You’ve probably read about ‘the great resignation’ online. As an employer, does it worry you that people might want to leave your business? Is engagement and morale not what it could be? In this podcast, I want to show you how you can do engagement better and show your people that the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence.
Hi, I’m Nicola from The People Mentor and in today’s podcast, I want to talk about the so-called ‘great resignation.’
As a business owner, you’ve probably seen this in tonnes of articles online. It refers to the fact that people appear to be resigning from their jobs en masse after the pandemic has made them rethink what they want from their careers and what they are willing to put up with at work.
People are questioning their priorities; do they really want to be commuting for 2 hours to the office? They are also wondering whether now is the time to follow their dreams, or just make their life simpler and spend more time with their families.
Are you worried that this could affect your business?
If you already have a problem with retaining staff you’re probably feeling nervous. But even if you don’t, this could be a wake up call that you need to pay more attention to employee engagement and satisfaction.
You also need to think about what your business can offer employees.
One big change that the pandemic has brought about is the rise of hybrid working. Some employees didn’t want to come back to the office at all, while some wanted to be back full-time. The others wanted the best of both worlds. Depending on the kind of business you have, offering employees hybrid working could be a problem or a cost-saving opportunity.
The problems your business might face when it comes to hybrid working are things like difficulties with managing a remote team and having a lot of tasks that just can’t be done from home.
Opportunities for your business might include things like not having the overheads of having to pay so much for office space and utilities if you’re not using it that often.
As the business owner, it’s up to you to get the balance right between the needs of the business and the needs of your employees.
Making sure that your business doesn’t lose great people as a result of the great resignation is all about offering them a great place to work.
If your employees aren’t happy and they don’t feel valued or listened to, there’s a higher chance that they’ll vote with their feet and want to work elsewhere.
You have to become attuned to what employees want, post-pandemic. You can’t just go back to the way things were before.
So, employee engagement. How can you do it better so that your people want to stay?
Well the first thing you have to do is find out what is going well and what isn’t. The only way you can find that out is by asking people.
By asking your employees for their feedback on what’s good, bad, and ugly in the business, it will improve engagement by making them feel involved. They’ll most likely jump at the chance to have a say in how you can create a better workplace.
What are the best ways to get feedback? Well you can try just having conversations, or another great way to make people feel like they can be really open and honest is by asking them to fill in an anonymous survey. The survey might bring to light things that need attention, and you may not otherwise have had a clue about them.
Involving your people is a really important way of improving engagement. Once you have the survey results, don’t just put them away in a drawer. Get everyone together and brainstorm how the suggested improvements can be made and the existing problems resolved.
This is far better than just panicking and trying things that you think will get employees back on board.
Like paying them more for instance. Money is not the main motivator for most employees and it certainly doesn’t make up for feeling overworked, undervalued, and having absolutely no work-life balance.
If an employee is feeling this way, the best thing you can do is to talk to them and try to get the bottom of why they are struggling, then work with them to try and come up with a solution.
If your team is disengaged, there comes a time when after work drinks or pizza Fridays just won’t do. While it might boost morale in the short-term, it won’t miraculously make unhappy employees happy.
As the manager and business owner, it’s your job to lead from the front when it comes to employee engagement.
Listen to people, recognise a job well done, help them develop, keep your door open, and consider their well-being. This is an excellent foundation for improving engagement and building loyalty. If your people feel valued, listened to, challenged enough, and they know that you care about them, they are far less likely to think that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
The great resignation has shone a light on where employers need to do better and now many businesses are realising the importance of actually listening to their people and providing a great place to work.
Is employee engagement something that you’re struggling with?
Are there signs of disengagement, conflict, and low morale in the office?
Is every day a battle to keep people on track with their performance and behaviour?
Nobody told you that managing employees would be this hard.
But done correctly, people management doesn’t have to be an endless struggle.
You just need to go back to basics.
People want to be seen, heard, and cared about.
Simple, right? Not always.
That’s why I’m offering help in the shape of the Manager’s Academy membership.
The membership will give you access to the tools, learning, tips, and support that will help you feel more confident in the way you manage your people.
Whether it’s conflict that’s the problem or you’re just struggling to improve engagement in general, I can help you turn things around.
Want to find out what being a Manager’s Academy member could do for your business?
Go here to find out more.
I hope you enjoyed today’s podcast and I’ll see you next time.
This is The People Mentor, signing off.
