It’s your ticket to survival

Every leader in every organisation should be listening and listening hard right now. We are all reading about the great resignation and the great attrition, but most organisations do not know what to do about it. Their biggest issue is that they do not know why people are leaving. Let me solve that challenge – free of charge. The answer – ask.

This is a time to reach out to employees and ask them what they want and really listen to what they have to say.

The EVP

What your employees want from you, for them to stay with you, should inform your Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Not only does this help in retaining your talent it should also help attract the talent you need to be a leading organisation.

Your EVP is how you position your organisation in the employee marketplace. It tells prospective employees what you will offer them in return for their skills, capabilities, and experiences. It tells existing employees what you will continue to offer them to demonstrate you value them and want to keep them. 

Your EVP is also a marketing message to customers and consumers. They want to know how you treat your employees and it will affect their loyalty to your brand.

The EVP of 2021 and beyond is very different to what it has been in the past. In the past the focus has been on the transactional aspects of employment such as compensation, work life balance, and benefits packages. Employees now want the focus to be on relational aspects such as feeling valued and recognised. 

They want you to bring humanity back into the workplace. Your EVP could be your ticket out of the great resignation and enable you to retain your existence.

Whilst every EVP will differ for every organisation as there is no one-size-fits-all proposition, I believe there are five key areas you must include and address.

·      Flexibility and autonomy

·      Great leadership

·      Holistic well-being

·      Belonging and purpose

·      Learning and development

Flexibility and autonomy

Employees want not only flexibility in how they work, when they work and where they work, but they also want autonomy. Flexibility could be interpreted by many organisations as providing the option to work remotely 2 days a week and specify which days they are.

This is not what employees are asking for. They are seeking flexibility that is driven by their autonomy to choose how best to use it.

Dictating conditions of work and labelling them as flexibility is a mandate in sheep’s clothing. Mandated will drive employees away from your organisation. Organisations should not be leading with policies but principles to guide employees.

Research has repeatedly shown that autonomy provides employees with a greater degree of satisfaction, fulfilment, and engagement at work. When an employee perceives their achievements to be because of their own inherent ability it serves as an intrinsic motivator to perform better. Autonomy means that an employee is given a goal with clear expectations of outcomes and then allowed to self-determine how to achieve that goal. Good leaders provide autonomy by starting with why and not what or how. For example, a goal could be “we need to engage 700 employees next quarter, so they all receive consistent feedback from the employee value survey.” This does not state what that engagement will look like or how it will be achieved. The employee has the autonomy to determine what and how.

The hybrid model that most employees are requesting is one based on both with flexibility and high autonomy. Without both the outcomes are not what employees are asking for.

The matrix below illustrates the need for both flexibility and autonomy for a successful hybrid model of work.

 When there is both high flexibility and high autonomy (top right), employees can work when they want, how they want, and where they want. There will be principles by which the leader, the team, and the team members operate. When the leader and the team decide that a face-to-face co-located meeting is the optimal way to achieve desired outcomes, they will decide where and when that co-location happens that meets the needs of most of the team. It is not dictated – it is a democratic decision, that has the needs of the team and the wider organisation at its core.

When there is low flexibility and low autonomy (bottom left), employees have no choice.

When there is low flexibility and high autonomy (bottom right), employees have flexibility that is taken away by removing the autonomy and placing decision-making in the hands of a manager. When there is low flexibility and high autonomy, the autonomy is diminished as employees have a choice of days but the number of days in the office is dictated.

Great leadership

Organisations that invest in hiring and development great leaders have a highly persuasive EVP.

In a recent article, I wrote about the 2021 EY survey that revealed 54% of respondents had left job due to a boss that was not empathetic. It echoes the cliché that says, “people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad bosses.”

The Predictive Index 2021 People Management Report surveyed nearly 2000 employees across 15 different industries. The report explores the cause of the ‘Great Resignation’ currently underway.

The study asked respondents to rate their manager. These were the results.

“An encouraging 65% of respondents considered their managers either “good” or “world-class,” while only 13% considered them “terrible” or “not-so-great.” The remaining 22% said “average.”  

But the most telling finding lies between the numbers. Of those who said they have a bad manager (terrible or not-so-great), 63% are considering quitting in the next year. Only 27% of those with a good manager (good or world-class) said the same.”

It will take good leadership at every level of your organisation to put forward a great EVP and stop the talent attrition. This requires leadership development at every level of the organisation from upcoming team leader up to CEO. Research has shown that most leaders enter that position in their late 20s or early 30s but the first leadership development they get is in their early 40s. They have over a decade left to flounder.

We need to identify and develop our upcoming leaders and continue that learning and development on an ongoing basis.

I believe that the top 15 leadership traits (in no particular order) needed in 2021 and beyond are:

1.   Honesty and integrity

2.   Excellent communication and active listening

3.   Delegation, empowerment, and trust

4.   Resilience

5.   Adaptability

6.   Emotional intelligence

7.    Accountability

8.    Empathy, care, and compassion

9.    Humility, authenticity, and vulnerability

10.  Realistic optimism

11.  Curiosity

12.  Positive reinforcement

13.  Servant leadership

14.  Giving and soliciting feedback

15.  Prepared to have the hard conversations

(Yes – I cheated a little and grouped like traits together.)

Holistic well-being

A good EVP is one that takes employee well-being seriously especially mental wellbeing. If you are a regular reader of my articles, you will know that I am about to get up on my soap box as this is an area I am passionate about. 

Back in April I created an infographic to show what an effective employee mental health program should look like.

If your idea of an EVP that addresses mental wellbeing revolves around free gym membership; access to a gratitude app; provision of mental health first aiders; sweat patches to measure stress levels; yoga, meditation, and mindfulness classes; and happy sad wrist bands, then this should be a wake-up call.

They do not. On their own they are each point solutions that do not address the real issues. For example, the provision of mental health first aiders is an excellent initiative but unless we intentionally remove the stigma of mental health in the workplace, employees will not reach out for help.

An EVP of value is one that addresses the causes of mental health in the workplace as well as addressing the effects. It must be a holistic solution that considers the entire model for mental wellbeing and its components including leadership, employees, processes, structures, and systems. It must be contextual and provide the support and resources employees need at a given point in time. It must be individualised and be able to take into account the individual stressors and needs of each employee. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. It also must be used and not just made available.

Employee well-being must be the priority for every organisation and every leader within it. The EVP must be that the organisation truly cares for every employee and ensures they use the holistic and contextual well-being offering made available to them. The proposition must be demonstrable.

Belonging and purpose

Al employees want a sense of belonging and purpose at work. They want to feel that their contribution is valued.

If this is a part of your EVP, the good news is that it is good for business too. According to Harvard Business Review research:

“If workers feel like they belong, companies reap substantial bottom-line benefits. High belonging was linked to a whopping 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days. For a 10,000-person company, this would result in annual savings of more than $52M.”

Belonging also emerged as the top employee experience driver linked to engagement and well-being for 2021 in a Qualtrics global study.

Belonging is a basic human need and in an environment of uncertainty and concern as we have now it is an imperative for employees. They want to feel connected.

Diversity, equity and inclusion plays a significant part in establishing a sense of belonging and this is even more consequential in a hybrid working model where there can be an ‘us’ and ‘them’ between workers in the office and those working remotely. There must be an intentional effort to remove proximity bias from the workplace wherever that may be.

The Qualtrics study mentioned earlier also uncovered one major influence on belonging that rose to the top: managers. Managers directly influence a feeling of belonging in their teams.

“Employees who trust their managers, believe that they care about them as individuals, and listen to their perspectives experience a high sense of belonging. Feeling supported in adapting to organizational changes is one of the top influences on having a sense of belonging.”

Employees also want a sense of purpose from their work. You need a purpose-driven workplace where employees can work on what is meaningful to them. Purpose must be driven by the organisations goals and cascaded down through the organisation. Organisational purpose is reflected in team purpose which is reflected in individual purpose.

Learning and development

Employees want continual learning and development. Organisation must have a culture of lifelong learning in their EVP. Continuing professional development is not an option. It is not a cost; it is an investment.

Organisations must provide training and raise the skill levels of all employees. The mindsets of the C-suite need to adapt and change. Leadership skills require an uplift. There must be a focus on digital skills and encouragement of innovation, creativity, and critical thinking.

Employees want to see a career path that includes training, mentoring and opportunities to work in different areas of the organisation.

With the emergence of new technologies including artificial intelligence and robotics, adapting and adopting new skills is at the forefront of employees’ minds.

You need to make it clear that you will invest in your employees learning and development.

Wrap

Your EVP is your panacea to the great resignation. A great EVP, relevant to employees needs today, will enhance your employee brand, and attract the top talent as well as retain your existing valued competencies.