At a gathering the
other evening, the prevailing
challenge participants said they had is
employee retention and turn-over. A thorny
issue no doubt for many organizations and
with different causes. For this week's
issue, I will focus on one -- our appetite
for numbers at the expense of some less
obvious factors.
As executives and managers, many of us
latch on to a set of benchmarks and
measurables. Then they become almost
exclusively the basis on which we run
our operation -xyz's per hour or whatever it
is you track. You hit those numbers for a
while, and then you skid, fall short or
worse yet, start loosing people. Then you
hire and go through it all over again.
Of course, benchmarks are important,
though a point I want to highlight is,
humans are too complicated to manage by
numbers alone. They need (and want) to be
developed, nurtured, heard and trained. They
want to grow with you and they care a great
deal what value others place on their
work. They want their product or service to
reflect high quality. Indeed, they have to
have a positive sense of self-worth tied
to what they do. Yet its easy to ignore
these factors as we grind through those
numbers. To keep employees, we cannot
afford to let those in the executive suites
ignore this truth. Its like running your
factory's machines without a maintenance
program.
NOW, LETS
REPOSITION --
Be a sport and dare (or challenge your
leadership team) to genuinely care about
employees you come in contact with. Spend
time finding out what their needs are. Ask
what you can do to remove obstacles impeding
higher results (numbers!). Implement that
training and development initiative you have
been putting off because you want so much to
hit those elusive numbers. Remember, the
"saw will cut better and faster when you
sharpen it". Use numbers as guideposts to
support your communications, be it setting
goals, giving recognition, improving
performance or conducting performance
appraisals. Employees are vital and very
expensive "machines" your business needs.
They need "maintenance" to not only get the
best out of them, but to also retain them.
Shoot me an email. Tell me how your
balancing act is coming along with the
numbers against these other factors.
Now go have a great week!
