In a weak job market, it’s common for employees to stay put and not switch jobs for obvious reasons. That is no longer the case.
According to a Bloomberg employment report released last week, 2017 was the fourth year in a row the U.S. added at least 2 million more jobs, including an estimated 190,000 workers in December.
Now that we’re in a strong job market, expect workers to be moving and shaking and looking for the greener grass. But for what reasons exactly? As it turns out, more money or higher salaries didn’t even crack the top three reasons.
According to a Korn Ferry poll of nearly 5,000 professionals, the top reason people are looking for a new job in 2018?
They’re bored.
Survey results
- I’m bored, need new challenge — 33 percent
- Culture doesn’t fit with me/my values — 24 percent
- I have either lost my job or expect that I will — 21 percent
- Higher salary — 19 percent
- Company politics — 3 percent
Why are employees bored? How do you fix the boredom problem?
Now that we’re in a strong job market, you can pretty much expect recruiters to be hounding qualified job candidates, from inside your own company. (that’s what head hunters do)
To keep them from stealing your best people, the burden falls on company leaders and managers to figure out new ways to retain and keep their people happy. I offer you three proven strategies that work.
1. Give employees development and advancement opportunities.
When you help people to grow and develop, the outcome is a winning trifecta: Knowledge workers find fulfillment, the customer experience is magnified, and the business thrives in rapidly changing economies.
In more human workplaces where the focus is on meeting the needs of employees as valued stakeholders, you’ll find learning cultures within the organization where people are trained, developed, coached and mentored.
Good leaders ensure that the workplace keeps people advancing people into new career paths, and that they’re experiencing new roles and responsibilities. When employees grow, their productive capacity increases. When their productive capacity increases, the capacity of the organization increases. It’s a thing of beauty.
2. Give employees plenty of autonomy.
Best-selling author and former tech executive Seth Godin (the guy with the cool yellow glasses) said: “Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.”
What that means is people in charge of people must empower them to think on their own. After hiring the right people with the right skills for the job, and setting clear goals and expectations with deadlines and benchmarks, the next and highest priority is to give your people entrepreneurial rights; let them make decisions and own their work, and let them determine how to move forward. In other words, let them use their God-given brains!
As you provide your tribe with more autonomy, you’ll notice an increase in intrinsic motivation, trust, and loyalty to the company. Another thing of beauty.
3. Create a feedback culture.
Lets face it: Most managers don’t like giving feedback. It’s painful because you have to speak truth, and plenty of people aren’t ready to accept it. In one study, it was found that thirty-two percent of employees have to wait more than three months to get feedback from their manager.
But the good news? According to Officevibe, the leader in employee engagement software that puts out amazing content, their real-time report on the “State of Employee Engagement revealed that “62 percent of employees wish they received more feedback from their colleagues.”
Managers, while you’re not entirely off the hook, the bigger picture here is to strategically create a “culture of feedback in your organization where everyone is helping everyone get better,” states the report.
That means having more frequent one-on-ones, scheduling more weekly planning sessions, and providing more daily check-ins where regular feedback can be released in every direction so things are constantly improving.
How important is feedback? Officevibe makes the case clear via their Employee Engagement — The Complete Guide:
- 14.9 percent lower turnover rates in companies that implement regular employee feedback.
- 4 out of 10 workers are actively disengaged when they get little or no feedback.
- 82 percent of employees really appreciate receiving feedback, regardless if it’s positive or negative.
- 43 percent of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week compared to only 18 percent of employees with low engagement.
- 65 percent of employees said they wanted more feedback.
- 27 percent of employees say that the feedback they receive helps them to work better.
- 48 percent of employees say acting on feedback would reduce turnover.
- 42 percent of Millennials want feedback every week.
Bringing it home: Help your people succeed.
You’d think people in management roles would have figured this out by now. Great leadership is about helping others succeed. They see potential in the people under their care and want to create opportunities for them to grow and advance. Unfortunately, people fail to become good leaders primarily because arrogance and hubris become stumbling blocks. Plainly put, when you help others to do their jobs and set them up for success by implementing all of the above, you — the leader — will set yourself up for success. That’s the ultimate thing of beauty.