This employee retention speaker and employee retention expert has seen the impact of poor communication and how it fuels the grapevine as it drives fear and builds stress in the workforce. It also leaves an opportunity to have employees who bitch and moan to control the dialogue within the organization. That is why the grapevine never seems to be positive. This builds in added stress that no one needs or wants. From an employe retention strategies perspective this is what drives employees to consider looking for a new job. If they decide to post their resume and become a passive job seeker because of it…they will be gone in less than 60 days…guaranteed. Someone will find their resume and approach them. The key is to take control of your internal communication.
Organizations need to develop a communication strategy that they will adhere to. The key principles that are imperative in your communication strategy are that it must be:
- Open
- Honest
- Ongoing
Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? It is!
Open. Being open with your people and sharing what is going on is the first step in the mind of this employee recruitment expert. Most organizations rarely tell their employees about the status of sales, how the team is doing with safety, quality initiatives etc. We leave people in the dark. So, they may have heard “rumors” and then they start to speculate. How well is the organization doing? How profitable are we? Are we doing well in the customer’s eyes? How are we doing filling new positions etc.” When we share information, it sends the message that our people matter, and we trust them.
Honest. This is pretty simple. Tell the truth. If you lie to people, you will destroy trust. Employee retention improves when you are honest. Why? Because a lot of organizations aren’t. Imagine how you can distinguish yourself from those organizations you are competing with for talent if you are honest and others aren’t.
Ongoing. You can never communicate enough. Often, we communicate something then we don’t communicate for a while. People need to know what to expect. You should have a written communication strategy as to how you are going to communicate and how often you will do it. Lay out what you are going to do and then execute on it.
This employee retention author has seen these three things work when I was an HR Leader and now with my clients. They really aren’t that difficult. Don’t wait, get on it. If you do, your people will love you and you won’t hear, “They don’t tell us anything.”
Is your organization desperate to retain people? If you are an HR Leader, General Manager or an owner of an organization, call me of email me at jeff@jeffkortes.com to learn how the C.R.A.P, (Caring, Respect, Appreciation, Praise) process can reduce your employee turnover by 40-80%.
