Vision and Strategy

What are you or your organization focusing on to improve employee engagement and retention? So many variables impact the employee experience. And how an employee experiences working for their manager, their team and their organization are all critical. Where do you prioritize to make sure you engage and retain your talent?

I’ve recently been in conversation with HR professionals looking to improve the employee experience in their effort to not only focus on developing a sound culture, but to engage and retain their talent. Many realize the importance of investing in their talent. Some of this is through professional development which can span a wide range of initiatives including: mentor programs, shadowing programs, in-house and external training, professional coaching, and more. It’s important to have a vision and a strategy before putting a program in place.

Current Challenges

In the past week, I have had conversations with several people who shared the same concern about their current work experience – work continues to get delayed as too many people need to sign off before the work is approved. Essentially, these individuals feel a lack of empowerment, causing them to question their own value and question whether they should start to explore new opportunities. Similarly, I’ve had several recent conversations about the challenge of constantly changing priorities at work. The complaint is that these changing priorities have lead to longer work hours due to lack of efficiency, and/or projects getting cancelled when they have already progressed. Imagine the frustration and lack of productivity.

I’m not sure if this is a sign of the times, where, for many, trust broke down when companies shifted to remote work, or if I just happened to be speaking with individuals who:

• Have leaders who aren’t setting the right expectations, thus causing the bottleneck of re-work,
• Are experiencing confusion because their leaders are lacking clarity themselves,
• Have taken on work they had not done previously, and there hasn’t been enough training to ensure good outcomes.

There are likely a host of possibilities beyond those mentioned above.

What I see as common threads across organizations are:

• Communication is not at the level that is needed.
• Leaders/managers need to understand their own leadership style if they want to engage and retain talent.

Intentional Focus

To be successful identifying the best ways to engage and retain your employees and create a positive employee experience, intention and focus is essential. Ask your employees what they want and need! This needs to be a collaborative effort. And, if you plan to ask, you not only need to listen, but you need to find ways to deliver on their requests.

I partner with leaders, teams and organizations to help them achieve optimal results. Looking for support to ensure you deliver as positive an employee experience as possible? Let’s connect.

“Culture is about performance, and making people feel good about how they contribute to the whole.” – Tracy Streckenbach