Employee Retention 2022: Key Tactics and Proven Strategies

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MP: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for an MP webinar covering employee retention in 2022 key tactics and proven strategies.

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MP: i’m katie critter marketing specialist here in MP For those of you joining us on a webinar for the first time MP, is a full service human capital management company.

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MP: We offer a complete suite of products and services to support organizations, through the entire employee lifecycle including recruiting HR payroll.

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MP: Benefits administration time and attendance and compliance assistance.

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MP: We support our clients with cutting edge technical solutions, as well as proactive reliable service and deep HR and payroll expertise.

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MP: And NP we are wired for HR and help our clients succeed by aligning their people strategy with their business goals i’m excited to introduce your presenter for today’s program taryn Abraham.

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MP: Karen a corporate behavioral and human interaction expert helps companies implement behavioral best practices to improve workplace interpersonal relations and holistically strengthen corporate culture.

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MP: leveraging her experiences and second therapist Terrence innovative suite of workshops are designed to enhance employee morale foster collaborate collaborative and productive workplace environments and nurture employee loyalty loyalty and ambassadorship.

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MP: empower behavioral services is an innovative company focused on helping companies minimize their workplace harassment risks.

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MP: Through strategic consulting they offer methodology workshops and strategies to help companies protect their bottom line revenue by focusing on workplace culture and creating a workplace environment where people feel heard and supported.

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MP: They believe keeping employee morale up is the number one way to protect your business empower behavioral services believes, if you take care of your people, people will take care of your business.

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MP: Just a few housekeeping issues before we get started here today, if you would like to submit a question during the program please use the Q amp a feature at the bottom of the screen.

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MP: And just a legal disclaimer this training is intended for educational and informational.

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MP: informational purposes, while we hope that you learned a lot today, we are not attorneys and the information should not be constructed as legal advice.

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MP: We will be sending out a recording of the webinar later today, along with the slides and with that i’m going to like the hand handle my golf to turn.

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Taryn Abrahams: Thank you so much katie, it is a real pleasure and an honor to be here, this is actually I think my third time, speaking for.

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Taryn Abrahams: For your organization for MP wired for HR and I am excited to be back, so thank you for having me So yes, so important topic that I want to address today, which is really about retaining.

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Taryn Abrahams: The new employee and we’re going to talk about what I mean by new employee and what I plan to unpack today is really talking about today’s work climate climate.

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Taryn Abrahams: kind of diving a little deeper in terms of what changes we have experienced from an employer standpoint, as well as from an employee standpoint.

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Taryn Abrahams: we’re going to talk about the why behind the behavior Why are people leaving, and I believe that when we understand the psychology behind Why then we’re able to sort of sort of navigate differently right.

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Taryn Abrahams: But how do we build a loyal workforce, you know the opposite of losing people is how do we create loyal employees and so, therefore, how do we create sticky cultures, where people want to hang around they want to stick around for long longer periods of time.

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Taryn Abrahams: And how do we repair the disengaged right so we’ve learned through studies and research through this you know very difficult time that we’ve been in through this pandemic.

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Taryn Abrahams: That has led lead to disengaged employees so i’m going to arm you with some strategies and some tips and some things to think about as we start to focus on how to reengage and some cost effective very inexpensive retention strategies that I will be very excited to share with you today.

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Taryn Abrahams: So let’s dive in so when we talk about today’s work climate we’ve all heard sort of this different different terms used the big reset.

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Taryn Abrahams: The great resignation, the great exodus, I heard one, the other day, the great exploration right and so all of these sort of terms and labels really sort of recognize this sort of.

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Taryn Abrahams: movement that we’ve experienced with people leaving in large quantities, they are leaving their.

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Taryn Abrahams: careers their jobs, their companies, and so I think it’s important to address the elephant in the room, which is, we have been living through very challenging times.

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Taryn Abrahams: disruptive times and it has challenged, all of us emotionally mentally psychologically and even medically for some of us.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so it’s important to remember that we are all changed people in many ways, not necessarily for the worse and a lot of ways for the better.

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Taryn Abrahams: But I really believe that, because of our experience living through this pandemic, especially when the world shut down in 2020 it really gave us an opportunity to hit the pause button.

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Taryn Abrahams: In our lives, both personally and professionally and it really gave us a time to reflect, do we feel valued at work.

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Taryn Abrahams: Also, do we feel valued in our relationships, whether it’s our marriage or friendships i’m also hearing that divorce has gone up as a result, which is very much in parallel to the what i’m seeing in the workplace as well, in terms of.

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Taryn Abrahams: Questioning these these core needs, you know, do I feel valued do I feel appreciated is my work meaningful and does it feel what fit well with my new normal.

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Taryn Abrahams: In addition to that let’s also remember that for the first time in US history we have five generations working side by side in the workplace, this is something we’ve never experienced before.

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Taryn Abrahams: And by 2025 75% of the workforce will be made up of millennials and many of those will be in leadership roles leading the older generation right so so we have that we have.

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Taryn Abrahams: More than ever before, we have high rates of burnout burnout was trending high before the pandemic, if you read the Gallup studies that were out there, prior to the pandemic, we have.

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Taryn Abrahams: We have we were already seeing signs that burnout was worsening so it’s no surprise that we are a lot of us up to 75% of us are experiencing some form of birth emotional burnout.

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Taryn Abrahams: And that also leads to the conversation about that we are a lot of us are experiencing mental health challenges as a result.

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Taryn Abrahams: And I think one of the reasons for that is that, in general, we’re not so good, with change.

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Taryn Abrahams: As humans we’re not so good, with change and, in fact, a lot of us will go out of our way to resist change so and there has been a lot of change in the last couple of years, and so this really presents a challenge to our leaders and to our HR professionals to really.

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Taryn Abrahams: change our approach in terms of how we engage employees in the past, it was always about treating everybody, the same it was always about.

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Taryn Abrahams: Focusing on process and policies high level management right, and I think that now, you know the challenges that we’re facing today, it really reminds us the importance of.

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Taryn Abrahams: Focusing on not just the output that that employee is there to do but focus on the entire employee, not just the output and there are plenty of studies to show that, when we focus on the entire person.

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Taryn Abrahams: That the output starts to naturally increase, and it really reminds us the importance of focusing less on on just the output and focus more on the people and the culture of your organization.

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Taryn Abrahams: And we are now learning that when you focus on things like culture and employee experience the output naturally starts to increase and so.

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Taryn Abrahams: This presents a wonderful opportunity right a wonderful opportunity to to you know really create.

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Taryn Abrahams: A deeper and more meaningful relationships with those that we work with, as well as deepen the the meaningfulness of the purpose of our work.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so I always say through disruption comes innovation there’s a lot of opportunities here and we’re going to talk about how we can sort of continue.

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Taryn Abrahams: to grow and harness those opportunities as we go through today’s webinar so let’s talk about the why behind the behavior Why are people leaving.

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Taryn Abrahams: that’s a really good place to start when we understand the Why then we understand how to respond to it November 2021 was the we hit records record numbers of people leaving and you know, leaving their their jobs 4.5 million people quit.

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Taryn Abrahams: that’s a big number right that’s a huge number 54% of people were surveyed by zip recruiter and 54% of those 54% said that they prefer a flexible work environment right 19% of workers said they are unhappy.

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Taryn Abrahams: With how employers treated them during the pandemic so that goes back to the importance of.

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Taryn Abrahams: How does it feel do I feel value do I have that sense of belonging and 19% of people left because of that lack of sense of belonging, or that lack of connection with their employer.

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Taryn Abrahams: 20% of workers, say, the pandemic caused them to change the kind of role that they see themselves in, and that they they crave that sort of flexible remote work.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right so that’s 20% 13% of workers quit because their job just didn’t provide their life work balance right that’s something to certainly reflect on.

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Taryn Abrahams: And a third of workers that quit of that 4.5 million decided to launch their own businesses.

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Taryn Abrahams: So again, when you when when I said before, that you know that the pandemic back when it first started in 2020 really gave us an opportunity to hit the pause button and to really reflect.

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Taryn Abrahams: And you can just see you can just see by the numbers, the things that are really important to people flexibility feeling connected to their leaders feeling valued.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right and having life work balance, so I think it’s important to realize, you know, this is really good to reflect on whether we agree with it or not.

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Taryn Abrahams: These are the, these are the facts right, and so it creates an opportunity for us to ask ourselves this question, how do we create organizations that become irresistible.

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Taryn Abrahams: How do we create companies or how do we create a culture within our our own business where it becomes sticky where people leave to come to us right.

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Taryn Abrahams: And in my experience, for the most part, from what i’m noticing people typically don’t leave companies where they feel valued and appreciated.

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Taryn Abrahams: They are leaving companies where they have a lack of that So the question becomes, how can we create cultures, where they want to gravitate to us right and that’s what today’s really about.

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Taryn Abrahams: And it really is a conversation about how to create loyal employees, how to create a loyal workforce.

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Taryn Abrahams: loyal employees are those who are hired to do a specific job, and they will do everything they can to do the best at their job they tend to go above and beyond.

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Taryn Abrahams: and loyal employees, not only work hard for their pay, but they are committed to the success of the company, they see the connection between the work that they put forth.

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Taryn Abrahams: And the overall mission right of the organization, and this includes some time sacrificing their own time and interest to put into energy into the Corporation.

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Taryn Abrahams: And these selfless acts are measurable and done on a daily basis, I mean this is our, this is the ideal employee right wouldn’t we all agree on that this is the kind of employee that we want.

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Taryn Abrahams: They are dedicated to helping the company grow and prosper beyond setbacks and competitors it’s a genuine effort that they put forth.

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Taryn Abrahams: And it goes, and this goes from making an investment in the company to sacrificing their well being right to being extremely passionate about the company at large, one of the biggest misconceptions that we all tend to face when it comes to loyal employees is that it takes.

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Taryn Abrahams: them for working many years of the company to be considered a loyal employee that’s not necessarily the case in fact that tends to be your first mistake that companies make.

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Taryn Abrahams: An employee who has been working for your company for a long time does not necessarily equate to loyalty, nor do they necessarily buy into the company’s ethos or support into growth goals and according to glass door and and loyal employee can have a huge negative impact on recruiting.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so, for example, there was a time and people who worked for a company would be overjoyed right to just find out that they were named employee of the month.

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Taryn Abrahams: Or that they receive some sort of recognition from their employer or supervisor.

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Taryn Abrahams: For those who worked for large companies or large media giants, or maybe a popular franchise to those have been recognized by the higher ups was akin to a bonus.

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Taryn Abrahams: This is still true in today’s times, but it is extremely rare now people expect more from those in authority and won’t stand for anything less.

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Taryn Abrahams: This can be good, and sometimes not so good, depending on the corporations on values and instilling loyalty in a worker takes time.

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Taryn Abrahams: And it can push those in authority to maybe be even better at their roles as leaders, so why do we care, why is this important, why should we focus on.

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Taryn Abrahams: On loyalty and there’s a couple things to think about we have found through studies and research that loyal employees push productivity in the workplace.

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Taryn Abrahams: As mentioned before, loyal employees already have a natural hunger for improvement and success they are always coming up with new ideas to tackle the challenges of the day and help the company grow.

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Taryn Abrahams: They are always ready and able to work hard and suggest things to improve the environment, to put it simply, they are natural leaders.

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Taryn Abrahams: Other workers that have low vibrations low loyalty will naturally absorb that energy and want to emulate that so it becomes contagious right which all is tied to.

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Taryn Abrahams: higher levels of productivity, the customers experience will make or break the corporation, if you have an unhappy employee.

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Taryn Abrahams: That can absolutely trickle down to how they treat their clients right, and so, when you have an employee that feels valued and loyal and has that deep sense of belonging.

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Taryn Abrahams: That is going to that is going to come out in their interactions that’s going to come out in terms of how they support how they show up how they manage their clients, so it is all very much interconnected.

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Taryn Abrahams: Loyalty improves the corporation’s image employees, no matter.

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Taryn Abrahams: Employees matter more than most people think they do.

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Taryn Abrahams: More than half of them have companies image is built by their employees that’s something really to think about after all, they are the ones who make the products and carry them under the company’s brand.

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Taryn Abrahams: The easiest way to make sure this is present in the workplace is to ensure that organizations is putting out what they want in return.

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Taryn Abrahams: I always say, if you want to see things in your employees, if you want to deepen their loyalty, if you want them to be better communicators if you want them to become more engaged, we need to model that.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right, so I always say it starts at the top employee loyalty speeds up production in a shorter time.

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Taryn Abrahams: When a company is under fire or experiencing a delay in production, for instance, loyal workers were always know to stay above water and not give into the slump.

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Taryn Abrahams: They will stay loyal and dedicated to the organization during all of the ups and downs, they will figure it out right.

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Taryn Abrahams: So there’s a lots of value behind that employee loyalty can be a part of a corporation’s growth plan.

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Taryn Abrahams: Every corporation has a plan for growth and improvement, however, not everyone is able to achieve that one of the biggest reasons why.

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Taryn Abrahams: is because there is always so many employees being fired and so many people being hired and rehired.

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Taryn Abrahams: If there is no strong presence of employee loyalty in the company they won’t be willing or interested in working for the corporation long term.

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Taryn Abrahams: So it all is very much interconnected one way to get this improved is to include some type of loyalty revenue plan.

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Taryn Abrahams: In the plan so, for instance, when employees have been at a job for certain amount of time there could be a potential to incentivize them.

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Taryn Abrahams: By giving them some sort sort of agreed amount as a reward for their loyalty.

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Taryn Abrahams: I actually just came across a company up a couple of days ago I was, I was consulting with them and they came out with a plan that if you stay for five years, we will help you pay for a certain portion of your child’s.

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Taryn Abrahams: college tuition if you stay for 10 years we will cover at least 50% of it if you stay 15 years we will cover the entire cost.

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Taryn Abrahams: I mean folks I mean to me that was such an out of the box idea, which is a perfect way to get people’s attention and to build that loyalty, because at the end of the day.

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Taryn Abrahams: Money does speak and also when you meet the needs of what families are working on with paying for higher education to me that sounds like a win, win.

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Taryn Abrahams: More people will want to work for your company right so when you have a good culture, when you focus on that sense of belonging and that loyalty.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know, it tends to resonate it tends to permeate right, I always say.

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Taryn Abrahams: Good news travels quickly bad news travels quicker right so when when people are feeling a sense of belonging and that loyalty within your your company, you know they talked to people that word gets out.

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Taryn Abrahams: And we all know, we are living in a very digital age, right now, where everybody can go online and put on reviews and glassdoor COM, and I mean everything is very visible in terms of how we feel.

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Taryn Abrahams: about the work that we do, and the companies that we work for so we want to create an organization, where people want to come to you.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right So how do you make your culture sticky right so that’s the big magic question today, how do we do this, how do we make it sticky.

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Taryn Abrahams: Well, I think it starts with listening finding out what’s important to people now that’s easy to say not always easy to do, and as I mentioned before, we are working for the first time.

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Taryn Abrahams: With five generations in the workforce, what what might be important to a Boomer may be very different than what’s important to a millennial or a Torah gen Z or.

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Taryn Abrahams: So it’s important to kind of sometimes quiet that voice in our head, that is quick to judge.

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Taryn Abrahams: And really ask these you know ask our people, what is important to you what is valuable to you what experience, do we need to provide you in order for you to feel.

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Taryn Abrahams: That you are, you know feel a commitment to to stay with us long term because we value you as an employee so it’s about finding out what’s important to people and be open minded to what you might hear.

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Taryn Abrahams: What you might hear may be very different than what you would expect, you might hear.

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Taryn Abrahams: And I think modern leadership is about learning to be a little bit open we’re open we’re flexible and and trying to honor what’s necessary what’s important to them, which again might be different from you, if there’s a generational difference they’re.

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Taryn Abrahams: Also, cultures and genders also made me present with different needs, you know, being able to take off on holidays when maybe they didn’t do that before.

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Taryn Abrahams: Maybe the home environment is different now, you might have children that maybe you’re still being homeschooled because they are higher risk or.

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Taryn Abrahams: You have young ones at home or maybe you moved in with your elderly parents and you have new roles that you play at home.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s really important as leaders and as HR professionals to understand the landscape of each personal life.

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Taryn Abrahams: To take the time to figure out what their situation looks like because it does vary from person to person, and it really reminds me I know when we first.

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Taryn Abrahams: entered this pandemic even there was this sort of mantra we’re all in this together, and I do believe, as a human race, we are truly all in this together, but that doesn’t mean that all of our situations are the same.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right and so again going back to that first slide of why people are leaving flexibility tends to be a really big reason why people leave or lack of flexibility right.

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Taryn Abrahams: Focusing on the experience, focusing on the people right really talking about and focusing on the culture of your organization How are people feeling do they feel valued do they feel heard do they feel respected.

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Taryn Abrahams: Do they feel safe right, and those are things that we don’t always intend to take the time to talk about we kind of assume old status quo, that if they’re not coming to me with issues.

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Taryn Abrahams: Then it’s probably Okay, but I think in this day and age, especially since we’ve all been challenged emotionally by this pandemic, I think that it’s really a great opportunity to get to know your employees on a on a deeper level.

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Taryn Abrahams: So I have a great question that came through, how can you figure out what boundaries, to put on your flexibility, yes, so that’s a great question right and and that’s it’s a great point to bring up, because we certainly can’t honor everything right.

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Taryn Abrahams: But I think that, I think, too, especially in the space that we’re in right now, sometimes as leaders, we need to sometimes give up something in order to meet in the middle right and so.

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Taryn Abrahams: Those boundaries may look different from organization to organization, but I think the question becomes is how do we become more flexible with our boundaries so i’ll give you a perfect example and how we can sort of reassess our boundaries.

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Taryn Abrahams: burnout is at an all time time right, you know burnout was trending before the pandemic but it’s at an all time high now.

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Taryn Abrahams: mainly because it’s not so much the work that burns us out it’s our inability to disconnect from our work that causes burnout right so for those of us that manage teams that are working remotely or or in a hybrid environment.

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Taryn Abrahams: A good example of a new, modern boundary might be explained to our employees that I am no longer going to be emailing you and off hours and here’s the reason why.

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Taryn Abrahams: Because I recognize that it is important for that downtime.

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Taryn Abrahams: And as much as I have information I need to relate to you i’m going to put them in my drafts and i’m going to then send them to the following day.

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Taryn Abrahams: So that I honor and respect your downtime and your family time that is a great opportunity, an example.

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Taryn Abrahams: of an of a modern new bought modern boundary it’s something we never really maybe thought about before, but you know when you we email people late at night.

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Taryn Abrahams: It is not only detrimental to ourselves as leaders because you’re now working after hours right, which leads to burnout, but it also kind of.

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Taryn Abrahams: It also kind of chips away at the morale of our employees, because you know when please get emails and all hours of the night it’s it causes a more of a difficulty to detach from our work.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right, so it constantly makes us feel like we’ve got to be pulled back in.

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Taryn Abrahams: So an example of a good boundary is to have a transparent conversation with our with your employees, about the fact that we’re going to.

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Taryn Abrahams: change the way we communicate with you we’re not we’re going to be more mindful of the times of the day that we send these emails.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right so that’s that’s an example of a boundary or how about giving people permission to use their paid time off, you know.

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Taryn Abrahams: The interesting thing is, I see companies using very creative strategies to retain and engage I see people companies, giving unlimited people paid time off and the interesting thing is, is when we give unlimited paid time off, they tend to use less of it.

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Taryn Abrahams: I think sometimes employees need to be told it’s okay it’s okay to take a mental health day it’s okay to take a day off if you need it.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s okay to use your time off for a vacation.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right, because what we want is we want people to take care of themselves, this is a marathon not a sprint if we want to create a loyal workforce, if we want to create an engaged loyal employee, this is a long term strategy.

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Taryn Abrahams: Not short term right so it’s about taking care of all of them, not just the output and I can guarantee, you and I see this all the time, with my clients when you make an employee feel taken care of.

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Taryn Abrahams: They will go above and be on for you, they will work harder for you, they will work longer hours for you it’s it’s pretty magical when when you when you really try to harness that right.

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Taryn Abrahams: invest in training, you know we are living in very different times now right we’ve been through some changes and I always say.

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Taryn Abrahams: In the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results if we are trying to lead people, the same way.

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Taryn Abrahams: We we might be in for a rude awakening because we are emotionally in different places now right, we are changed people again, not for the worst necessarily, but we have been challenged in a lot of ways, so.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s about you know, making sure that we’re you know we’re tweaking our leadership approach we’re open minded to trying out of the box things and trying different things, because we are living in different times right.

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Taryn Abrahams: i’m always we’re all it’s I always say the leader is always growing as a leader.

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Taryn Abrahams: It is an ongoing journey, and so you know that that’s that’s an important mantra to really embrace that we’re always always should always be striving to improve our leadership abilities.

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Taryn Abrahams: Because you truly do hold the power to setting the tone for employee performance employee relations, the culture of your organization which is all tied to retention.

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Taryn Abrahams: And then, focusing on meeting universal needs What do I mean by that, so I have experienced in my line of work I have truly found that.

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Taryn Abrahams: No matter the generation, no matter the age, the cultural background the gender of the employees, there are certain.

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Taryn Abrahams: Simple similarities, there are certain core needs that we all need regardless of those differences and organizations that focus and lead with this.

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Taryn Abrahams: Have a better outcome, and they have just you know, in terms of just more output and and better retention.

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Taryn Abrahams: focus on respect creating cultures of respect right we people want to feel respected when they don’t they will bail, they will walk I have seen employees leave companies.

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Taryn Abrahams: and go to competitors to make the same amount of money, just for the desire to be respected.

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Taryn Abrahams: Just for the desire to have a better to feel a better connection with the people that they report to so respect goes a long way, and so this trust trust is important, do we mean what we say and see what we mean.

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Taryn Abrahams: And I have to say I just want to stop here, I know i’m giving you an army with a lot of information, but I always like to remind my leaders that great leadership is not about being perfect.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s very hard to be perfect at all this in fact I don’t even know if perfect exists, the question becomes is what do we do when we become imperfect right and so that was.

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Taryn Abrahams: that’s one of our coordinates integrity right are we able to apologize, are we able to admit you know what.

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Taryn Abrahams: I could have handled the communication around the pandemic better right and i’m going to do better to be more transparent with my employees as we go through changes right there’s a lot to be said for being honest.

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Taryn Abrahams: People read right through bs if I can say that right they read right through it just like we all in this call can read through it so to our employees.

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Taryn Abrahams: So it’s it’s it’s not about being perfect it’s about being authentic and as leaders we do make mistakes we do, we are human we are imperfect by design.

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Taryn Abrahams: But people have tremendous respect when we are able, to be honest about those mistakes, so you know people also want to be listened to.

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Taryn Abrahams: They don’t want to be lecture they want to be heard right, so I always say when we’re giving constructive feedback right.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s I always say constructive feedback should be a two way conversation, and I think as leaders we sometimes forget that.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know hey I really need you to work a little bit harder, I really need you to please cross your t’s and dot your i’s when you’re filling out.

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Taryn Abrahams: Whatever it is, but the end of that conversation should also end with what feedback, can you give to me as your leader.

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Taryn Abrahams: How can I improve Is there something that I can be doing better or differently to bring the best out in you, but here’s the thing we have to be open to what they might share.

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Taryn Abrahams: And sometimes we might hear things we might not want to hear like I don’t always like your tone I don’t always feel comfortable coming to you.

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Taryn Abrahams: I sometimes feel intimidated, when I speak to you, those are things that might be hard to hear, but really good feedback for us to know right because those are the reasons why people tend to leave.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s not all it’s not the money it’s the morale it’s the culture it’s it’s it’s the feel that they have when they work for that company right.

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Taryn Abrahams: People want consistency at a time, right now, or things are changing and evolving all the time.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s hard to be consistent right, but we can be consistent in our communication right, we can be consistent with touching base with our employees consistency builds trust right so that’s an important component to some of our core universal needs.

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Taryn Abrahams: We need empathy, we need to hear from our leaders that you hear me that you understand me now, but the thing about empathy that I find so interesting is that we don’t have to agree.

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Taryn Abrahams: With the other person in order to empathize we don’t have to necessarily agree for the ability to put ourselves in their shoes.

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Taryn Abrahams: And it’s so powerful they actually researchers suggest that this is probably the most important ingredient.

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Taryn Abrahams: In all relationships in life, not just business, especially business but also personal is the ability for us to be able to empathize and show care and concern, and it would sound like you know I just see how much this has affected you i’m so sorry that you have felt this way.

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Taryn Abrahams: And folks I have to tell you it goes so far, when you can make someone feel when you can show that you hear them their guard comes way down, it becomes less about an argument and more about collaboration.

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Taryn Abrahams: Try it it’s really, really powerful again don’t have to agree with any of the words coming out of their mouth and you don’t necessarily have to be able to relate to them, but you can you can.

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Taryn Abrahams: You can connect to the feeling, and you can show empathy based on what they’ve been feeling, so if they feel sad or they feel scared or they feel frustrated we both felt that from time to time.

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Taryn Abrahams: And that’s a wonderful way to show connection and care to the employee.

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Taryn Abrahams: And self expression, we all want to be able to show up at work and be our authentic selves whether we identify with the LGBT community, whether we are someone of a minority.

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Taryn Abrahams: race, whatever it is, we want to be our authentic selves so creating inclusive cultures should be really the focus of today’s modern workplace.

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Taryn Abrahams: So what do we do if we.

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Taryn Abrahams: have some repairing to do what do we do if we have decided to become a remote workforce as a result of this pandemic, or we decided to do a hybrid approach or maybe.

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Taryn Abrahams: We have mandated everybody to come back into the workplace but we’re just noticing that people are just sort of going through the motions they’re not really bringing their a game.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so, how do we repair that and there are a lot of things that we can do to repair that.

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Taryn Abrahams: I think the first step, though, is sort of identifying what is a disengaged employee, what do they look like and that can vary from person to person.

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Taryn Abrahams: So if you had an employee that used to bring their a game, and they were a star player and they were taking on.

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Taryn Abrahams: additional work and they were mentoring other people and they were helping people and all of a sudden, you notice they’re doing the bare bones minimum that could be a sign of of a disengaged employee.

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Taryn Abrahams: If you notice somebody taking more people much more paid time off if you notice that somebody who was never late before is now chronically late.

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Taryn Abrahams: If you notice that they’re flying off the handle more work they’re not handling conflict well.

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Taryn Abrahams: they’re avoiding difficult conversations perhaps Those are all potential signs of a disengaged employee, so I think the first step is sort of identifying the problem right, and then the second thing is what do we do with it.

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Taryn Abrahams: And it’s very common.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s depending on our generation to depending on our age we may want to take sort of a firm approach to that we may want to sit down with them and give them.

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Taryn Abrahams: A what for, and you know if you don’t you know if you don’t shape up and we’re gonna be might have to put you on a performance plan okay well you know that’s one option right.

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Taryn Abrahams: But in my experience when we give you know when we meet someone with resistance with resistance and we try to push them in that other direction, we oftentimes get met with more resistance, so in my experience.

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Taryn Abrahams: The most effective way to address a disengaged employee is to take the heartfelt approach, and it could sound like this, you know.

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Taryn Abrahams: i’m really concerned about you and they may say, well, what do you mean well you know I when I hired you I hired you because I believed in you.

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Taryn Abrahams: And this is why I believed in you, I saw this in you, I saw this in you, I saw this and I have to be honest with you in the last several months i’m not seeing much of that in you i’m worried about you, is everything okay.

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Taryn Abrahams: And then we want to pause we want to quiet ourselves there could be a little bit of uncomfortable silence at that moment.

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Taryn Abrahams: But we want to resist the urge to speak and that pause is important because it creates that space in order for them to be honest and forthcoming.

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Taryn Abrahams: And, and the next thing you might hear is something more real and authentic like you know what i’m depressed i’m feeling burnt out, I have a lot on my plate my marriage is falling apart.

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Taryn Abrahams: Whatever it is you, that information is good for you to know now it doesn’t mean that you need to be their therapists right I don’t want to sit here and say that you need to be their coach and their therapist.

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Taryn Abrahams: But as a leader wouldn’t you want to know that information so that we can better lead them right.

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Taryn Abrahams: i’ll give you an example on a story a couple of a couple of years ago, I was coaching the Vice President of a very large.

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Taryn Abrahams: University in the northeast and he came to me because he was having trouble.

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Taryn Abrahams: engaging the younger generation on his workforce he had a very diverse workforce in age, the older generations, the boomers they were cranking it out, they were above and beyond working hard.

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Taryn Abrahams: And the couple there was one millennial on his on his on his team that every single day was always late always late coming to the office everybody else was always on time this employee was always late.

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Taryn Abrahams: So i’d say to him well what have you done about this, and he said, well, I bring him into my office.

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Taryn Abrahams: And it gets a little heated and I tell him, you know you don’t get special privileges, like everyone else, everyone else has to be on time and you need to be on time and.

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Taryn Abrahams: So I said well how effective was that he goes well it’s not effective he’s still late every single day, and it is irking me it is frustrating me and I just i’m ready to fire this person I civil before you do that.

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Taryn Abrahams: let’s see how else we can approach this I said so let’s try the heartfelt approach, he said, what do you mean.

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Taryn Abrahams: So I said well call I always say you always want to praise publicly and criticize privately so pulling into your office at a time that’s good for both of you shut the door.

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Taryn Abrahams: And instead of coming down hard on him and reminding him what he’s doing wrong take the heartfelt approach, and it could sound like this.

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Taryn Abrahams: i’m really worried about you i’m really concerned about you and and and pause right, so he did just that he went to his employee he pulled him into his office he shut the door and he says i’m really worried about you.

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Taryn Abrahams: And the employee says, what do you mean well you know I hired you a year ago I really so great things in you, your interview was great I saw all these great qualities in you.

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Taryn Abrahams: And i’m just worried because I know that you’re capable of better because I know that you can tell me help me help me understand what’s going on.

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Taryn Abrahams: And he took that pause it was a little uncomfortable and the next thing he heard of out of this employees mouth was pretty profound he said well.

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Taryn Abrahams: I gotta be honest with you i’m having some financial problems and I had to sell my car.

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Taryn Abrahams: And i’ve been walking to work, which is why i’m late every day.

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Taryn Abrahams: So, initially, this was his laziest employee, the most unmotivated employee and now he’s hearing that he’s working to he’s walking two hours to work and two hours from work he’s walking four hours a day, just to get to work.

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Taryn Abrahams: The quality of work is always good when he’s there, but the late part was something that was really irking my client.

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Taryn Abrahams: And he went from looking at him as this sort of lazy disengaged employee to one of his most motivated employees.

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Taryn Abrahams: So, now that he knows he sold off this car now we can talk about how can we support you, maybe there’s a way we can give you a transportation stipend or reimbursement of some kind of nature, so.

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Taryn Abrahams: Now we can’t help people if we don’t know the problem which goes back to listening.

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Taryn Abrahams: leverage our active listening skills, you know listening is just listening to the words we can do that by you know multitasking and we can we can you know be on our phones and listen and and and type.

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Taryn Abrahams: Active listening is putting all those distractions away and really seeking the understanding behind the behavior.

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Taryn Abrahams: And we can only do that by picking her heads up, why is that because most of what we communicate is not out of our mouth it’s our body language 55% of what we communicate is our body language so if we’re not having eye contact, when we speak to people we are missing a lot of information.

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Taryn Abrahams: So you know when we show up differently, the outcome is different right um and The hope is that we come up with a potential solution that both of you come up with right what and that might mean.

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Taryn Abrahams: And I know this is hard for some of us, we might need to give up something we might need to compromise, we might need to meet in the middle.

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Taryn Abrahams: It might sound like maybe you need to come in an hour later and leave an hour later, maybe it might sound like you can maybe do some of this work over the weekend.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know it’s you know, and so you know it’s about being flexible, which I know is for some of us is is easy and for some of us it’s not so easy.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s about showing empathy authenticity integrity right again it’s about taking that heartfelt approach.

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Taryn Abrahams: And it’s also about self reflecting on your own behaviors right are we as leaders doing anything to contribute to the disengagement, are we writing them too hard, are we sending them too many emails have we not given them the permission to.

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Taryn Abrahams: structure better boundaries around work are we expecting them to always be on which, by the way, burnout does not come from the workload, I think I may have touched on this before.

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Taryn Abrahams: burnout comes from our inability to disconnect from the workload, we need to give our people, the permission it’s okay to to pull away from the work.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right when we allow them to do that, they come back more prepared and ready for the work and sometimes as leaders we eat sometimes.

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Taryn Abrahams: Our own behaviors can sometimes contribute to our own burnout and also the burnout of others, so I think there’s also an opportunity for self reflection.

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Taryn Abrahams: In ourselves as leaders, which goes back to our emotional intelligence our self awareness right, what are we doing to possibly contribute to the disengagement of our employees.

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Taryn Abrahams: So what are some inexpensive inexpensive ways to retain strategies in fact I don’t think any of these actually cost anything.

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Taryn Abrahams: provide more positive feedback we take it for granted that people think they’re doing a good job, where they know that they’re doing a good job we all like feedback, as I mentioned it’s one of our core core universal needs.

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Taryn Abrahams: For the ones that you identify on your team that even that seemed disengaged those are probably the ones that needed the most they need to hear when we’re doing when they’re doing well.

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Taryn Abrahams: If I also call it a little bit of an ego stroke right we all value that.

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Taryn Abrahams: You will make someone’s day if you give them positive feedback and for those workers or for those employees that we might consider to be underperforming or maybe they don’t always bring their a game they probably need it, the most.

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Taryn Abrahams: and watch the magic happen when you take the time to give them feedback, even if it’s something small like I really like how you handle that client where I really appreciate you giving me that report on time that was really amazing Thank you.

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Taryn Abrahams: They will take that with them, they will go home that night or or if they’re working remotely they’re already home and they’re reflecting on it.

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Taryn Abrahams: And what they’re going to do subconsciously they will they’re going to try to figure out how to get more of that out of you, which means more output right it’s pretty magical.

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Taryn Abrahams: encouraged Korea employee creativity employees, want to be a part of the big picture, they want to be able to contribute, even if the ideas seem silly it’s really great to make space at the seat for people to be able to show their creativity and to be able to contribute in that way.

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Taryn Abrahams: foster a culture culture of respect right if you focus on respect again, one of our core universal needs you’re going to create a sticky culture.

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Taryn Abrahams: On the flip side right if there are people on your leadership team that tend to have abrasive approaches or tend to not lead with respect.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s it’s perhaps an opportunity to invest in coaching and training, because folks that is really the number one reason why people leave companies.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right it’s not the money it’s it’s the connection or lack thereof it’s the morale or lack thereof.

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Taryn Abrahams: Give your employees, an opportunity to grow people love the opportunities for mentoring for for professional development for training.

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Taryn Abrahams: opportunities to move up into the company all of those things are important to all of us.

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Taryn Abrahams: They want to earn earn the trust of your employees right that’s that’s a big thing again another core universal need.

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Taryn Abrahams: Making sure that our behaviors are fostering a culture of trust and respect encourage your employees to give you feedback.

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Taryn Abrahams: Again, it should be reciprocal something we sometimes forget about and, by the way, feedback shouldn’t just happen at quarterly reviews or yearly annual reviews.

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Taryn Abrahams: Feedback doesn’t have to be in a formal conversation, it could be just passing by and you just say something that just creates a nice feeling, you know it doesn’t it should be ongoing throughout the year right.

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Taryn Abrahams: hiring for culture fit making sure that the people that you’re bringing in are going to be able to be a part of the culture that you’re that you’re establishing that you’re fostering.

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Taryn Abrahams: Are they going to be able to you know fill you lead with those core universal needs and and show respect and and you know show behaviors that foster that we want to make sure that we’re bringing in the right people.

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Taryn Abrahams: folks, as I mentioned before, I know some of us i’m sure if we open this up to it and engaging discussion a lot of us on the call would probably have some mixed feelings about what i’m going to say next but.

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Taryn Abrahams: Flexibility is the name of the game, especially now, and I really believe that you know there’s a lot of positive that’s come out of this pandemic.

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Taryn Abrahams: I really believe before the pandemic, you know we created all of these wonderful technology smartphones Apps great applications to work more effectively and more more efficiently, but yet we were still expecting ourselves to work, the same way.

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Taryn Abrahams: Technology is there to make us more efficient so really in a lot of ways this pandemic has reshaped the word way we get work done and so flexible work options is something that really is, is something that can be a really great way to to help retain.

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Taryn Abrahams: And, and you know, there are coaches, like myself, that that help companies figure out what that looks like, of course, there has to be boundaries or has to be parameters.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know, and there has to be limitations to that, but, but I am finding in my line of work when you meet people halfway and you give up a little something.

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Taryn Abrahams: They the output normally starts to naturally starts to increase, and so, sometimes it involves us giving something up.

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Taryn Abrahams: And I always say, and I think this is maybe something that, especially with sort of a notion that was really birthed out of this pandemic is.

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Taryn Abrahams: Do we need to care so much how the work gets done as long as the quality of work is there.

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Taryn Abrahams: Right and that’s really something to really think about and I know that that varies based on industry, there are certain industries where working remotely is not even an option.

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Taryn Abrahams: And that’s Okay, but for those industries that are it’s really an opportunity, you know, to think about how we can offer more flexible work options, because that is a very big reasons why people are leaving.

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Taryn Abrahams: Is because of the lack of flexibility, rewarding efforts, not just results right that’s something to really think about people like to be recognized and it doesn’t always have to be based on results, it could be based on you know just going above and beyond for clients.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know, whatever that means for your business but rewarding efforts is a wonderful wonderful way to motivate all generations, especially the younger one and what better way to engage a remote.

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Taryn Abrahams: engaged workforce than to give back together right, and there are wonderful Corporate Social Responsibility programs out there, where you can.

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Taryn Abrahams: Create figure out a mission that speaks to your organization into your culture.

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Taryn Abrahams: And to volunteer together to give back together, and you know I always say to i’ve said this for years, that one of the best ways to alleviate emotional angst is to help someone else.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so what a great way to to alleviate that whatever that anger that we are feeling whether it’s burnout or disengagement, or you know just whatever that might be, and to to to give back in a social way and so that you know very, very inexpensive but very powerful powerful way.

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Taryn Abrahams: To engage and to retain.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so, for those of us on the call that are looking for tips for managing the remote employees, these are some things to think about as well.

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Taryn Abrahams: Be on the lookout for signs of distress.

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Taryn Abrahams: Look be on the lookout for signs of burnout and again that can be different from employee to employee, but like if they used to turn their webcam up cam on all the time for zoom meetings and now they’re not could be a sign of disengagement.

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Taryn Abrahams: If they’re late for meetings if they’re missing missing meetings right So those are some things to kind of.

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Taryn Abrahams: To be on the lookout for and to have an honest conversation with them a heartfelt conversation about them, not about their performance but about them as a person so open that open dialogue.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know and.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know, for those of us that are not used to managing remote employees, it is a really important thing to to figure out how to trust your employees.

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Taryn Abrahams: And you know it’s it’s really managers may be concerned or even frustrated to lose the constant visibility, they once had over their employees.

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Taryn Abrahams: But the worst way to respond is by micromanaging this will absolutely lead to disengagement and fatigue with already stressed employees over controlling will push people out right.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so it’s about figuring out how we can trust our employees and if we can’t trust them that’s a bigger conversation to have.

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Taryn Abrahams: They may not be the right fit for your organization or maybe we need to talk about other things on and how what behaviors build trust, and that is a two way street right.

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Taryn Abrahams: And you know gartner research shows that employees understanding the organization’s decisions and their implications during change is far more important for the success.

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Taryn Abrahams: Of a change initiative, rather than them liking, the change.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so it’s really important to you know have open, transparent conversation, especially with our remote employees, they do feel a little bit more removed.

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Taryn Abrahams: than those that are in the office, so we need to make sure that we’re constantly reinforcing organizational values we’re always reminding them tying the value of what the work that they’re doing with the overall mission of the organization that is very important as well.

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Taryn Abrahams: Very important, as well as to remember you don’t want to skip meetings you know it’s very it’s very easy to look at our calendars and say well you know I just spoke to this person.

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Taryn Abrahams: What I want i’m going to just cancel the meeting I don’t want to flood them with too many meetings, but especially for our remote.

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Taryn Abrahams: Employees doesn’t have to be a formal long one hour meeting but don’t cancel the meeting.

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Taryn Abrahams: Even if it’s for 15 minutes you know it’s an opportunity to create that touch point How are things going, how is the family, how are you doing right we don’t want to miss those opportunities so keeping those lines of communication is really open but it’s really important.

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Taryn Abrahams: focus on outputs not the process again it’s based on different individuals, but you want to focus on, you know the job that they’re doing not necessarily how they’re getting the work done.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know if they may come up with a different process that works better for them working remotely than something that you ever consider doing.

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Taryn Abrahams: Again it’s about allowing that autonomy, allowing people to figure out what works best for them to provide the best quality of work, and the best output.

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Taryn Abrahams: Recognition is very important, I think again that’s something that we don’t always take the time to do enough of.

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Taryn Abrahams: People like to be recognized they like that feedback they like to be recognized and appreciated so more important than ever before, is to make sure that we’re doing that and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, it could be an email, it could be a handwritten card.

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Taryn Abrahams: You know it’s just you know those touch points become very important when people are thinking about how they feel do they feel valued remember that first slide.

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Taryn Abrahams: Do I feel valued do I feel appreciated, those are things that are really important to people, especially now.

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Taryn Abrahams: and encourage innovation if somebody comes up with an idea that is completely out of the box.

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Taryn Abrahams: Or maybe it’s just something that you never even thought of or maybe it was so different than the way you’ve done it be open to that there’s nothing more magical than employee coming up with a better way to do something right.

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Taryn Abrahams: And to just praise that you know when somebody puts themselves out of their comfort zone and and and innovate.

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Taryn Abrahams: or comes up with an out of the box idea oh my gosh we want to praise that as much as possible that’s the kind of employee that we want, we don’t want people that are just going through the motions for people using their heads right.

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Taryn Abrahams: And so the real enclosing, how do we create an irresistible organization, when we talk about you know the big reset and the big resignation.

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Taryn Abrahams: they’re not leaving irresistible organizations right so they’re going to organizations that look better to them So how do we make us look like them, and I think if we concentrate on these you know buckets.

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Taryn Abrahams: We will be in a very good place we want our work to be meaningful, we want our employees to feel connected to their work right we want.

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Taryn Abrahams: We want hands on management clear goals, we want to provide reciprocal feedback we want to always be improving on our leadership development.

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Taryn Abrahams: We want productive environments, which might mean we might have to provide some flexibility we might have to amp up our recognition right.

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Taryn Abrahams: And we might have to be more flexible.

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Taryn Abrahams: growth opportunities right, we might have to think about that what are some career growth path growth paths that they can take.

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Taryn Abrahams: What are some personal development that we can offer our employees mentoring programs wonderful opportunities to show your commitment and your investment.

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Taryn Abrahams: and your people I guarantee you when they feel that investment in you, they will be invested in you right it’s just that’s the way it works.

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Taryn Abrahams: Trust and leadership right, we want to make sure that our communication is transparent and open and honest and inspirational right, I mean leaders.

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Taryn Abrahams: job is really to bring the best out in people, and if we have people on our team and our leadership team that might be stale or burnt out.

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Taryn Abrahams: it’s Okay, but it’s an opportunity to address that because that absolutely affects everything below it right.

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Taryn Abrahams: or everybody below it and we also want to make sure that we focus on health and wellbeing right.

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Taryn Abrahams: we’ve now added that, as it is an important component to creating a good employee experience, I mean we dealing with humans we’re dealing with people.

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Taryn Abrahams: we’re dealing with emotional beings, we are human that’s what separates us from computer that’s what separates us from other animals on the planet.

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Taryn Abrahams: We are emotional beings and everything we do is driven by emotions and it has been an emotional time so um you know it’s about and focusing on how we can.

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Taryn Abrahams: help make sure to improve the health and well being of our employees.

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Taryn Abrahams: And and there’s a lot of ways to do that again, as I mentioned before, encouraging paid time off being aware of your boundaries not emailing them at crazy crazy hours of the night right and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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Taryn Abrahams: So with That said, I know I gave you a lot of information today in a short amount of time, I welcome your questions.

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Taryn Abrahams: please feel free to put them in the Q amp a.

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Taryn Abrahams: Well katie it doesn’t look like we have any new questions coming in, so i’m going to turn it back to you.

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MP: Also, well, thank you so much lots of valuable information on employee retention any questions.

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MP: That you may have please again put in the Q amp a and if we do not get a chance to respond will respond via email within five to seven days.

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MP: The MP HR team is here to help guide your organization on any HR issues if you’d like to learn more about helping assist your organization.

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MP: Please visit our website to set up a short 15 minute call be sure to join us next week on the same day and time for our webinar on work opportunity tax credit.

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MP: Eligibility proven strategies and best practices visit our website to register and to see the full calendar of upcoming events and available resources.

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MP: will be sending out a recording of today’s webinar with the presentation slides this afternoon thanks for joining us and have a terrific day.