Today it seems that employees are feeling increasingly disconnected from their work, colleagues, and leaders. Why else would so many of them remain out of the workforce or leave organizations to start their own businesses? Sure, the “great resignation” could be partially due to pay and benefits, but it could also be due to how employees feel while at work – what the culture is like. Are they being pulled away to more enticing opportunities or pushed out the door due to a toxic culture or is it a combination of both factors? Employees may be afraid to mention how bad the culture is, but if they felt better connected at work, wouldn’t they be more inclined to stay? In fact, some data shows that employees leave their firms without having anything else lined up simply to escape a toxic culture.
Maya Angelou is often quoted as saying “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.
Ask anyone about bosses they have loved and those they have hated and their views come out with strong emotions! People have a strong desire for affiliation – to feel cared for, heard and listened to, to be seen, and to be treated fairly and with respect. This can come from their peers, but also their leaders. It’s easy to hear how their bosses made them feel – whether respected or dismissed, viewed as a person or as a number, as seen or invisible, valued or undervalued, etc. Take the leader who tells an employee that it’s fine if they can’t attend a major meeting by saying “you’re not that critical to the meeting anyway”. How do you suppose that employee feels? Certainly not valued. Or the leader who rarely, if ever, tells employees that they appreciate their performance or the extra time they put in at work.
Emotional compensation refers to nonmonetary benefits that have a positive impact on employees at work. To improve emotional compensation (defined by Michael Lee Stallard), it means to meet a number of key needs for individuals at work such as: respect, belonging (a sense of fun and/or connection to the workplace), recognition, autonomy (a degree of control over one’s work conditions and processes), personal growth, meaning (doing work that matters), and progress (helping them see what progress they have made on their jobs).
There are several tips for what leaders can do to invest in the emotional compensation of their employees.
- Take the time to meet with employees, even informally. Sometimes, walking the halls can lead to spontaneous discussions where employees have the opportunity to share thoughts and leaders learn things if they listen. It also enables leaders to build relationships. As leaders it is easy to stay in your office to get your work done as efficiently as possible. But, that is not the way to connect to employees and let them know you are thinking of them.
- Take the time to get to know employees as people – what their hobbies and life interests are. That makes it easier to relate to them. It’s amazing how much interest we show in individuals when we are trying to recruit them and again when they are leaving our firm, versus the attention we show them each and every day they work with us.
- Sponsor social events at your firm, and host them during work hours, rather than after work hours. This enables employees to build bonds with each other in fun ways and doesn’t interfere with their home or leisure life
- Invest in leadership training for all leaders, even those who have been leaders for some time. Let employees know that you are investing in this training to ensure that all employees have a strong relationship with their immediate manager, and that the managers will be able to develop the tools necessary to be effective in their jobs. Also, role model the importance of the training by attending yourself.
- Set up a mentoring program to ensure that all employees get opportunities to receive mentoring from peers and leaders.
- Provide specific recognition to employees for their work behaviors or performance. General positive statements are less helpful than specifics regarding what they have done to make an impact. It is amazing to me how many leaders miss this step. They just don’t see it as important to others, despite significant research to the contrary demonstrating that employees crave recognition and rarely, if ever, receive any from their managers.
- Spend time each day on people; not just processes and programs. Put “checking in with people” on your to-do list just like you would include finishing a task on it. This is important as it is unlikely “spending time with your employees or managing them” is even on your to-do list. We often leave it up to chance if we have extra time, and yet do we ever have extra time?
- Research and adopt flexible working hours as desired by employees.
The great resignation is not just about traditional forms of compensation such as better pay and benefits at another firm. Instead, it’s about building a caring culture rather than a toxic one, where employees feel that they and what they do matters. We can’t assume they know this. As leaders, we need to show them. We need to invest in their emotional compensation if we really want to retain them.
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