What's it like to work around here?

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about why employees leave. Over four million employees have left their jobs during the Great Resignation of 2021. This is a historically high number. The reasons are no doubt myriad, but for me much of the explanation comes down to human nature.

When we go through a traumatic experience, we tend to re-evaluate our lives. The pandemic has been traumatic at every level: for individuals, families, organizations and the entire nation. Our work and personal lives have been upended and our return to “normal” hasn’t been smooth or gone according to predictions. We all are re-evaluating everything, particularly our work.

Pay, benefits, working conditions and perks all figure into this calculus. But for people with skills and options, the question that comes up over and over is “What’s it like to work around here?” This has always been true but it is particularly true now.

What’s it like to work around here? Is it boring? Soul-crushing? Toxic? Does my work matter? Does anyone care? Am I treading water and barely afloat? Or am I motivated, learning, growing, interested and invested in? The answers to these questions are at the heart of why employees who have options and skills either choose to stay or choose to leave. The answers to these questions therefore lie at the heart of an organization’s performance and competitive advantage.

With employee retention in mind, leaders at every level should examine whether goals and objectives are clear and clearly communicated so that employees understand why their work matters and how it relates to others’ work. Robust performance management systems need to be in place along with real employee development plans. Metrics should track employee turnover, internal promotions and lateral moves, as well as results trends from regularly administered employee satisfaction surveys of some kind. If these suggestions sound complicated, they aren’t. Complexity isn’t necessary and frequently gets in the way. Every organization of any size or type should put these kinds of tools to use if they care about getting the most from their people and retaining them. The goal is to build a system that can scale an organization from one good boss to a place where every boss values employees and focuses on keeping them.

Building such a system is vital, but it isn’t enough. We’ve all known organizations where performance management processes were robust and state-of-the-art on paper, but where the actual conversations about performance became rote, infrequent and fairly meaningless over time. Or how about the place with a fabulous training curriculum and employees unwilling or unable to take advantage of it? Or the business where dozens of metrics on everything from diversity to retention are regularly gathered and analyzed but nothing ever happens based on the results? Without a culture that truly values employees, cares about keeping them and invests in their potential, the systems, processes and metrics may be necessary, but they aren’t sufficient. Culture animates and sustains every organization - for better or for worse. Culture is the software of every organizational system.

“What’s it like to work around here?” is all about culture. And culture is built based on observed behavior and which behaviors are rewarded. What kinds of bosses move ahead? The ones who treat people as disposable and fungible, or the ones who invest in their people? What do people at the top spend their time on? How much time do they spend talking or thinking about the workforce and employee retention? Do they ever meet with employees and actually ask “What’s it like to work around here?” And then actually act on the answer? Where does HR report and do they have a seat at the most important tables? Are Diversity, Equity and Inclusion words or has something actually changed since everyone started saying those words? Culture is always built based on “the walk” not “the talk.”

Leaders understand that the best performance comes from motivated, committed teams of people who bring all of their talent to the table. Leaders understand that people who have skills and options regularly stop and ask: “What’s it like to work around here?” Building a culture that values, empowers and rewards people for committing their talent towards the betterment of an organization is a leader’s most important responsibility. Failure to do so will cost; frequently in the short-run, inevitably in the long-run. Building a culture that attracts and retains talent is the single most sustaining investment a leader can make. Want to keep more people? Focus on culture. It’s the secret sauce.?