Surviving Work

Since 2008 and the recession, employees have gone into survival mode.  They are surviving work.  This means doing what it takes to make a buck and stay afloat.  Sometimes that means losing their home to foreclosure in order to pay their other bills, moonlighting at a second job, or working at a crappy job that didn’t give a damn.  And employers have gotten away with that, getting lazy, believing that their employees had to have that job eliminating employee benefit programs like the company 401(k), annual increases, and continuing education programs at work.

In 2012, the Cornerstone OnDemand Survey showed us that 21 million employees would change jobs costing US employers $2 trillion in lost work productivity and other costs associated with employee turnover.  The good news is that this year, turnover overall according to Cornerstone’s research is on the decline by nearly 10 percent down 2 million to just 19 million job hoppers in 2013.  That doesn’t get managers and companies completely off the hook as their findings have uncovered plenty of areas of opportunity when it comes to employee retention.

2013 Trends Include Providing Employee Feedback & Skills Gap

Cornerstone just released their 2013 U.S. Employee Report along with a super-snazzy infographic, and you know I’m a sucker for infographics which is displayed below.  Check out the full report and  take a look at the highlights that resonated with me most below.

• 25 percent of employees have established career goals.  If employees don’t know where they stand, they are more likely to stray.  I also believe that 99 percent of employees are motivated and want to do a good job.  They just need feedback, engagement, and a formal plan.  Otherwise, they stray looking for love, engagement, and opportunity at other places.

• Good managers are great for employee retention.  Forty-eight percent of those surveyed said they would stick around because of a good manager followed by 46 percent that feel appreciated by their employer.  Managers, let’s start by sitting down with our team and asking about what makes a manager a good manager and what appreciation looks like to them.  Create a plan from there.

• Employees need, want, and are demanding training.  Problem is that the managers and companies aren’t listening which is why turnover is so high.  Seventy percent of employees didn’t receive any training in the last year at their place of work.  This no training is a hard pill to swallow especially when you hear about company’s like Google’s amazing death benefits and other awesome workplace perks.  Invest in your employees and their skills gap and they will invest in you.

• I guess I’m not surprised if most managers are training their employees that they would actually be talking with them.  We’re busy filling out TPS reports, sitting on conference calls, and looking important which is why 60 percent of employees haven’t gotten any useful feedback for 6 months.  Let’s sit down with our folks today and tell them what they need to do to be better at their jobs.  Let’s get to providing them employee feedback.  Lack of communication is where the trouble with relationships begins.  Ask anyone who’s been divorced.

Thumbnail Photo Credit.