It’s been said that 70 per cent of employees leave their boss – not their job. It’s staggering to consider the power of the employee-employer relationship in either keeping or losing staff.

Genuine engagement, building positive relationships and getting to know your employees, is essential in helping to reduce staff turnover. Getting this right is a long term investment in the future of your business which will mean an increase in productivity and profit.

How do you know your employees are engaged?
An engaged employee is one who feels valued and knows that when they raise an issue, it will be heard. This means that issues are raised and dealt with before they become too big or unmanageable.  A focus on engagement also provides the manager with insight into the workplace culture, giving them a first-hand advantage to manage and fully understand issues as they arise.

At VECCI we have to help employers deal with ‘sticky’ issues. We are often asking employers to speculate on ‘what do you think the reaction in your workplace will be if you do or say X’.

We often see high turnover as a result of unaddressed issues (which is often as simple as someone feeling they are ‘carrying the load’ for someone else) and the grass looks greener when another opportunity presents itself.

Six tips to keep your staff
Engagement doesn’t need to be at a huge cost – strategies for engagement can be as simple as:

• undertaking small gestures in the workplace to commemorate achievement – even a genuine thank you will be noticed and appreciated
• recognition of the ‘person’ – this may be through keeping track of birthdays or other special occasions and acknowledging these
• encouraging friendly competition in the workplace where appropriate – for example, measuring and communicating sales figures or production targets met
• ensuring that any issues raised are taken seriously and dealt with fairly, promptly  and transparently
• ensuring there are opportunities to ‘touch base’ directly with managers as needed or at set points throughout the year
• measuring performance so underachievers can be supported to reach the requirements and/or performance managed; and your high performers rewarded.

What makes an engaging manager?
At times, good employees are promoted to managers because of their technical skills and not because of their people skills. A good manager usually has a combination of both. Where managers lack the requisite people skills, there is often disengagement with staff which can lead to a number of issues – and one of the biggest consequences for a business is that skilled staff will leave the organisation.

Even managers with good people skills may find they only engage with staff when there’s a difficult conversation to be had. This is often due to time constraints, but waiting for an uncomfortable situation to sit down with your staff can make these scenarios more challenging than necessary. Ensuring there are open avenues of communication will allow you to address issues before staff are thinking of leaving.

All managers can learn to engage their staff by talking to them regularly about what motivates them and asking for their thoughts and feelings on workplace changes. Outside of the initial, low cost strategies listed above, getting your know your staff through team building activities and on a professional, one-on-one basis can also broaden and add depth to the connection. To help employers learn basic engagement techniques, Small Business Victoria has support available through its Keeping the right staff workshop.

What strategies have you successfully implemented in your workplace to keep your valued staff engaged?

Check the Business Victoria website for workshops on Getting and Keeping the right staff.

Lisa Burrell - Manager

Lisa Burrell joined VECCI in 2009 and is the Manager Workplace Relations Operations. Lisa manages a team of 20 staff who are responsible for providing VECCI membership services including general advice, training and one-one consultancy services. Read more…