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Are you engaging and developing your long-term employees?
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Greetings!
With jobs remaining scarce and a return to recession confirmed this week, staff retention may tend to be higher. Yet businesses shouldn't be complacent; employees lacking motivation will still jump ship albeit into uncertain waters. What's more, The Work Foundation research from earlier this year found that even amongst long-standing staff there is 'skills under-utilisation'.
With companies looking to cut costs they may focus their development activities on senior leaders, high potentials or new recruits, leaving the skills of their long-standing workforce lying dormant, and the possibility for greater productivity and retention untapped. This under use of skills risks lowering the productivity not only of businesses but of the UK economy as a whole.
For Dr Paul Sissons, author of the Work Foundation's 'The Skills Dilemma' report, from the employee's perspective 'underuse of skills means little autonomy, responsibility or progression, along with the frustration of knowing one's skills are going to waste.' Learning and development plays an important role in ensuring employees at all levels of an organisation feel valued and thus motivated.
This month's newsletters advises on how employers can develop and engage their long-term staff, ensuring higher retention as well as greater productivity and motivation.
Some of this month's posts on the LCP blog:
Guest blogging:
This spring we've opened the LCP blog to guest posters, writing on a variety of leadership, learning and development subjects; if you would like to contribute a post or discuss an idea please email natashastone@lcp.org.uk.
  
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This Month's Caption Competition
Click here to take part - best one wins a £5 Amazon voucher.
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5 steps to improve engagement and development of a long-term workforce
1. Are learning programmes tailored to individuals? With an ageing workforce L+D departments should be avoid catering their training towards younger staff. Whilst all staff should be treated equally, offering blended learning can be an effective way to give all staff greater autonomy and to ensure learning activities are tailored to individuals. A Personnel Today article cited the example of HSBC, which is known for its progressive attitude towards an older workforce. HSBC runs online academies which enable employees to build personal development programmes by matching their skills against where they would like to progress in the future. 2. Are employees in the right positions? Before resorting to redundancy, job transfer can be an option - particularly for employees who have relevant talents but find their actual job tasks unchallenging, which may be common for a long-term member of staff who doesn't seek promotion but whose job has long become too easy. The best managers will consider the talents of their teams according to the organisation's needs and determine whether a job transfer could improve their productivity by making better use of employees' skills and making them feel valued. For such staff psychometric testing can be an effective way to assess areas such as individual's abilities, personality or values and how these match to their role (see types of psychometric test - one of the tools LCP are accredited to offer is Strengthscope™, a world leading strenght assessment tool). Ron Charan elaborates on this idea in his book 'What the CEO wants you to know': 'Those leaders who deliver results consistently over a long period of time are the ones who recognize what an individual can do best. They link the business need and the person's natural talent. They take the time and effort to place individuals where their strengths can have the most impact.'
For more information on helping employees to work with their strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O'Clifton's book offers guidance and a useful personal assessment tool. 3. Are employees' achievements being recognised equally? Whilst the importance of employee engagement and motivation should not be undervalued, it's paramount that employees are rewarded fairly. There's nothing more demotivating for a long-term loyal employee who has performed consistently for years than to watch colleagues they view as underserving - who perhaps stand out more by being new recruits, making more demands or having different personalities - receive praise and rewards. 4. Are reliable employees acknowledged as such? Experienced and reliable employees should not be micromanaged i.e. a manager should be concerned with what they're doing, the how should not be relevant if the employee is achieving well enough. Managers should seek their staff's input and allow for small errors rather than expecting them to always follow instructions; effective employees will feel disempowered and distrusted, and even employees who are underachieving will simply continue to do so - this will at best 'create a perpetual environment of dependency, inefficiency, and unease' (Presutti, 'Is Micromanagement killing your staff?').
A robust leadership model such as 'Situational Leadership II' can highlight the importance of providing the right leadership style to an individual, at the right time and in the right context - for more information see Ken Blanchard's book 'The One Minute Manager'. 5. Is feedback still being given regularly? For reliable members of staff feedback can gradually get cut back over the years until it's merely an annual performance review, with the regular one-to-ones and even everyday 'thank yous' being reserved for the more demanding trainees and newer staff. Spending time with staff can make them feel valued and it thus enables them to invest more in their jobs. Furthermore minor discontent that may have been brushed off by the employee - but still have influenced productivity - can be identified and dealt with by a manager who simply takes the time to ask a few questions. In addition, regular feedback is a way to address long-term staff with a tendency to 'coast'; feeling that their manager is aware of their productivity will quash any feelings of complacency. On the other hand - in order to further encourage employee engagement - staff's own feedback on the running of the organisation and the performance of their team should still be sought regardless of their years of service. Long-term employees can feel mere cogs in the everyday running of the company and no longer valued as individuals; all of our suggestions here relate back to this same point - employees' own voices and personal strengths must be recognised if their productivity is to be maintained over the years.These five steps are just some initial key areas for managers and HR to consider. However you feel these suggestions can be adapted to your organisation, the prevalent message remains; don't forget the gold under your feet.Visit our website to find out more about our services, including business coaching, performance management and 360-degree feedback. Image credit: Boaz Yiftach |
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LCP's coaches and consultants are qualified to provide a number of psychometric tests, including MAPP, Belbin Team Roles, Strength Deployment Inventory® (SDI®) and Myers Brigg Type Indicator® (MBTI®). To find out more about the range of applications for psychometric testing and how it can fit into a wider training and development programme see our psychometrics testing page and accompanying video guide, or call 01273 590232.
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LCP
- about us
LCP is a Sussex-based firm that provides bespoke management training, leadership development, business consultancy and coaching. Learning Consultancy Partnership LLPAscot House, 18-20 Third Avenue, Brighton & Hove, BN3 2PD
+44 (0)1273 590232 |
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