Talent Recruitment & Retention Requires Conversation

One of the things that must get back to normal is people's work ethic. In recent years, especially due to the pandemic, we have uncovered that people have struggled with mental health, depression, and anxiety. Those are all real challenges to the workplace and should be dealt with accordingly. In general, roughly 71% of people according to the Gallup organization, are neutrally or actively disengaged, meaning they are negative. This is startling when you think only three out of 10 employees are truly positive and engaged in the workplace. Yet so much of the discussion and argument in the workplace is doing things for employees to retain them and to make the workplace more engaging and inviting. We have it wrong because what we are doing is NOT changing the numbers!

?One of the greatest things that we can do is to hold people to higher expectations, and by doing so, people will become prouder of the work that they have completed. This pride can manifest itself into a positive workplace culture that recruits for the organization. How does an organization need to go about doing this bye? Here are some suggestions:

1. Behavioral interviewing. Ask questions around their relationship with feedback. Ask candidates what they are going to truly be like if they are hired, what skeletons are going to potentially be in their closet. This seems harsh yet it realistic. The interview process is flawed. People answer questions to get the job versus reveal who they truly are. This leads to headaches and poor teamwork!
2. Train & coach leaders to focus on strength-based coaching and feedback. Leaders should be calling people into the office for the good things that they do, and that becomes a part of the culture.
3. Create a program where employees learn how to seek and accept feedback. One of the greatest things employees can learn to do is to ask for feedback before somebody needs to give it to them. That way they receive the feedback on their terms, and it often can come off much less harsh if they were to wait until it is needed to be given.
4. Be an organization that relentlessly celebrates people. So often organizations talk about this in theory, but it must be put into action. Every leader should be celebrating an accomplishment at a staff meeting, targeting specific employees, sharing what they specifically did to create success. The executive team should be calling employees into the office from their manager’s feedback sharing they have heard great things about that particular employee. These little things continue to build an organization of positivity and becomes a magnet even outside the organization to attract talent.
5. Leaders must be trained in career development conversations. Leaders need to find out what motivates every one of their employees, and then to put into action a coaching plan or regimen that allows them to target their personal goals and motivations, which will fuel their willingness and wanting to stay at the organization.

?These five suggestions are not rocket science and should not be treated as so. It is incumbent upon organizations to drive workplace cultures through the conversations that are facilitated positively and honestly. Too many organizations are going at this tactically when in fact simple conversations drive talent development, retention, and recruitment.

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