Attracting & Retaining Top Talent November 2, 2021 by Belinda EganYou’re faced with a problem: your team members don’t want to return to the office – and in fact, they’d rather find a different job where they can continue to work from home than return to work for your organization. A recent poll by Morning Consult lays out the severity of the problem: 39% of people surveyed said they’d consider quitting their job if their employer wasn’t flexible about working from home. Among millennials and Gen Z’s, this percentage increased to 49%! As a leader, you understand that no employee stays at a job forever – whether it’s retirement, sickness, or a new, better-suited opportunity, you’ve always been prepared for turnover. But 2021 presented a new challenge: after a year and a half of working from home, employees feel safer and more mentally healthy continuing to work from home – not to mention time and money saved on the commute, childcare, etc. They just don’t want to come back. And if they’re forced to, they’d rather look for something different or even risk unemployment to avoid going back. What’s the solution to keep your team members from leaving your organization if you don’t have the option to continue remote work? You take a cold, hard, scrupulous look at your organization’s culture, incentives, and values – and you hire the right people to match these things. In the past year, you’ve probably said (or heard another executive say) something to the effect of: “Our office culture depends on butts in seats.” Leaders everywhere are convinced that their organization’s culture will crumble without the consistent physical presence of team members to hold it together. But is this really the case? And if so, was it really a strong culture to begin with? Take a minute to consider some of the things that make up your organization’s culture. Write down words as they come to you. Maybe you’ll think of things like “open-door policy,” “always make mistakes worth making,” “have fun and work hard,” or “embracing our differences, focusing on our similarities.” Are the things you wrote the things that can disappear because of a lack of people in offices? When you first hired your top team members, you probably had good conversations with each of them about the culture your organization is fostering, and you chose them because you felt that they fit the culture well. After writing down some keywords that define your company culture, do you still think it’s realistic to say that the culture is dying because of a lack of butts in chairs? If your people are (for now) still with you, shouldn’t the culture still be in place? Well, here’s the truth: the #1 culture killer in an organization is not being willing to adjust to change – changing roles, changes in your employees’ lives, changes to your strategic and people processes. This means that in order to foster a solid culture in your organization, whether remotely or in the office, you need to be open to employees wanting things to be different and doing whatever you can to facilitate that. Your employees have gone through a massive shift in perspective over the past few years. You probably have as well. The pandemic changed a lot of stuff – and people are much more focused on personal fulfillment, safety, and doing things that matter to them, in alignment with their values. As leaders, we couldn’t have predicted how the pandemic would affect our organizations, especially the staffing problem most companies now face. But what can we learn from it? We all have personal values that define who we are, what we believe in, what we’ll fight for. A really great leader shines the light on their team members’ values and looks specifically for the values that align with the organization. In this way, you’re setting yourself up for success when unpredictable things happen. All of your team members can rest assured that the values that matter most to them will still matter to the organization, no matter what happens (like a pandemic that forces everyone to work from home!) To make sure you’re hiring the right people with the right values (and to get a good sense of how those values shift in times of trouble), you can ask prospective hires the following questions: #1: What are your top three personal values that guide your actions and help you stay focused on what matters to you? #2: Have these values changed over the past two years during the pandemic? If so, in what way? The Three Most Impactful Ways to Hold on to Your Top Talent If you’ve worked hard in your organization to develop a strong and adaptive company culture, and you’ve hired employees based on values that align with your organizations, but you’re still having problems with retention, here are some science-backed ways to improve morale, reduce attrition, and make a lasting, positive impact on the lives of your team members (which should be your ultimate goal as a leader!): #1: Increase work-life balance by asking your employees what they think about switching to a four-day workweek or split shifts for employees who have to provide at-home child care/home-schooling, etc. Take a good look at the number of hours clocked vs. actual productivity to assess what can be changed here. #2: You should already have a good sense of your team’s professional development goals as determined during onboarding, but if you haven’t yet this year, schedule a time to check in with each employee and see how they feel about their progress and if these goals have changed. Helping to promote team members to leadership positions or other internal promotions raises morale and increases your team’s sense of “purpose” within the organization. Don’t delay on this – it’s imperative! #3: Practice empathy at all times in your leadership. From small talk before a meeting to quarterly reviews, always show your team that you respect their experience and feelings. Be real with them; show them that you care. It’s been a really stressful year for employees in general. At a time when they feel pressured to return to an environment that they might not feel safe in or think doesn’t suit their lifestyle or personal goals anymore, empathy and honesty will go a long way in reconnecting with team members and showing them that they belong in your organization. Being a really effective leader is a massive challenge at all points – but it’s especially difficult when you’re at risk of losing your best team members. The unique challenges of the year ahead call for a new type of leadership. Bold, brave, transparent, and kind. Join the Waitlist for Courageous Leadership: a one-of-a-kind training program that will change your leadership trajectory for life. Follow the Link below to learn more: Join Now! Until next time, Belinda