It’s a thought that sends a chill through many business owners and leaders and one that is keeping them awake at night. What if one (or more) of my best people leave and how could I replace them?

“Take our 20 best people away and Microsoft would become an unimportant company”.

Quote: Bill Gates. Chairman Microsoft

Despite a recent  slight easing in the job market we still have record low unemployment and more jobs being advertised than there are people applying. 

For some this can be a paralysing situation, others are just hoping things will get better but for those who are pro-active the questions need to be asked:

“Why are people attracted to your organisation”
“Why do your current staff stay” and,
“Importantly, why are they leaving”. 

Is your Culture the answer?

A survey conducted by HAYS Salary Guide FY22/23 listed below the top 5 reasons job seekers are looking for a new role:

1. An uncompetitive salary – 49%
2. Lack of promotional opportunities – 40%
3. Poor management style or workplace culture – 37%
4. Lack of new challenges – 31%
5. Poor training and development – 24%

A recent LinkedIn poll done by Howardco HR & Business solutions supported this finding with 57% of the participants listing Poor Leadership/Culture as the number one reason people consider leaving their organisation.

On the other side of the question the following survey conducted by Hays highlighted that 43% of staff believe that an improved office environment or culture would have the biggest impact on improving their Mental Health and Well-being.

How to determine if your culture is the answer:

1. Have the brave conversations. Engage in 1:1’s with your key people. Ask for their frank and honest feedback and listen. You can use an interview guide like Career Monitor to structure your conversation to get the best results
2. Look deeply and critically at what is going on in your workplace. How has the pandemic affected teamwork, fatigue, participation? Is working from home impacting on engagement? Ask around “Are we meeting your expectations” Use an Employee Engagement survey like Fusion Culture to gather objective data.
3. Get on the front foot. Critically rate your organisation on the key retention factors: salary and benefits, flexibility, career opportunities, training and development, wellbeing? How do you stack up? What can you do better, and what can you do now?
   e.g. as a result of such analysis one of our major clients engaged us to design and implement a leadership development program (the largest they have undertaken) focusing on improving communication and connectedness across the business.

Is Misalignment an issue?

One of the reasons dis-engagement and turnover can occur is because there is a misalignment between the culture that management intended and what employees actually experience in the workplace. A study conducted by Gartner – Executive Guidance: Culture in Action – found that:

• 69% of organisations’ employees lack knowledge of what the culture is supposed to be
• 87% of employees don’t believe the culture is the right one the organisation needs now
• 90% of employees don’t engage in behaviours related to the organisations culture

What can you do to ensure your Culture is the answer for attracting and retaining staff.

According to Gartner there are two components to a successful culture. 

How to achieve Connectedness

Check whether your culture and EVP (Employee Value Proposition) meets the expectation of your staff

Check whether your culture and EVP is fair and consistent across your business.
This can be achieved by:

• Communicating with your people, find out why they want to work for your organisation and what their expectations are in terms of the culture and the company EVP
• Conduct retention surveys and act on the information provided
• When staff leave complete exit interviews and utilise the learning opportunity.

At Howardco we have been empowering our clients for over 12 years to create high performing teams that attract and retain the best people. Contact us today to find out how we can help your organisation overcome the retention challenge and thrive in the new world of work.