Seize the day with employee motivation

If you are facing larger-than-life volumes of employment retention, and good employees walking out the door, it won’t be long until you have mountains of recruitment and training issues. More to do, less time to do it, no budget. Yikes. And in a labour tight market, you’ll need more than good luck.  There is some advice you really need to know about. And it is this. If you keep doing things the way you always have, nothing will change. In 6 months time, you’ll still be sitting there with exit interviews, mounds of recruitment and mounds of induction and training sitting in your to do pile, rather than new challenges, or contributing to change and innovation for your business.

So, if this sounds like you then today is the day to do something different.
Taking inspiration from a life coach I know, I would suggest that there are 3 golden rules to make sure in 6 months time you’re not still facing the exact same issues around employment retention.

1. Make a commitment to do something around retention and people every day. No matter how small – every single day. An email recognising an effort, a birthday cake, thank you flowers, organising a career coach for someone, a walk around to say ‘hi’ to the darkest recesses of the office. The list is endless. I read somewhere that if you spend 6 minutes a day on this, you’ll notice a big impact. And what’s more, the more actions you do, the easier it will be. Whether its for someone you are managing, or the wider company, if you’re doing something different, the results will not stay the same.

2. Have a retention plan and find someone who will make you accountable. You need a plan for getting things back to normal limits for the people within your influence. You need to really understand why people are leaving and what can be done about it. We work with many clients to do just that – make a plan that is realistic and culture-sensitive. It is so great to see someone armed with a plan that they believe in and want to and can do. The results will speak for themselves.

3. Seek out inspiring people to learn from and get new ideas from. Join a network, read blogs, read a book, find a role model, listen to a podcast. Keep your brain fresh and active and your passion high. You are not the only person facing turnover issues, so join with likeminded others and learn from them.

These 3 things are all do-able, all within easy grasp. I guess its about less navel gazing about more action. Get to the heart of where things are going wrong for you, and do something about it. Its never too late to start.