Last week I had the privilege of giving a presentation to the Small Business Council at the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce. I discussed how an employee development system impacts the bottom line. We discussed how an employee development system impacts productivity and retention, as well as a few other benefits. During the talk, I also shared a winning strategy for employee development, which lead to a hearty dialogue. This week I am going to share some of the takeaways from that discussion about connecting with employees.

If you our your business would like to understand how employee development can impact YOUR bottom line, please contact me, and I’ll be happy to meet with your business.

Connecting with Employees

First and foremost, there is no one size fits all employee development plan. Everyone is unique with their interests, ambitions and motivations. Therefore, an employee development system should be able to produce a development plan unique to the individual.

How do you know what your employees need in a development system? Well, you have to be able to connect with them on an individual level. You must create a bond beyond the manager/employee relationship. In other words, you really need to know who your employees are as humans.

Many companies, including ASC, can help you with assessments to understand personality types, behavior profiles, and motivations. However, when you compliment these assessments with genuine human interaction you will amplify your results! Here are three techniques I have successfully used to supercharge my employee development systems over my careers.

Monthly 1:1 Meetings

I advise all leaders to have 1:1 meeting , typically for 30 minutes, with their direct reports every month. This time should be set aside each month and shouldn’t be moved. The meeting should have some structure to it, and still allow for a conversation. I recommend covering these topics:

Any progress on development plans. If no progress why and how do you catch up?
Challenges faced since last meeting. How did you overcome them? How can you prevent them next time?
Anticipated challenges in the next month? Plan to deal with them?
Any help needed? (be sure to follow through)
Ask the employee what’s on their mind, anything they need to discuss?

Many times, people get “busy” and when they are trying to squeeze an extra 30 minutes in to their week, and these meetings are the first to get moved or cancelled. Resist the that temptation. Remember that developing the talent on your team is a primary function of a good leader.

Development Plans

Create a development plan for each individual employee. Determine a specific goal with action steps to get there. To be “better” at my job isn’t a development goal. To create an effective employee development plan you should set goals, one or two at the most, geared at mastering current Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or developing skills towards the next job promotion. What is most important, is your development plan should have measurable goals and actions steps.

Depending on the size of your organization, employees might have an option of several career paths in front of them, or you might be a small business with just a handful of employees. Either way developing the talent on you staff with employee development plans will help your team contribute to the success of the company (your success) with each team members unique skills. You may find some hidden talent or skill on your team that could give your business the edge over your competition!

MBWA

MBWA is simply Management By Walking Around. In my discussion last week, this received the most attention. MBWA is simple. When I was doing it, I’d literally get up from my desk, walk to where my people were working (cubes, offices, labs, shop floor, wherever) and see what they were doing. I would ask about what they did, how they were doing it. I didn’t start doing this to get status on a project, or to tell them how to do their job. Then, I went to learn about them, and how they approached their jobs.

Then, I used other forums such as the 1:1 discussion or the development plans to offer advice on job improvements. Over a relatively short period of time, my team began to trust me. When I showed up, they didn’t think I was there to look over their shoulder to critique them, and they would begin to tell me about issues and problems they were having then. They’d ask for help then. Often times they actually would be glad to see me.

MBWA Reactions

When I talk to leaders about MBWA, I typically get three common reactions. Let me briefly share them with you now:

What do I talk about? Ask what they are doing, and how it’s going. Ask about their day, or their favorite sports team. The idea is to build trust. Once you have that trust, your team will open up and share more.
How do I do this without looking like I am micromanaging? Simple, DON’T MICROMANAGE. Don’t jump in unless they are doing something unsafe, unethical, or otherwise damaging to the company. If they ask for help, help. Once the rapport and trust is there, then you can use this time to coach. If you’re new to MBWA and you start out with coaching, your employee will see you and think your there just to tell them what they are doing wrong. That is counterproductive.
My employees don’t work directly with me, I can’t physically go see them. Personal communication is what MBWA is trying to accomplish. Call them, or better yet, video call them. Ask how they are doing, and build the rapport that way.

Building a connection through MBWA opened me an my teams up to a whole new level of communication. I was able to learn about issues when they were happening, and get help before they became problems.

This Week’s Challenge

Incorporate a system for connecting with your employees. If you already have one in place, great! Ask yourself, what improvements can be made to that system. Your efforts will be well worth the time you invest.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

It is the last week of March, and spring is officially here (although it’s not warm enough for me). Watching the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, I really appreciate the effort and challenges the coaches have every year. Because the athletes have only a limited number of eligible years to play, and that can be reduced if a player gets hurt or is eligible for the NBA, coaches are constantly dealing with player turnover. Coaches are always recruiting talent, developing talent, and building a team. While that is unavoidable in the college sports profession, it is a profit killer for businesses. Today I am going to talk about the top three reasons employees leave, and how you can defend yourself against it.

Three Reasons Employees Leave Their Jobs

Last week I came across this fascinating LinkedIn Blog about the top three industries with the highest turnover (is your industry on the list?). I was glad to see that they took the next step and identified WHY people leave. When you know why, you can put actions in place to prevent unnecessary turnover.

Turnover is costly, in fact according to Josh Bersin, Deloitte, the costs can be up to two times the annual salary! With this in mind, it makes sense to have a system in place that minimizes turnover. Competitive pay, competitive benefits, or even an amazing reward system might not be enough. Here are some things you should include in an employee retention strategy to be successful.

Career Development

Focusing on employee development is ALWAYS a good idea. After you’ve hired someone, the time and money you invest in developing them will only benefit your company. If you want to have the best employees, that give you a competitive edge, it is much better to develop talent from within.

While I am a firm believer that the responsibility for career development ultimately belongs to the employee, the leader or manager must be a guide and a mentor in the process. Most employees are looking to grow and develop. They want to know that their work is meaningful and that there is a career path for them. And if they are happy with the status quo, you might want to consider why they are on the team to begin with.

Managers can and should have regular career development discussion with their employees. I recommend monthly. These meetings should be structured, and result in definite actions. When the manager and the employee co-create a career development plan, and meet regularly to evaluate progress of the plan, employee productivity, then morale increases.

By investing the time for career discussion with our employees, they will know that they are making progress towards the next step. And, they will be less likely to look outside the company for their next promotion.

Management

People don’t quit their job, they quit their boss. At least that is how the saying goes. An employee’s direct manager has the biggest impact on the employee’s experience at your company. The direct supervisor is who has the most contact with the employees. They are often the face of the company, in terms of communicating and implementing policy. The direct supervisor is often responsible for merit increases and promotion opportunities.

A bad manager can kill morale, motivation and productivity. Eventually the pain becomes too great and people leave.

Some of the common mistake’s managers make (especially new managers) are:

Micromanaging
Relying on authority
Lack of leadership

Managers and supervisors need to be trained and understand that their job is to coach and develop talent. Leaders inspire others to take action. They inspire others to give that extra discretionary effort that sharpens your competitive edge.

Culture

I have been focusing on culture all month. Culture is simply the paradigm of any particular group. It is basically a combination of morale, company habits, and is reflected in how people treat each other, productivity, and profits. It is what makes each company unique, and why some people fit in at one company better than another company. Because culture encompasses so many different aspects, and penetrates the very fabric of your company, it is often the hardest to change.

So, there are two reasons culture can drive turnover. The first is sometime people just don’t fit. In the book The Great Game of Business, the author created a certain culture within his company that focused on certain metrics and team buy in. The author admitted that some people weren’t on board, so they left. This is also evident when companies merge or one company buys another company. There is always shift in culture and some people will just leave because of it.

The second reason culture can drive turnover is when the culture is toxic. If the culture cultivates distrust, favoritism, or discriminates against others (intentional or unintentional), these issues need to be fixed immediately and change must come from the top down.

It goes without saying, but a company needs to have an inclusive culture. Where people are free to create, risk, suggest, try, fail and succeed. Your business isn’t an open lab for everyone to work when and how they want. Set guidelines and boundaries, enforce them, but encourage people to bring new ideas to the table. Setting the right culture from the top down, will have a noticeable impact on your companies’ turnover rate.

This Week’s Challenge

Do an evaluation at your company. Do you have a system (not policy) in place to minimize the impact of employee turnover? Does it focus on career development, management and culture? If your system is lacking or needs help in any of these areas, get to work on making necessary changes to help minimize the negative impacts of turnover in your company.

If you would like to discuss more ways to help your business grow or if you feel you have a specific problem that needs to be addressed, please reach out to me.

management