Ideas For Improving Talent Retention and Development
Ideas and tactics from the community for retaining your employees
Hello, and welcome to this week’s newsletter. Thank you to our new subscribers. If you’re new, drop me a line and tell me what you are working on these days
This Week’s Newsletter:
Ideas For Developing and Retaining Employees
What I’m Following
Ideas For Retaining and Developing Employees
In previous newsletters, I’ve written about the importance of talent retention, and specifically, coming to the table with an actual definition of what that is and getting alignment with it inside of your organization.
This week, I wanted to get more specific and tactical, and asked a number of my friends and colleagues in this space about some of their thoughts on two key questions
What companies and leaders can do (specifically) to attract/retain talent?
What managers can do (specifically) to retain their employees?
Below is a summary of some of their responses. If you have suggestions and ideas of your own, I would love to hear them.
Question 1: What is one program, initiative or investment you'd like to see leaders of companies implement that you think would help retain their employees, and why this tactic/program?
Jessica Wan, Executive & Leadership Coach
More support for middle managers and directors. Employee retention is so dependent on people managers knowing how to manage well – up, down, and cross-functionally with peers. Particularly in fast-growing companies, the executive team has their hands full with steering the ship, so leaders in the middle hold a lot of responsibility for employee retention across the company.
Manager training is a start, but we need to be creating systems of support for new managers to become good managers and for good managers to excel. Learning to manage isn't something you can get from videos or books – it takes practice and hands-on experiences. This means creating interactive opportunities to learn, get feedback, and share in a safe space.
Alex Hilleary, Community at Chart Hop
At startups, great employees frequently leave due to a lack of career path. There's a phenomenon where 2-3 years in, where high-performing employees start to wonder what the next step is, don't see what the opportunities are (because the company hasn't built a framework), and head out the door.
The new laws around compensation transparency present an opportunity. I'd like to see more companies proactively build out their career frameworks at the same time they develop pay bands for new roles they offer.
Larry McAlister, Author, and Founder, The Corporate Humanist Consultancy
In this pandemic affected workforce, and with mounting layoffs and economic uncertainty, it is imperative for organizations to focus on Mental Fitness and human connectivity. Investing in mobile coaching with a world class coach and tools like peer to peer coaching an accountability can lead individuals away from languishing and into thriving at work and at home. The whole person approach.
Angela Howard, CEO Angela Howard Consulting
A thorough reality check and assessment on how their value system is actually playing out in day to day culture behaviors, decisions, and accountabilities across the organization. Employees are looking to better match their own purpose with the purpose of the organization and that looks like employers and leaders matching their words with their actions (not a ping pong table, espresso machine or yoga during their lunch break).
Jim Conti, Talent Partner, Hyde Park Venture Partners
I was speaking with a HR leader who was working with her exec team to identify missing skills on their team in order to achieve organizational goals for the year. They are putting together a small (but meaningful) budget behind each missing skill and presenting them to the team for folks to raise their hand to learn something new (and to have some funding to do it).
Question 2: What is one thing you believe people managers should focus on to retain their employees?
Jessica Wan
Building trust in the relationship. Trust is built slowly and steadily over time but can be lost quickly with just one misunderstanding or miscommunication. The sturdier your foundation of trust is, the more confidence you'll have that you can build it back when a setback occurs. Talk openly about how you can build trust in each other. Share your intentions and how your actions align with these intentions. And speak up when you need clarity about where the relationship is in terms of trust.
Connect with Jessica on LinkedIn, and check out her podcast, The Ampersand Manifesto
Alex Hilleary (Charthop)
Increased transparency around career paths will open the door to discussions about what's next for employees. Then, it's up to managers to engage in those conversations with direct reports about the various career journeys available at the company.
Connect with Alex on Linkedin, and subscribe to his newsletter, The People Ops Weekly
Larry McAlister
People leaders must take into account the mental and physical wellness of themselves and their teams. Managers focus a lot on achieving business goals, which is extremely important. I think more focus has to be on healthier teams and individuals. This topic used to be taboo or stigmatized in years past. We have learned so much through research and real-life experiences (see Pandemic) that it is easier now more than ever for managers to learn and apply healthy approaches at work.
Connect with Larry on LinkedIn, and Pre-Order his book, The Power to Transform
Angela Howard
Their own collective leadership capability including: Aligning on key priorities and goals so they don't burn out employees. Collectively understanding their own gaps in leadership and how they can build skills like empathy, active listening, and transparent communication. Learning about how bias shows up in leadership and the role it plays in building safe and inclusive workplaces.
Connect with Angela on Linkedin, and check out her podcast, Social Responsibility at Work
Jim Conti
In a moment like we are in, it can be easy to just "dump" more work on your team (whether because of a hiring freeze, layoff, or both). This is a big misstep - people managers need to engage in a meaningful conversation with their team about what there is capacity for, what are actual priorities, and ensure job responsibilities are aligned. If you just want through a layoff, you likely can't achieve everything you once set out to do - be honest about this!
Connect with Jim on LinkedIn, and check out our interview
👀 What I’m Following 👀
Podcast: Career Mobility and Employee Retention at Fishawack Health: Here is my interview with Nick Holmes, Head of Career Experience at Fishawack Health. In an effort to retain employees and improve the employee experience, Nick led a digital transformation program that included implementing 5 new technologies to power the career experience of employees at Fishawack Health.
Article: It’s Time to Discuss The Problem with Owning Your Own Career Development - A thoughtful article from Matthew Daniel (Guild Education) who in my opinion is one of the most well researched experts on career mobility. Matt hits on why it's important to design career development and programs through an inclusive lens and how some of our traditional phrases around career development can be detrimental to certain populations. Matt’s points (which he also made in our podcast episode) are spot on and I hope to eventually cover this in another newsletter edition.
Article: How ServiceNow Shifted Its Strategy and Hired 1500 Internal Employees
A good Q&A with the Chief People Officer at Servicenow, which A) was able to hire and move around 1500 employees by focusing on internal mobility efforts and B) made the case for why you shouldn’t be cutting back on your university recruiting efforts even in tough times.
Article: Talent Retention Starts with Empowering Your Managers - Managers play a critical role in the employee experience of each individual employee, which is why they are a force multiplier in your organization for talent retention efforts. Here is my piece on why investing in your managers can lead to better employee retention
Podcast: Building Connection and Community Through Leadership - Redthread Research has a great podcast and this season is all about people managers. This was a great episode
Thanks For Reading, and before you go - If you’re company is looking for help in developing and retaining talent, or a speaker for your conference, I’d love to work with you: Here is how I might be able to assist:
Team Trainings & Professional Development
Support Your Offsites & Meetings
Leadership & Learning Programs
Future of Work and Talent Speaking Opportunities
Feel free to contact me directly for more details!
That’s all for this week. Have a great week!
Al