Responding to the Great Resignation
We are entering the era of the empowered employee. Team members are re-assessing their priorities – driven and impacted by a collection of life changing events, trying to manage children throughout a pandemic, working remotely, experiencing burnout in an effort to find meaning and fulfillment in the work they do. Their expectations need to be addressed successfully or attrition and resignation will continue.
Three Dimensions of Employee Retention
The Organization. Organizations that are proactive in responding to the Great Resignation have established a corporate value that creates a culture of development. Companies specify exactly what that value means in each interrogative:
- Who? It’s ideally giving every employee an opportunity for development…maybe just to do their current role more effectively or efficiently let alone to consider higher levels of responsibility.
- What is the articulation of core behaviors and skills needed at each level of employment.
- When, where, and how identifies the practical logistics of providing development opportunities and the resources needed.
- Why provides the motivation for every leader to cast vision of what a development culture does to achieve the productive potential of each individual, each team, and the entire organization.
The Team Leader. Every supervisor, manager, or leader needs to take responsibility to have career conversations with each direct report to achieve the outcomes of a developmental culture. It’s not complicated, but it’s not just tacked on to the end of an annual review. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has developed a simple format called The Stay Interview. It offers insight into the set up and questions for career conversations. This is the tangible way in which the organization lives out the value of development. It’s expected. It’s done with everyone. It communicates an attitude of interest and support in the career development of each employee even if it means they advance to a new position in the company.
The Individual. Each employee needs to own the primary responsibility for their own career development. It reflects their personal drive. Are they motivated to learn how to do their job more effectively and efficiently to reach their productive potential. At the individual level it’s all about incremental development. Learning new skills and applying the learning in new work habits. It’s defined as micro learning added to macro application that leads to incremental change. Team members who want to grow by taking advantage of new learning opportunities accomplish three things: (1) they push toward their productive potential, (2) expand their value to the organization which contributes to job security, and (3) open the door to new assignments that lead to advancement and promotion down the road.
Leadership Debrief
The individual level is not possible without the team leader consistently encouraging and supporting each direct report. And team leaders can’t effectively lead the way if the organization doesn’t value development in defining its culture. Decide which level you need to address and start there if people are your most valuable asset.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dr. Dick Daniels is Vice President, Consulting Services and an ICF Certified Executive Coach with Right Management’s Florida/Caribbean Region. Dr. Daniels offers Right Management’s clients more than 17 years of leadership development consulting and executive coaching with C-Suite leaders. As a leadership architect he designs customized leadership development frameworks and systems to align emerging, mid-level and senior level leaders with strategic business objectives. As business strategist, coach, adjunct professor, and awarded author, he is a proven resource for shaping a results-focused leadership culture within the unique priorities of each organization.