Employees are Empowered and Employers Must Keep Them Happy - American Society of Employers - Mary E. Corrado

Employees are Empowered and Employers Must Keep Them Happy

One of my favorite television shows is Shark Tank.  In fact, I was so thrilled to find out that one of the keynote speakers at the HR Technology Conference I recently attended was Barbara Corcoran.  But what inspired this blog post is a fairly recent quote by Mark Cuban, “Now the onus is on employers to keep their best employees happy.”

Workers today have more power than ever.  With unemployment at the lowest rate in over 50 years, and employees no longer working their whole lives for one employer, employees are empowered to continually switch jobs for increased responsibility and pay.  As Cuban stated, “In the past, the default was that the best employees would want a long career with their employers, because that is what you did. You kept your job as long as you could. No longer."

If employers want to keep their employees, they need to keep them happy by offering opportunity for growth, among other things.  Retention should be as big of a priority to organizations as recruitment.  Organizations spend billions each year on talent acquisition and should be putting the same effort into keeping those valuable employees they worked so hard to recruit.  If they don’t, another organization will sweep them up.

The better a person is at their job, the more options they have.  Employers should never forget this.  Some recent studies have shown that there is a major disconnect in how leadership and employees view their workplace.

Research by Gallup shows that 70% of employees consider themselves “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work.  In addition, according to Google, leadership cares more about numbers and results, but employees care about team culture.  If leadership is only focusing on results, and culture is left behind, employees will become disengaged and eventually leave.  And according to Bloomberg, employees who switch jobs typically get paid more than those who stay with one employer – which leads to the temptation of job hopping.

Today’s workforce will leave to get the promotion or increased compensation they desire.  They will no longer wait it out for years.  Employees today expect much quicker advancement. So how does a small company, with less opportunity for growth, retain its best employees?  Culture.

I recently read an excerpt from the book EQ Applied by Justin Bariso.  In it he states that companies, large or small, should be offering:

  • Good coaching
  • Team empowerment
  • An inclusive team environment
  • Good communication
  • A clear vision and strategy
  • Career development and support

With these things in place, along with competitive compensation based on your market and company size, employees will feel valued and will be much more likely to remain actively engaged with the organization.

What strategies do you have in place to keep employees happy and engaged?  Email me at [email protected].

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