Employee loyalty is waning as "career
experts" sell out for profit! An onslaught of bad advice has been
distributed by paid job boards and employment listing media. Applicants
and employees are actually instructed to "negotiate" for their best deal
or "resign." Could this advice be motivated by a desire to increase
attrition in companies when employment advertising is down? Could this
advice be motivated by "experts" appealing to what individuals "want" to
hear versus what they "need" to hear? In any event, good people are
falling victim to bad advice, and employers need to be aware!
Managing People At Work well
summarizes 3 key concepts to creating a "retention culture." 1. Support
each team member's personal and professional goals. 2. Invest in
training for the whole team. 3. Coach everyone, not just
the ones "who need it."
Internal Marketing case studies have
abounded these past years, especially in reaction to workforce
attraction/retention and solidifying morale during a downsize. Techniques
to handle employees as internal customers have manifested in
teambuilding exercises, scenarios and assessments. Recent roundtables
have also revealed that with "train the trainer" exercises, supervisors
can educate and motivate their team members to treat them as
internal customers as well.
Lean thinking/cellular manufacturing
concepts have become increasingly popular topics with an emphasis on
internal marketing. Studies consistently reveal that employee fear of job
security is created by introducing this concept. "Lean" creates fear of
job elimination. Proper employee education does successfully alleviate
and replace the employee fear with "buy in" toward the increased
company competitiveness, profit and valuable cross training provided.
(In recent economy, this is clearly not the greatest concern of
manufacturing employees, but a rebound and "ramp up" is certainly on the
horizon).
"Human Capital" theories have
received attention from the career minded! Our press articles and on site
teambuilding exercises have encountered initially mixed reactions prior to
acceptance. Some folks may never change, but definite success
stories exist with those achievement-oriented team players!
