As a recovering Type A, I recognize that flexibility was both a challenge and mantra raising children and developing as a professional.  Many of the heart to hearts with my adult sons opened the kaleidoscope back on those days as I see the rigidity through their lens, accept responsibility, and challenge myself daily in decisions.  With gratitude for these conversations, I rejoice from the enlightenment of mind, body and spirit professionally and personally. A freedom that flexibility has created.

Adaptation, the ability to embrace change, and resiliency is a perennial component to survival, growth, and success.  As a key note speaker addressing manufactures in the Lehigh Valley focusing on retaining & retraining their Workforce, the importance of attracting and recruiting talent that was true then when unemployment was at an all-time low, as it is now when unemployment is at an all-time high.

In the wake of a flooded talent pool due to the pandemic, Amazon and other large scale retail / distribution centers here in the Valley’s increased wages (entry level to or in excess of $15/ Hr) along with other long term compensation based incentives (which attract talent from competitors or alternate industries), making hiring the right candidate even more difficult.  Couple this with the costs of losing an employee costing greater than 2.0x the employee’s annual salary when one looks at the cost of hiring, onboarding, training, and time with an unfilled role. These estimates do not take into consideration some of the big intangible costs like impact on employee morale, perception in the community, or impact on customers.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand the importance of adapting best practices and theories to maximize the amount of time a viable employee stays with your company - actively contributing and thriving. To maintain growth and our competitive edge, we must be innovative, welcome change, ask ourselves the difficult questions, and be willing to be brutally honest – challenge the status quo in how we treat our most valuable asset, our peeps. 

What are you doing to nurture, challenge, grow and retain your employees?

Our intention today is to initiate a change.  If you are an old schooler - a ‘ I pay them a wage – that should be enough’ – I encourage you to begin by being open, and challenge your thinking.  For those of you that have promoted from with-in because ‘someone had to do it’, consider that some may not be in the right seats, on your bus.  For all - our hopes are that you will open the dialogue engaging your team to create a more viable future with action items.

When does the process of retaining employees start?  Marketing? Recruiting? Onboarding? IDP( Individual Development Plan) conversation?   Are your teams comfortable career pathing and speaking to development often?  Do you have a performance management mentality?  Are job descriptions a dusty piece of paper or spring board to realizing potential? Do you know what is important to your employees when developing total comp plans and policies?

During Organizational Design sessions, we stress the importance of having these conversations. We encourage a philosophy shift, away from fitting a person into a job, to, seeking bright, positive individuals with solid work ethics.  Would you create the position around talent? This approach goes beyond sourcing new, but is a fundamental practice with existing employees.  Did you know that Joe or Josephine writes creatively at home? 

Imagine the potential impact of knowing and nurturing the hidden talents in your Peeps!

Where to begin? Step back and look at your company with new eyes. Perhaps invite in a 3rd party.

Here are a few questions to start the process:

• What do my employees think of our company?

• How involved are your employees in decision making that affects their positions / assignments?

• How much autonomy are they given in their sphere of influence?

• How much support do you offer toward their ideas and goals?

• How often do you reiterate the purpose and intent of your mission, decisions, and vision?

• How have you outlined professional development for your team and individual employees?

Our position:

Communicating often and openly is essential, and active listening even more so. Transparency is key – People want to be told the truth and are energized when they are connected to the bigger picture. 

Open honest debates centered around customers and business (not the person), out in the open, keeps people professional and accountable for what they say. Modeling desired behaviors such as when leaders admit they are wrong, sends a powerful message and creates an environment for other to feel safe and share – like nutrients to encourage innovation and collaboration.

Loving to come to work, feeling challenged at finding solutions, being part of a team and knowing how what you do impacts the success of the company, becomes the motivator.

Flexibility to challenge thoughts, dogmas, approaches, is more than our competitive edge, it is the freedom to think outside the chains of repetition and historical patterns. It is the ability to actively choose -based on past, present, and with a meaningful intention toward the future.