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Now a Mission Critical Focus
Employee retention is a factor that is at the forefront of many manager’s minds, worldwide. We read of “The Great Resignation”, a term coined by Dr Anthony Klotz, a psychologist and professor at Texas A&M University in the US. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek1 in May 2021, Dr Klotz predicted the significant number of Americans who quit their jobs in increasing numbers in the 3rd quarter of that same year. Germany, Japan, the UK and many other developed nations around the world saw similar phenomena.
As I myself discovered, trying to analyse why this happened can take you down a warren of internet rabbit holes. A common consensus, which holds a lot of weight, appears to be that the global COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing restrictions put in place by governments around the world caused all of us to take a step back and take stock. For some, it was finding working from home to be an attractive alternative, whilst for others the opposite was true. For many people, across all walks of life, it was simply being given no choice but to take an enforced break at home with time on their hands. This got people thinking about what they were doing with their lives and careers, and asking the age-old question, “Maybe, the grass could be greener somewhere else?”
An interesting thought-leadership piece published in December 2021 by global law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright2, pointed out that according to LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky, a large part of the movement came from the younger generation and can be referred to as a “Great Reshuffle”. The same article puts forward the view that for many this introspective analysis of what else might be out there “is more appropriately named the ‘Intent to Resign’, and that this is a serious risk facing organisations in many countries.”
It goes on to say the “Intent” and the doing are very different things. The question then is, “What can we do about it?”
Employee retention has its roots in employee motivation and in how well we communicate who we are as a business. At Catalyst Global, we work globally with large machinery manufacturers across a multitude of industries. Our Services Marketing and Development programs start with training a business’ most powerful services marketing resource, the frontline service teams who are in daily contact with their customers. We concentrate on three key areas:
a) language and behaviour, driving customer net impression,
b) looking left and right during every service visit for where else we can help the customer, driving service revenues and opportunities, and now more than ever …
c) employee motivation and retention
As outsiders, who research our clients in great depth, we address the issue of motivation and retention by reselling our clients’ businesses back to their employees as part of our training program. Our words, as credible players from outside the company, reinforcing the client’s own messaging, have a big impact.
Whilst most companies do a very good job at onboarding new employees, with induction processes covering the history, key achievements and strengths of their businesses, once the employees are knee deep in their daily roles, juggling multiple priorities, that information fades into the background.
The team can quickly forget:
· how good their global company is,
· the achievements of their own local arm of the business,
· how good the industries they operate in are,
· the knowledge and history behind the brand they wear on their shirts or business cards.
We go in depth into all these areas, often unearthing facts and highlights of which the clients’ own leadership teams are unaware. We make this session interesting, interactive and fun, with workbook and discussion exercises.
As one client once pointed out, “You guys present, in a different way, many of the things I say to my employees. However, when I do it, they glaze over. When you do it, it’s all they talk about”.
This credible, well researched and well-informed outsider’s view of their own business, reinforcing the client’s own messaging, engenders pride in the brand on the teams’ shirts and business cards, gets them proudly talking about what they are part of, but most of all starts to form the opinion, “You know what, the grass is pretty darn green on this side of the fence!”
Jonathan Clark
Partner
CATALYST Global (.net)
1 How to Quit Your Job in the Great Post-Pandemic Resignation Boom – By Arianne Cohen, Bloomberg Businessweek - May 10, 2021
2 The ‘Great Resignation’: A Global Risk? Transforming Workplace - #1
Authors: Jason Noakes Jeff Landmann – Norton Rose Fullbright, December 2021
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