Communication key to retaining, motivating workers

In many industries, recent years of high unemployment have shielded companies from the consequences of increased worker mobility and turnover in the modern office.
Even if a productive worker becomes restless, their boss could be confident there was a replacement ready to fill their place.
But if the recovery continues, employers will start losing that leverage and keeping good workers motivated could become a key attribute of successful ventures.
“In the recession we had too few jobs and too many people, while going forward, when the baby boomers retire, we will have the opposite: too few qualified applicants,” said Karyn Rhodes, vice president of human resources consulting at Cornerstone in Warwick. “The better an organization does at retainment, the more successful they will be.”
So what strategies are proving effective at helping companies keep workers from looking for the door?
Local human resources experts say good communication and providing new challenges are now central to good retainment practices.
“Really explain what the company’s short- and long-term goals are and let them know how important their role is in the bigger picture,” said Sarah Pontarelli, division director for staffing company OfficeTeam’s Providence branch. “Meeting once a week or quarter on production metrics, maintaining an open-door policy and asking for their input is important. If people feel they are being heard and their ideas received, and that they are part of the bigger picture, they are more likely to be engaged.”
When communication channels are open, Pontarelli said managers can then work with key employees to diversify their tasks and expand their responsibilities.
Those new responsibilities don’t have to be core operational tasks now being performed by colleagues, but can include roles in special task forces on new corporate initiatives or even committees organizing a holiday party or charity event.
Of course, paying workers more money is the simplest and most universal strategy for convincing them to stay, but handing out selective raises can erode morale for the larger workforce, and in many cases tight profit margins prevent across-the-board pay hikes.
And there is evidence to suggest that workers’ levels of interest and motivation are as significant in their decisions to stay at a company as compensation.
In an OfficeTeam survey of 869 workers released in July, 61 percent said they would likely leave their current position if they felt “disengaged.” Of those respondents, 74 percent said their employer was either “somewhat effective” or “very effective” at motivating workers, versus 26 percent who said management was “not very effective” or “not effective at all” at motivation.
After good communication and finding new challenges, another tool to keep workers engaged is to provide education and professional-development opportunities. This can take the form of everything from in-house training to paying for a university graduate degree.
Rhodes at Cornerstone said while education can be a valuable way to keep workers interested in the job intellectually, it can cut both ways and employers need to be careful they don’t help someone out the door.
“We have to be careful with tuition-reimbursement programs because sometimes we are paying for someone to get a master’s and once they get it they leave,” Rhodes said.
To protect themselves, companies often require workers to stay for a certain amount of time after graduating to qualify for their tuition reimbursement.
Alternatively, companies can “cross-train” their employees in-house so they learn new skills specifically related to the business they are in.
“The more learning employees do, the more engaged they are,” Rhodes said.
Another issue that’s come up more frequently in recent years is workplace flexibility, which some employees crave and some companies resist because they fear it will lead to further disengagement.
“Especially among young people, workers are going to want to work for employers who are more flexible,” Rhodes said. “Sometimes it is being more family friendly; sometimes it is allowing work from home; and sometimes its adjusting hours slightly, like allowing 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. instead of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.”
Cynthia Butler, owner of Butler Human Resources Consulting in Jamestown, said during the recession a lot of employees who wanted to leave their jobs stayed out of fear the economy could get worse. But with more confidence in the job market, those workers are likely to start looking for moves.
With communication key to keeping workers engaged, Butler said responsibility for minimizing departures will fall heavily on managers.
“It might be different for each employee, but trust in leadership and believing the leaders will do what they say they are going to do is important,” she said. •

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