How do I keep my people?

Today’s story is about a problem many leaders and businesses face since… well, forever.

“How do I keep my people?”

The problem of retention is always a big one, and since every organisation is a unique universe, I always find it difficult to agree with those who believe that there is a single solution to it.

So, today I will share the story of how one of the organisations I worked with addressed this problem.

The main character of this story is the management team of a retail organisation we worked with a few years ago.

The client approached us with a problem: more and more people were leaving. This was having a serious impact on morale and, ultimately, on the company’s performance. HR was scrambling, senior management was frustrated, HQ was pushing for better results.

They already tried reviewing their compensation & benefits structure, but the problem did not seem to stop.

We decided to approach this issue by talking with the people. I know, it sounds trite. And it probably is. But an external party’s inquiry, if done well, often makes new information come to the surface. And this time, it did.

What emerged was that across the different levels of the organisation, people did not feel like they were given enough information and support about their performance.

The once-a-year performance appraisal approach was far from enough (duh?), but what came out pretty strongly was another matter: there were little to no conversations about individuals’ needs, expectations, ambitions, and a lack of context to their work (why am I doing this? How does this connect with the big picture? What’s the plan?).

The result? Disengagement and people leaving the company.

There’s little to do if managers do not know how to talk with, listen to, and develop their people.

The challenge was that changing a performance management system requires time. And people were leaving already: they would not just wait for a new system to be designed and deployed.

Something needed to be done – and quickly.

We decided to look at it as a skills problem so that we could, at least, tackle the issue right away while working on the overhaul of the performance management and evaluation.

We created a learning programme for leaders and people managers. We engaged them with sessions on active listening, capability charting and delegation, and coaching skills for managers.

But it was not enough. Skills by themselves are short-lived. Two days after any training, people are back in the same context as before. And they default back into ‘normal’ behaviours.

There was one additional thing that needed to be worked on.

Learning needs to be provided in a context that reinforces and supports its application in real life.

We discussed with the company leaders and the HR team possible ways to sustain learning. And a very cool idea emerged. To set up recurring sharing sessions for the management team about their experiences as managerial coaches, applying what they learned during the programme we designed for them.

This was the real turning point. A few months later, the client let us know that attrition rates were going down, and people would comment openly about how their experience had changed since their bosses started having coaching conversations with them.

Granted, the performance management system still needed to be changed – but now, people were being listened to, and individual development plans were created based on the work that needed to be done.

I would love to hear from you!

Have you ever experienced low engagement or high attrition issues in your team or company? How did you work on it?

What types of learning and development initiatives have you experienced that were well supported after the training event?

Have you ever experienced managerial coaching (either as a coach yourself, or as a coachee)? How did it go?

Let me know your story! Let’s share and learn together.

About Fabrizio

Fabrizio is Managing Partner at SB&A, a People Strategy firm based in Shanghai since 1982. With his team, he partners with businesses and their people to create solutions that are truly addressing their needs.

In his spare time, he plays the trumpet in a funk band (he's not great, but he has a lot of fun), runs a tabletop roleplaying campaign with his friends (they fight vampires and dark overlords), and enjoys reading hard-boiled fiction.