May | 2012 | CEO People Management

There are two main areas of influence it is essential to get right to retain employees and keep them engaged and happy.

Employees will stay with you because of two major influences:

Policies of the organisation: learning and development, remuneration, performance management and reviews, promotions, and so on
What their manager does and doesn’t do, says and doesn’t say … every day

So while businesses will often focus on this first area – and it is essential to spend the time getting it right – policy is only half the story. It cannot work without its twin, which comes from real-life experience, what actually happens in reality with their manager.

And by manager, we’re not looking at hierarchy. We’re talking about people managers – anyone who manages someone else.

Without a doubt, the manager has the single greatest influence over the employee’s decision to perform, to stay, or in fact … to quit. In a nutshell, managers make people stay – and manager’s make people leave.

Good managers who want to be great managers and truly engage their team may feel they need to learn more and reach for a large ‘how-to’ book on being a great manager. They read up, they study. However, there is no article or book in the world which is going to tell you how to retain your specific team of individual people.

The solution is so much easier – you simply need to ask the people who work for you.

Spend time with your people and find out what they need more of, less of, what gets them up in the morning, what really motivates them, what they want from you as a manager. If you ask in the right way, they’ll tell you. Then it’s up to you to follow through. That is the way to be the best manager you can be – for each individual on your team.

As a starting point, here are eight manager secrets when aiming for greatness:

Be approachable – visible, friendly and helpful
Communicate effectively, regularly and use many channels. Remember sometimes we need to hear the message more than once to absorb it
Meet as a team regularly
Allow employees to make mistakes and learn
Look for opportunities to recognise effort and results
Be flexible about work/life demands
Give credit where credit is due
Be knowledgeable – and share your knowledge

If you have concerns about employee retention, getting the policy side of things right is essential. But don’t leave it at that. Spend as much time on your people managers and what they are saying and doing with their people as you can. Train them with staff retention skills. Encourage them to create engagement plans and have engagement discussions with their team. Give them support and systems to be the best manager they can be.

Creative ideas to practice

Managers can contribute to their teams in so many ways – mentoring, finding opportunities to introduce variety, instilling and encouraging passion, giving enough space, giving enough support … just to name a few.

Here are some practical ideas for managers to start doing today. These small things can make a big impact.

Five creative ideas for reward and recognition which helps managers

Look for opportunities to recognise effort and results.

Personalise your pay slips

If geography permits, consider asking managers to hand out/email a personal note with the pay slips, so managers can say ‘thank you’ or recognise a contribution in that time period.
Wall of fame

If you are in a service environment and an email or letter of thanks comes in from a client, frame it and put it on the wall. This often means a lot to the person or team more so than anything else. Plus, visitors love to read the letters too.
Get out of the chair

Every day remember to give thanks and recognition to your team. Get up out of your chair and spend time with someone on your team, even just for a few minutes. Phone them if they are in a different location. Ask them about their day, if they need additional help, what they are working on.
Encourage bright ideas

Try giving out a lightbulb filled with candy to anyone who comes up with a bright idea. It generates excitement and encourages ideas to keep coming in. You could also do something like Karma currency instead – where the organisation makes a donation but the person chooses which charity to support.
Treasure box

Have a small treasure chest of goodies, such as movie tickets, gift vouchers, book vouchers, etc. Choose someone to recognise every fortnight or so and let them choose something out of the treasure box. May seem a little contrived, but you’d be surprised how well it works.

Four creative ideas for work/life balance

Help managers ‘be flexible about work/life demands’

Set the example

Model balance and share with your team what you do to achieve balance in your life. Do not support workaholism.
Put it on the agenda

Hold a ‘balance’ discussion at a team meeting, or one-to-one with each team member. Don’t discuss anything else except balance, so they know it is important to you.
Ask them

Ask your team members what else they have going on in their lives and what matters most to them. Get to know their non-work interests.
Show your support

Support your employees in achieving balance. Some examples: encourage them to go to their child’s school plays or for a golf lesson or encourage the organisation to support a charity drive for their cause.

Guest Author:

Lisa Halloran is the Director of Retention Partners. Lisa’s background includes 4 years in political market research and 14 years experience in HR management and consulting roles in television, maritime, retail, manufacturing and insurance.

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Uncovering any substance abuse problems in your workplace and dealing with them effectively will have a positive effect on staff productivity.

There are three main ways of uncovering a drug problem in the workplace. The first is to keep an eye on performance and output. Second, look out for absenteeism: not just a higher incidence, but for patterns such as frequent absences on Mondays, regularly coming to work late, seeming drowsy in the afternoons, or frequent visits to the bathroom. Third, look for changes in relationship patterns in a workgroup. Is there less co-operation, more arguments or a general air of friction?

If you discover a problem, the first thing is not to rush in and dismiss the person involved. Abuse problems in the workplace are often capable of being readily corrected. You can often achieve a boost in the individual’s productivity for a relatively small effort. You will also benefit from greater commitment from fellow workers (who generally are too well aware of the problem) when they see that you are tackling the issue in a supportive way.

The main point to keep in mind is that the issue needs to be tackled as a work performance issue and not as a substance abuse problem. You are not qualified to make medical or psychological assessments and, in some cases, what might seem obvious turns out not to be the case. Sometimes abuse problems are hiding other physical or emotional issues. Keeping the focus on work performance, maintaining privacy and confidentiality, and respecting the dignity of the individual are far more likely to lead to a positive outcome.

The following tips will help you when dealing with an employee whom you believe is suffering from substance abuse.

Keep an open mind. The employee’s problems may not be drug related. Don’t accuse the employee of using drugs or having a substance abuse problem. Focus on behaviour in the workplace that is of concern, not on your suspicions.
Be specific. Document all absenteeism and have specific examples of poor job performance in writing. State the problem behaviour in concrete terms and show how the behaviour affects co-workers and the company. Do not be put off by initial denials or get into arguments.
Define expectations. Describe specifically the expected changes in behaviour/job performance. Set out milestones and timeframes. Put it all in writing.
Emphasise the consequences. The consequences of expectations not being met should be made clear to the employee, again in writing.
Follow through. Monitor progress against the milestones and time frames you have set. This will allow the individual and other employees to see that you are serious and determined.
Remember the employer’s role. It is the employee’s responsibility to resolve the problem. Diagnosis and treatment is a job for a qualified professional, and referral to a counsellor may be advisable. The employer needs to focus on correcting poor performance on the job.

Dealing with substance abuse problems in these ways will generally lead to a win-win outcome – for your employee, your company and its bottom line.

Guest Author:

Denzil Griffiths is an experienced CEO, company director, consultant, speaker and author.