Engage employees while there is still opportunity
By Gary Kaplan© Pasadena Star-News, August 7, 2010
According to a Conference Board Survey earlier this year, only 45 percent of workers said they are satisfied with their jobs, the lowest rating on record in 22 years of polling. Additionally, the May issue of the Harvard Business Review reports that "one-quarter of the highest potential people in companies intend to jump ship within the next year." This got me to thinking....how times have changed.
Until the 1980's, it was the "lifers," the lifelong corporate employees working faithfully and slowly up the executive ladder that ruled the working world. At that time loyalty and employee commitment were taken seriously and the dominant notion was a business career ran its course inside a corporation. Quite honestly, up to the 80's, employees would have to do something drastically wrong or damaging to lose their jobs with many of the top tier, Fortune 500 companies.
In the past, many of my executive recruiter colleagues and I would often count the number of job entries on a resume and use that as a benchmark of stability. Too many prior jobs signaled instability and raised a red flag of concern. However, changing jobs is now common in today's workplace. According to a U.S. Department of Labor study, "The average American worker between ages 37 and 45 in 2002 had changed jobs 10.2 times. For workers who started a new job between ages 33 and 38, a total of 39 percent reported that they changed jobs again within a year and 70 percent changed jobs again within five years." In fact, the data demonstrates that today's college graduates will change jobs 10-14 times during their careers and the average job will last just three to five years.
The transformation truly began in earnest in the early 80's, with the emergence of merger mania, which was the catalyst for the eventual consolidation of corporate America. It also signaled the start of large-scale employee cutbacks over time resulting in a more mobile or mercenary workforce - what I like to call a "soldier of fortune" mentality. Whereas management was often rewarded based on numbers supervised before, they now receive bonuses based on their ability to accomplish more with less. Although in the past when unfortunate economic downturns occurred and companies might be forced to cut people for survival, now many organizations, while still turning a profit, are doing the same in the name of improving shareholder value.
Although in many cases layoffs are legitimate and cannot be avoided, when used indiscriminately in the name of "cost reduction and efficiency," they have resulted in a significant percentage of fundamentally distrustful employees who now feel they are simply a commodity - as valuable as a paperclip - to their companies. This attitude is not reserved for just the corporate world, but now has surfaced in education, nonprofit organizations, and the public sector.
Couple this fear and resentment with the incredible daily demands placed on workers in their current jobs. As they are asked to grin and bear it with little or no quality of life, benefits slashed, promotions and salary increases often frozen, and management expectations to do more with less, it's no wonder some employers are getting nervous as they ask themselves a difficult question: Will workers leave en masse once they see greener grass elsewhere?
As business conditions improve, employers should have real concerns that these key workers, who have kept them thriving in tough times, will jump at the chance to start fresh somewhere else. Many employees have been grateful to have a job, no matter what the conditions. But that attitude is changing as the economy improves and more workers begin looking to be valued in their jobs, along with the opportunity for vertical mobility and improved compensation. There is a real crisis of employee engagement looming on the horizon that could very well result in a whirlwind of departures - a veritable tempest of turnovers.
It may seem obvious, but the solution is for senior management to dramatically, and visibly, increase its efforts to keep employees engaged. Employers need to begin a new chapter in how they operate, one that relies on uniting workers as partners and collaborators to achieve success for both the company and for individuals. Even modest efforts can go a long way toward helping workers feel appreciated.
Recognize employees early and often, clearly link their individual goals to corporate ones, enable employees to understand how their efforts directly affect something they care about, and let them help solve the company's biggest problems. Encourage employees to develop and use abilities they consider important, such as leadership, integrity, and compassion. Regularly take their temperature, pay careful attention to their satisfaction, and always promote a positive working environment by displaying strength, kindness, humility, and open communication.
Bottom line, if you don't engage people's hearts and souls, while tangibly addressing management development and compensation expectations, they're going to leave. Companies that follow the golden rule in successfully dealing with people - treat others as you would want to be treated - while giving your workers a sense of meaning and purpose will ultimately succeed.
