In Part 1 we looked at four elements of attracting and retaining top talent.
I suggest that there is also a fifth hidden element.
It is what I call ‘gone time’. That is the time when an employee has mentally left but has not yet resigned and left their job, and it goes beyond the Ripple or Slippage effect. With hindsight this can easily be seen. Time off (sick leave, dental appointments, looking after sick school-age children etc), arriving late and leaving early – all may be signs of disengagement. A good manager should watch for these telltale signs in order to act early.
More importantly, a person planning to leave could become less productive, and even vindictive, making comments to other staff members or customers that may be detrimental to the business. So the impact and cost to the business could be significant.
Many organisations are now looking to technology to help reduce staff turnover, and employee-engagement programs can play a significant role.
Staff recognition & reward programs
Implementing a staff ‘recognition and reward’ program can help staff retention and talent attraction in a number of ways:
- Firstly, a well-planned recognition program will help to motivate and engage staff. Recognising staff who go ‘above and beyond’ will help to motivate staff and improve morale and customer service. This is especially true in a small business that is not able to compete purely on salary packages.
- Secondly, a well-executed recognition program can act as a ‘monitor on the pulse of the business’, and should be able to identify improvements in staff performance and behaviour, while measuring the return on investment.
Happy motivated staff = great customer service = high brand value = corporate performance.
SwanCare Group, a leading aged-care provider in Western Australia, is fighting this battle, and with the help of a recognition and staff-engagement software program it has developed a winning formula that is helping to overcome the employee ‘attraction and retention’ issue, while helping to identify efficiency improvements.
The Swan Feathers Rewards and Recognition program is unique in that it has created a whole-of-organisation solution, and has been developed from the ground up utilising its own staff combined with the expertise of the Brownie Points team.
Staff from across the organisation were specifically chosen to design and develop the program. It had to reflect the values of the organisation – respect, reliability and compassion – and the customer service it provides, while involving the whole community, including residents, their families, contractors and staff.
All staff are involved in the program with everyone except members of the executive eligible to be nominated for recognition. Residents and families enjoy nominating staff for work ‘above and beyond’ their normal duties.
The rewards are numerous: cafe vouchers, iTunes gift cards, Hoyts cinema tickets, petrol vouchers, Coles Myer cards, iPods and charitable donations, with the top reward being a $500 travel voucher. It is also planning to offer ‘low cost to the business’ intrinsic rewards such as a day off in lieu, time off for voluntary work, and learning and development as rewards.
SwanCare currently sources the rewards from local suppliers out of its training budget, and expects to source its own rewards out of the staff recruitment cost savings and productivity improvements.
After looking at several more expensive supplier options, SwanCare chose its partner in this project for the level of functionality, flexibility to personalise, ease of use, simplicity of maintenance and adaptability of its solution.
The implementation personnel understood the key objectives and they ensured that the final product linked into SwanCare’s organisational values and delivered an incentivised, on-line solution that encourages retention, lifts morale and increases employee harmonisation.
Positive signs
‘It is early days but SwanCare is already experiencing positive signs that the Feathers Rewards and Recognition program is on track to achieve its objectives and provide a unique solution to the challenging issue of employee attraction and retention’ says CEO Graham Francis.
Employees are any organisation’s greatest resource, and yet many businesses fail to appreciate this. Making staff feel valued, appreciated, respected and involved in the business can have a tremendous positive impact on your bottom line.
However, any staff-recognition program should not be seen as the silver bullet to solve all issues. It should not replace comments or email saying ‘thank you’, ‘great job’ or ‘I really appreciate your contribution and effort’. Public or private recognition is crucial, and a culture of recognition must come from senior management. Engaging and motivating staff to reduce employee turnover doesn’t have to cost the earth, and the results can be dramatic.
You can’t stop employee turnover, but you can minimise the impact to the business. Recognising their performance and contribution and rewarding them for their above-and-beyond efforts is a great place to start.
Tony Delaney, CEO, Brownie Points
