Forget the ping-pong tables.”
Now that doesn’t mean throw them out, it’s cool having funky offices. When I worked at Virgin in Covent Garden there was a full sized plastic cow, a garden shed (full of booze) and TV’s on all over. So many great stories from there.
That stuff is nice, but at 2am when you feel like crying it’s not a foosball table that makes you feel innovative.
Today’s in demand Tech & Digital staff, of course, are looking for a competitive salary, but I’ve seen time and time again that even a pay raise fails to motivate for more than a few weeks. Now first, as above, provide a sense of direction, and then…
How about finding out what really floats their boat, what area they would like to expand into, especially if unrelated to the billable work they do?
About 22 years ago I stayed up for weeks, learning how to “code” in VBA and automate a process, just because I loved the challenge, and creativity, not because it was on my JD. (A side note that although I was mentored I was essentially self taught – so technically it was a rubbish solution, but it worked and saved 5 days’ work each month!)
My point is, find out what excites and inspires. What are their hobbies? What do they do for fun? And give your employees regular time off from the day job, (I didn’t get that). Non-billable time to “sharpen the saw”, do a course and learn new skills that THEY want to. Create space for these passion projects and encourage collaboration.
3. Know your team's values, and learn to listen for them in interviews.
Having a good cultural fit, leads to better satisfaction, higher performance and greater retention. (1) There is that word again, culture. The soft stuff that is so hard to make time for!
Values are great, you can put them on the wall and look at them and feel good about your leadership. In fact when interviewees come, they can comment on how aligned they are as they have read about them and we all feel great.
BULLSH!T
When was the last time an interviewee rocked up and said, “I love two of your values, I really feel those, but the others I truly don’t give a sh!t”?
If you have been through a process to discover what “specific actions your people take, when the organization is at it’s best and heading towards its purpose (4)” then you, can, wait for it… LISTEN for them in the stories interviewees tell.
Yes listen, not tell or explain.
I interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people, and was even “trained” to do so and learnt some good techniques. And when I trained as a coach and really learnt to listen, proactively, asking powerful questions and being really present not just hearing the words, but what is not being said, the sense of what is being felt – Then I was like – NOW I can interview.
So what are you listening for? Examples of the values that the interviewee really has, actions, the verbs that describe what they do when they are at their best. Your listening for the overlaps in the essence of the hows that you have (re)discovered within the values of your business.
The good news is that if you and your team have done the work, it’s easy because it’s crystal clear!
Now in the article that inspired me to (re)write this (2), Korn Kerrys’ focus in this area is on the interview process being a two way conversation and not an interrogation. Obviously. My suggestion is to design that in advance, make sure they are clear you are inviting them to interview you too, so they can feel included, and prepared.
4. Make it easier to move around the organization.
Look for people that have not yet made a lateral move – these people are key to building leadership. Their ability to make these moves within the organization reduces employee turnover, offering stimulating new challenges, and rounding an employee’s experience. An investment in them.
Having moved from a regional CFO role to Sales & Marketing, I could not agree more!
5. Don't drag your feet in your hiring process.
I was just talking to a client, in one of the largest digital companies in the world, whose divisional hiring committee meets once every several weeks! They are massive and yet they will lose out. Wouldn’t it be good if they lost out to you?
“Once candidates finish applying for jobs, the clock starts ticking”(3)
Now accelerating the process does not mean rushing or lowering the quality of decision. I am a big fan of getting it right first time, because of many painful experiences. Another article though I think.
In summary
It’s your people, your team and how they collaborate that will differentiate your business. Not the tech, funding, or next big thing idea. Being clear on purpose, and putting culture at the center of all you do, will retain great staff and grow them.
If it seems a bit overwhelming contact me, maybe with one conversation you can put the steps in place to achieve this.
Otherwise if you are interested in a complimentary culture survey, to see how functional your leadership team really is, contact me here.
References
- 1. Consequences of individuals’ fit at work: A meta-analysis of person-job, person-organization, person-group, and person-supervisor fit. Kristoff-Brown, Zimmerman, Johnson, Department of Management & Organizations - University of Iowa.
- 2. Employee attrition and retention in the tech world – Korn Ferry
- 3. Why it’s time for recruiters to pivot their talent strategies – Carol Patton - HRExecutive.com
- 4. Now find your why. A Practical Guide For Discovering Purpose For You And Your Team – Simon Sinek
- 5. Overcoming the 5 dysfunctions of a team – Patrick Lencioni
