It''s a retention thing....

There is a comfort to being told by everyone around you that the world and his dog are struggling to retain their teams, and we all enjoy a sense of comfort. Especially when it feels like the hordes are coming over the hill to steal away your most prized asset (that’s your people FYI) and there is nothing you can do to stop it, after all, even the very best brands out there are feeling the same pain?

Well, I have something to share with you, and it won’t be comfortable. The best brands, the best businesses, the most engaged leaders; they aren’t feeling your pain. How does that feel?

I spend my days speaking with business leaders about the challenges they face and there are some consistencies across those who are battling the retention challenge and those who are not, it is culture, it Is about Employee Value Proposition, or EVP. The job seeker today has a different mindset than back in the day, be that Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X or even the baby boomers who are back out in the workforce, they are looking for brands that understand how to communicate with them and where to communicate with them, and what is important to them. They want to find their FIT, and if it isn’t you or your brand, then my friends, you have a retention problem.

They want three key things, to be seen, heard, and understood. That’s as or as hard as you want to make it.

Retention starts with a robust recruitment process, and in that process, you should begin by looking to set candidates up for success, not to catch them out. We all know what I mean by this because most of us have been on the receiving end of it! We want to see the best of our people and then train them to deal with the worst that our industry can offer.

The next step is a consistent onboarding process, so often it gets left to the person who has time to spare to induct a new hire, one of the reasons my own operations career was successful was not because I was great, but because I was consistent, I trained the person responsible for inducting new team members to ensure that consistency was delivered every time.

Then, creating a culture of accountability within your team, to do that, you must give them the tools, I am a believer in the “CLEAR” model to achieve this:

CLARIFY the desired result.

LEARN, “What’s in the way”

EXPLORE, “What’s possible?”

ASK for the first action step.

REVISIT achieved result.

In any leadership sessions, I always talk about the impact of a team that holds itself and one another to account, it builds a culture of trust and delivers results, with these things in place, retention is your neighbour’s issue, not yours.

I recall discussing this with Alex Reilley, Executive Chairman at Loungers about the retention challenge, and how with 235 sites, it must be something that causes him to lose sleep at night, but he took me back by telling me not. This blew me away but as I thought about the success factors of Loungers, it made perfect sense and got me thinking about what makes them different.

The answer is culture, culture being implemented and on display from the very start, make that your best practice and retention gets easier.