How to create a happy and loyal workforce
The business sector is facing serious challenges in retaining its workforce in the 21st century. The cost of high workforce turnover can put a company under water. To add to the cost of hiring appropriate talent and training, there is the cost of time lost if talent cannot be retained, thus substantiating the cost of loss in reputation. When buying talent in the job market today, we have to remember that it is a seller's market too.
Thus, retaining talent today is almost a kind of business science. In order to retain talent, the company needs to design an appropriate work environment, with a philosophy of respect for the individual, and the right remuneration and perks along with the guarantee of prospects of an exciting work environment to grow. To build such companies we need to invest in building such skills for matching with working roles, and then ensure the level of employee engagement in today's dynamic marketplace with proper work and life balance. These small but significant factors can be a deciding factor in a talented employee staying with the company or leaving it.
Some employers forget these HR aspects or perhaps don't even know the difference and still consider themselves as good employers. If a company cannot retain its productive employees they will lose out. We cannot blame employees, and the blame-game never helps the cause. If a company wants to retain its talents, they must demonstrate the right attitude, approach, tools, expertise and will to invest in human capital.
In the seventies, they had a personnel department – a colonial concept. Later on in the eighties, the term 'human resources' came into style, but unfortunately, the attitude and approach remained the same as in the past. Therefore, employees are still not actually being treated as 'resources' in many companies. The only change has been in the name of the position responsible for personnel management, which we now know as HR Manager. A mere change in naming is never going to make a difference. Knowledge, planning, policies, and investment are also required.
Hence, organisations need to look around and consider the high tech, high touch feel of today's job market and also anticipate, appreciate, and evaluate aspirations of individuals, and support them to translate their ideas into reality. In this case each CEO has a pivotal role to play as a leader. The CEO is the social architect of the company, and this has to be reflected in his/her actions and activities.
Initiate 'people first' approaches. Use truth as a platform for possibility, not a barrier to growth. The ineffective CEO cannot win the heart of employees and cannot enhance the corporate image at all. The CEO as the leader of an organisation may have his/her own style of leadership. But simply saying that "my door is open" is not going to make the magic happen.
In truth most people become managers accidentally, as a result of their sudden success/promotion, or other factors. Next, they find themselves responsible for hiring people. Once they have hired someone, many managers are unclear or unaware of exactly what to do, because of the lack of knowledge and experience. This often leads to disasters for both the company and the employee. They cannot gauge the capability of the employee, so they try to manage him/her in an arbitrary manner. It confuses and demoralises the employees at the receiving end. People start indulging in office-politics, nepotism and sycophancy. Consequently, a lot of talent leaves the company because of a lack of satisfaction.
The old days are gone and the new generation is well aware of these conventional views and more knowledgeable about various management aspects of a company.
The good news is that the employers of the 21st century have already made a major paradigm shift and a company's success depends on the ability to attract and retain talent. Because all material resources can be managed but real productivity brought by high quality people is rather difficult to manage. Therefore we have to enforce practices to raise people's self-esteem and make them feel valuable. For this, the four A's are essential: appreciation, approval, admiration and attention.
Internal branding helps improve employee retention and productivity through programmes that build job satisfaction and motivation, while reinforcing brand messages traditionally targeted mostly at external audiences. Companies incorporate brand messages across all internal activities – training, orientation, team building, and more, through a mix of branding, organisational development and employee communications strategies. Failing to link brand strategy with employee communications is a serious mistake.
Building long-lasting relationships play a vital role in an employee staying with a company. Some have said that when they decided to leave the company, they would have stayed if they were asked, but they never were. Building long-term relationships means creating brand equity and loyalty.
The writer is an author, and business marketing and brand catalyst. He is the recipient of global brand leadership award in 2007.
E-mail: aftab.go.brand@gmail.com