Are You Part of the $37 Billion Problem?

Why are ‘culture’ and ‘retention’ two of the hottest buzzwords in business today? According to the latest research by Gallup, only 3 out of 10 employees are engaged at work, which means the majority are disengaged costing companies over $37 billion in lost productivity each year. Clearly employees who are engaged produce higher quality work faster and are also more likely to stay with a company longer, making it critical for business owners to address this issue.

In combination with the alarmingly low number of engaged employees, the declining unemployment rate poses a challenge. With more jobs available, business leaders have found themselves in a candidate’s market. Job seekers now have more opportunities to find an employer with a culture that best aligns with their desires. Similarly, your current employees have more opportunity to find an employer that offers their ideal culture.

The good news? With a great company culture in place, you can attract and retain quality employees.

How do you define your company culture?

Your company has a culture whether you’ve specifically defined one or not.  In some cases, that can wreak havoc, so defining your culture purposefully is critical.  If you find yourself struggling to define your company culture, take a few minutes to brainstorm.

To begin, ask yourself questions about the rituals and customs that exist in your company today and those that you wish existed. Purposefully decide what it’s going to look like, feel like, and sound like to work at your company, and then strive to make your ideal a reality.

Creating a Culture of Engagement

If you want to promote employee engagement here are a few areas you may want to include:  

Provide the time and opportunity for your team to get to know each other as people. Company outings, a pleasant place to eat lunch, time to chat with a friend – those are all important elements that help your employees feel a human connection to the company and each other.

Give the chance to be heard and appreciated. People crave positive feedback. To properly recognize and reward your team, it’s important to understand what motivates each individual (ask them!) and to use that information to reinforce excellent performance. Employees don’t typically leave companies because of pay; they leave because they aren’t appreciated or listened to.

Allow discussion of employee career paths. Even small businesses can dream big. One way to demonstrate opportunity within your company is to create and share an organization chart showing what the company will look like in the long term. If your employees see a fit, you can talk about the part you’ll both play to reach that vision.

Create opportunities for personal growth. Are you and your employees honing your personal skills like listening, self-confidence, a sense of humor, and empathy? As human beings, we all seek to improve these skills. Including areas that a team member wants to improve as part of their professional growth can be crucial to engagement.

Gives opportunities to support the community. This can be done as a group such as volunteering at a food bank or home build site, or on an individual basis by allowing employees to volunteer during work hours, or matching contributions to their favorite charity.

The Bottom Line

With more jobs available, having a strong and well-defined company culture has a huge impact on your ability to attract and retain quality employees. You can’t change culture overnight, so be sure to engage your team to identify ways to roll out and consistently encourage the culture. As the successful business leaders I interviewed for The Success Code can attest, promoting engagement makes a material difference to your bottom line.