Worker using stairs
Employee engagement continues to decline. 2022, Gallup noted that 18% of employees actively withdrew. At 1.8 to 1, the ratio between engaged and actively disengaged employees is the lowest in ten years. These findings indicate a deep disconnect between what employees want and what they get from their employers.
Pew Research reporting on why employees resigned in 2021 supports that hypothesis. What Pew found was that 63% of people left jobs where they reached a perceived career ceiling. In other words, they saw no opportunities for career mobility. Therefore, they simply went elsewhere, supposedly to find their personally rewarding “pot of gold”.
As a business leader, the last thing you want is for your team members to feel so dissatisfied, disconnected, and appalled that they resign. Still, it can be challenging to pinpoint exactly how to ensure that your employees are getting enough purpose out of what they do. Employees often say nothing. Instead, they will let their disillusionment fester and grow until it forces them to say goodbye.
You don’t have to wait for that opportunity. There are many management practices that can help you create and maintain a more synergistic relationship with your employees. To find out what works for some of the most successful companies, I tapped the knowledge of three thought leaders. Feel free to use their insightful recommendations to increase your staff satisfaction scores and avoid avoidable turnover.
1. Teach supervisors to do job crafting with their subordinates.
One of the main reasons many employees become disillusioned at work is that they don’t see their future in their job descriptions. Sure, they can perform their duties, but those duties have no real meaning. They are assignments rather than part of an important journey. This is where the practice of “job crafting” can be an asset.
If you’re not familiar with job crafting: Peter Boumgarden – Koch Family Professor of Practice in Family Enterprise, director of the Koch Family Center for Family Enterprise, and academic director of the Center for Experiential Learning at Washington University in St. Louis – has a great explanation.
“In this model, a supervisor sits with the person he supervises and tries to identify changes in the tasks of the job, the relational characteristics of the job, or the way employees think about the job – generally task, relationship – and called cognitive. crafting,” says Boumgarden. “This kind of one-on-one conversation is one way to ensure strong alignment of goals for those they lead.”
The most important aspect of job crafting is for the manager or supervisor to be willing to try different experiments to see what works for each direct report. For example, a person might want to get $500 and three days to receive training on a subject that is a personal passion. Another person might be more driven by the opportunity to earn a $2,000 annual raise after meeting specific goals.
The purpose of job crafting is to increase an individual’s sense of connection from what is happening at work to what they really want to do in life. Employees often struggle to see this kind of alignment. By talking openly with their supervisors about their professional and personal aspirations, employees give their leaders the opportunity to ensure that their current roles overlap with the ones they want to play later. As Boumgarden points out, fueling this kind of overlap gives employees more reason to show up and perform at the highest level.
2. Implement formal company-supported mentorship programs.
I strongly believe in the power of mentorship to build resilient and energetic leaders and employees. Lori Dipprey too. Dipprey works as Chief People Architect at consulting firm Pariveda, which she says has a people-centered business model that focuses on developing individuals to their full potential.
An important aspect of working at Pariveda is being given the opportunity to participate in a personalized mentoring scheme. “An individual’s career is at the heart of what we do,” explains Dipprey. “Each individual gets a mentor who is fully invested in helping that team member develop as a person on their own journey. Most mentors only have three to four mentees so they can maintain a high-touch relationship.”
While Pariveda’s mentorships are organic in a way, they follow a prescribed workflow. Mentors and mentees meet at least once and sometimes twice a month. Throughout the experience, they set goals and develop positive habits. Every six months, mentors and mentees set goals for the next six-month period.
Mentors act as a sounding board and guide to identify and encourage their mentees’ intrinsic motivators. That way, the mentees are less likely to drop out. Dipprey continues: “Employees feel more empowered to choose their own career path and choose a job that fits their personal goals. If they don’t believe their employer is investing in them and their personal aspirations, they’ll go to a position where they can find that fulfillment.”
3. Recruit with alignment in mind from the start.
A good way to build a solid foundation with each employee is during recruitment. By bringing on board people who are already engaged in your mission, you reduce the risk of a misalignment between their goals and your company’s. At SnapCab, which produces innovative, easy-to-install alternative panels for elevators and office pods, founder and CEO Glenn Bostock has established a hiring process designed to attract employees whose aspirations are likely to align with the organization’s specific culture.
SnapCab’s recruiting system is unconventional, and Bostock thinks that’s why it works so well. “Part of the process is that the candidates have to watch about an hour of videos on our careers page that clearly outline SnapCab’s goals to grow the company in the form of employees working together, more like a community of friends with similar interests . take care of our customers,” he notes. And the videos don’t stop there.
To apply, all candidates are expected to create their own introductory videos. Bostock recalls the video he received from Steven, who is now an emerging leader at SnapCab. What impressed Bostock the most during Steven’s video was the way he articulated his desire to contribute. “He says, ‘I don’t bring a lot of trading skills…my job was to work with people…I’m a man of integrity. I am willing to work hard. I’m excited to learn new things… and use them to contribute to building something.’”
The company hired Steven as an employee on the factory floor. Two years later, he is part of the Employee Experience department and is on a study trip to Japan to become a Lean Manufacturing trainer. Still, it might not have happened without a robust hiring process that helped SnapCab make more intentional hiring decisions for the good of its people and the goals of the company as a whole.
There is no question that it takes time, patience and dedication to restructure your company in a way that will result in more engaged employees. Your approach is also tailored to your company and its employees. However, it’s worth the effort and resources to build a culture where everyone feels valued and happy to be rowing in the same direction.
