Photo by Rohan Makhecha on Unsplash
One of the biggest challenges in the industry is recruiting, motivating, and retaining top talent. If we are able to engage employees and provide a culture that they can truly connect with, not surprisingly motivation, productivity and retention will improve. If retention rates are high, and the team is happy, engaged and excited about what they are doing and who they are doing it for, recruiting results will improve. The market will hear the team’s story and we will have candidates that are interested for the right reasons -- and more quality candidates to choose from. The level of enthusiasm emanating from employees during the recruiting process will make a positive impression on candidates and conversion rates will increase.
To improve levels of engagement among employees, we need to understand what people engage with. People may engage in our firm’s mission, or other aspects like the firms commitment to charitable causes. But the reality is, people engage with people. Our mission and causes should be a reflection of us.
When it comes to engagement and connection, we reap what we sow. If we want people engaged in us, our mission and our cause, engage in them first. Here's some of the simplest things we can do to make people feel valued and create engagement.
• Remember names of spouses and children. It goes without saying that you should remember your employee’s name.
• Ask employees questions about business and personal goals, and truly seek to understand and appreciate what makes those goals significant to them.
• Inquire about vacations and personal events.
• Notice positive behaviors and actions and offer a “thank you” along with specific positive feedback, no strings attached.
• Do not answer your own questions. “How was the weekend, good?” is not a question. It’s a formality that states that you aren’t interested in the answer.
While simple and effective, the basic concept of engaging with others first isn’t easy. It’s much easier to implement a bonus structure or financial reward system and hope that these incentives drive the right employee behavior. Employer or supervisor engagement requires the heavy lifting of honing skills in areas such as observation, questioning and listening and is based on a foundation of genuine curiosity and caring.
Want to improve your firm’s culture, levels of engagement, recruiting and retention rates? Be curious!
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Brian Amann can be reached at 303.921.5310 or send an email.
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