Why Your Employees Are Disgruntled!

As a leader, do you know the real reason your people are not showing up, figuratively speaking, or why they are literally quitting on you? When I ask managers how their employees feel about their work, the company, and their leadership, all too often they simply stare back at me with nothing to say. Damn, is what I'm saying to myself. In this episode, let's talk about the hard truth and facts along with the tremendous opportunity you have as a manager turned leader to ensure your employees and you are showing up fully, loving what you do, and creating great results together. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms female corporate executives into powerhouse leaders by showing them how to shed the challenges and overwhelm along with any fear, insecurity, self-doubt and negativity holding them back. I'm your host, Bernadette Boas of Follow Fire Coaching, bringing you powerhouse discussions each week to share tips, advice, and sometimes tough love so you create the riches in your work and life you deserve. Let's do this! Over the last several months, I have talked to hundreds of employees, their managers, and HR representatives working to understand what employees really need to be engaged, what they need from their managers to get the best from them, and what all of them need in order to feel really fulfilled in the workplace and maximizing their talents and skills in the jobs that they have and the future opportunities that they would be given. And the result is this. The result is you and your employees simply want to be seen, heard, developed, appreciated, and recognized for their talents and contributions. So the question that I have for you as a leader is, why is that so hard to give them what they want and need? Why is it so hard to help them be heard and seen and developed and appreciated and recognized?. And we're going to break down each one of those when we get to some tips and strategies that you could be using. But before we do, I kind of want to just get into some hard facts and truths when it comes to both the benefits and the impacts of not having your employees engaged or making sure that they are highly engaged. So it's a win-win for everybody. All right. So I'm going to share with you some statistics. So bear with me. We all love statistics, don't we? But according to The Heard and The Heard Nots, a global study of over 4,000 employees conducted by the Workforce Institute at UKG and Workplace Intelligence found the following: highly engaged employees are 3 times more likely to say they feel heard at their workplace than highly disengaged employees. And it's 92% feel that they're heard if they're engaged versus 30%, uh, feel that they aren't heard if they are not engaged. Um, also 74% of employees report they are more effective at their job when they do feel heard. And 88% of employees whose companies financially outperform others in their industry feel heard compared to 62% of employees at financially underperforming companies. Now, why is this important? Well, it's important because you depend— as leaders, you depend on your people to do the work. You depend on your people to show up. You depend on your people to not only get the job done, but in some cases to outperform and exceed what it is that they, they are assigned to do.. And if you are not allowing them to be seen, heard, developed, appreciated, recognized, then all of a sudden you're taking a hit to whether or not you and they will achieve the goals and objectives that you set out for yourself. So first, ask yourself the question, do I want to achieve my goals? Do I want my team to be successful? Do I want my business to be successful? Do I want to be successful? And if you answer yes to all of those, then you simply need to figure out what you need to do differently. If it's not working today, what you need to do differently in order to ensure that everyone, including yourself and your employees, are taken care of and are provided the things that they need to get the best out of them. All right. Because if you don't, then you're going to feel some impacts that many organizations feel. And I want to share some statistics around that as well. So according to Benefit News, career development is the number one turnover reason for 22% of people. Now keep in mind, I had mentioned they want to be seen, heard, developed— that's career development— appreciated and recognized. All right, TinyPulse cites a number of statistics around employee engagement and retention, and those start with 79% of people quit a job because of the lack of appreciation. About 50% of people have left a job because of a bad manager. 56% believe managers get promoted far too fast and before they are ready. And 60% say superiors need more management training. 40% of people don't think highly of their boss's performance. I'm gonna repeat that one. 'cause that one is key. 40% of people don't think highly of their boss's performance. That's a huge percentage and something that every leader should be aware of and concerned about. And 23% more are more likely to stick to a job if the responsibilities and roles are clearly explained. Now, what happens when any of those things you know, exist and/or they happen, um, especially to you directly. Well, they land up either checking out, figuratively checking out, so they're not showing up, they're not performing, they're not contributing. It's making your job really, really hard. It's like pulling teeth or wrangling, you know, a pack of dogs, um, and at the same— and you are kind of struggling to not only help them achieve their goals, that's going to be almost impossible, but you're not going to be able to achieve your goals, goals unless they are fully on board with you. All right, so ultimately, should you not get them on board, should you not find those strategies and those tips— and I'm going to provide you some, um, to kind of help them feel fulfilled, feel valued, feel, um, a purpose, feel like they're contributing and they're part of a team, uh, then you're gonna see them walking out the door. And that is going to cost you about 33% of their annual salary as a result of all the time and effort and training that went into them, you know, to date. Let alone the amount of time and money and resources that are going to be spent on trying to find the replacement, onboard those replacements, and get them working up to speed at the same— well, maybe better than the previous employee. So working backwards, I would advise any manager/leader to really look at the impact. I do not want to go through, you know, another hiring process. I don't want to spend more money on onboarding. I don't want to have, you know, that lull, that downtime in whatever production— I'll call production to be anything that you're trying to do and get done on your, you know, in your role and responsibility. And I just don't, you know, I don't want to afford that hit not only the 33% that it's going to cost you of that previous employee's annual salary, but all the cost and time and effort on onboarding a new one. So think about that first and whether or not you have responsibility for a P&L or not, being a profit and loss, a budget, whether or not you have responsibility for the money side of the business. You need to keep that in mind if you're going to be a good, you know, careful manager of the business, then you're going to want to ensure that you're not spending unnecessary costs when your role and responsibility is to ensure that your people have what they need and want in order to bring their best to the workplace. Because unless you address that, If you don't address that and you are one of the reasons, if you're one of the 79% of people who quit because they aren't appreciated at work, or 50% of the people leave because of a bad manager, well, if you don't work to identify those areas that you need to work on and change those and shift them, then the new employee's not going to be any different. All right. Now, I don't want to put all the onus on you as a leader because there's other reasons why employees are leaving— lack of, you know, opportunities, lack of growth and development, so forth and so on. But at the same time, all of those things, any aspect of an employee's experience within your company, within your team, within your domain, is your role and responsibility. So if it's any one of the things that we've talked about, about being seen, heard, developed, appreciated, or recognized, you have to recognize that's your responsibility. All right. So we want to move beyond having to be one of those 79% or 50%. We want to move beyond, you know, having it cost you 30% or 33% of someone's annual salary when they leave. Additionally, when you have to hire a new person, and we want to find the means to actually, you know, move you forward and move the team as a whole forward. All right. So if you focus on employee engagement, really understand what that means and ensure that they have what they need and want, you're getting what you need and want from your your own manager, then you could be creating a very productive and positive work environment. You could be keeping your, your employees committed, engaged, motivated, satisfied, inspired. It will elevate everyone's drive to do things bigger, better, different, newer, and that'll lead to overall higher performance and reduced turnover and employee— and increased employee engagement. So remember, they just want to be seen, heard, developed, appreciated, and recognized. I'm going to continue saying that over and over throughout this episode so it can kind of get ingrained in you. Like I said, I have spoken to hundreds in just the last 8 or 9 weeks, and the number one thing that they say is, I just want to be heard. And then they go on with all those others. I just want to see my manager. In some cases, I just want them to say thank you for the work that I'm doing. Maybe they do recognize me with, you know, a bonus or an award, but that even kind of was 10th on the list compared to just thank yous and, you know, recognizing them and appreciating them and even challenging them, the development side of things.. All right. So just keep those things in mind as we also continue to talk and I provide you some things that you could be working on right now to really optimize how your employees show up and deliver for you. Okay. So I kind of categorize these, these strategies in being seen, being heard, being developed. All right. So first we're going to start with team-building activities. And so this is kind of being seen, right? This is teaming, making sure that not only as an individual but as a collective they're coming together and along with you, and everyone is kind of getting to know each other. They're kind of— they're learning about each other, not only professionally but personally. They're challenging each other. They're building trust. A lot of team-building activities can be based around trust, can be based around Dealing with conflict can be based around communication and accountability, a number of things when it comes to really team building. All right. So that would be your first. What can you be doing on a monthly, quarterly, biannually basis? You could literally sit down after this episode. Don't go anywhere. Continue listening or watching. But you could literally then sit down and just plot out dates on your calendar not just simply say team building, and you can worry about the details later. All right, knowing that that's what they want. Okay, and if you haven't asked them what they really want and need, then this is also an opportunity for you to go and have some conversations with them individually and/or in a group. Okay, so team building activities, effective communication. All right. So this is seen and heard. Effective communication. So make sure that you're not only open and transparent with them. And again, if you ask your employees, they're probably going to say to you, I wish they would tell me more. I wish they would involve me more. I wish they would allow me to be part of the decision-making. I wish I knew, you know, what was coming down the pipeline and had some sort of foresight. As to what's going on, on our team and in the business as a whole. But it also comes the other way. So it also comes about asking, asking for their ideas, involving them in the conversation, involving them. I mentioned the decision-making, involving them in the planning process. But again, effective communication, you know, also means making sure they have a safe, collaborative environment, a positive motivating type of environment where not only can they bring up ideas and opinions and, you know, provide you the updates and the statuses and all the technical things that you might be looking for, but they also need to feel kind of safe and protected. You have their back when it comes to raising up issues or concerns or risks or, or, you know, a conflict that they might be dealing with. You don't want to be that type of person where your employees are scared to come, come to you, or they don't trust that you're going to keep it in confidence, so forth and so on. So effective communication just means be a person, be human, connect with your people on a human basis, and ensure that they know that, you know, the environment with you, whether that's one-on-one or with the team, you have their back. And they can be as open and transparent with you as you are going to be with them. All right. Now, I also mentioned some statistics around the fact that employees are engaged and you retain them when they have a really clear idea of their expectations. So you want to ensure a third tip. So we had team building activities. We have effective communication. This third one is is just about setting goals and expectations. Now, a lot of people will say to me, well, they do have their goals. And the first thing I say is, are they mandated goals that get passed down by higher-ups, or are they tailored and specific to them? And then when they have those goals, are they well-defined enough to where they know exactly what you are expecting of them? Is their role, responsibilities, tasks and expectations set so clearly that they're not surprised when it comes to a, you know, a review, a formal review, or even a biannual review. Or they're not surprised when you all of a sudden pull them into your office or get them on a phone call and have a conversation with them about something that they didn't have a clear idea that it was expected of them. And simply giving them that roadmap will give your employees such a degree and depth of trust in you, of knowing support and care that you have for them. But tactically, it'll just give them a really clear path as to what it is that they're supposed to be doing every day that they show up. And that just gives someone breath and confidence and just an ease as opposed to any stress or anxiety or distrust. Okay. So that was number 3. Number 4 would be empower them. Let them take risks. Let them make decisions. Let them, you know, come up with the ideas. Let them innovate, you know, and improve on what needs to be done within their domain. It doesn't always have to come from you. It shouldn't. Always come from you. Your people are on the ground floor, so to speak. You know, they're the ones doing the ins and outs each and every day. And a manager at any level above them, you know, have a— has a totally different perspective on how things need to be done. So delegate, empower them to, and trust them to be able to contribute just as much as you're contributing. All right. You know, the best leaders and the most effective leaders are not those who lead from the front. They're those who lead from the back and allow their people to move them all forward. All right. So the next one would be, you know, and this one I hear too often, but we talked about it in the what the employees need and want. And that was to be developed, right? So it's the growth and opportunities that you could provide them. Now, it doesn't necessarily always mean that they want promotions, advancements. It could simply mean they want a new assignment. They want to try a different skill set. They want to use their personal passion or talent in the role that they're playing. Playing is probably a poor word, but You know, so you can get very creative and they can get very creative in providing you ideas on how you can be providing them not only the way, the means of empowering themselves, but also growth and opportunities. It doesn't necessarily have— it's not always, well, they want to get promoted. It could be training and it doesn't have to be the big leadership training. It could be just that they want to, you know, again, they want to learn a new skill. A new, you know, capability, and therefore maybe it requires some training. So consider that growth and opportunities. That was number 5. Number 6 would be celebrating milestones. This goes to the appreciation, even the recognizing. Too, too often— I remember in, I remember in corporate, you know, one minute, literally one minute, we would be closing you know, a big deal and we'd be getting— my part of it was, you know, the professional services contract for the services and support we'd be providing and start to implement. And it would be big. I mean, we're talking like millions of dollars. And one minute later, you know, the common phrase was, what are you going to do for me today? So that's all fine and good. We all get that when we're at work, it's about— it's business. At the same time, celebrate the small and big wins. Celebrate the milestones that an individual makes as much as the team makes, as much as the company makes as a whole. Don't just let them, you know, go by without that appreciation and/or even that recognition, whether that's, you know, a big award or it's just a simple thank you. I couldn't— I really couldn't believe— actually, I could, but It was prevalent when asked these employees that I mentioned I had been talking to over the last several months, when asked kind of what do you— what would be meaningful recognition to you? And their number one response was not money, was not even, you know, materialistic or quantitative. It was simply say thank you. Send me an email and say good job. You know, call me out and, you know, with a group and just say, hey, Joe, you know, I was really, you know, you know, pleased with X, Y, and Z. You can fill in the blank. So, you know, again, celebrating milestones doesn't have to be the fact that you buy lunch for everybody, although you could, because again, go back to team building activities. You know, your employees, especially if a lot of them are remote, whether that's full-time or even part-time, you know, find opportunities to, you know, bring them together and celebrate the big and the small wins. Okay. Now I want to mention that milestones could also be— and this was something that actually surprised me as well— it also could be the fact that they want to know not only new employees, and that's a milestone. When somebody comes on board and is a new employee. But they want to know anniversaries. They want to know work anniversaries. Someone's been here for 5 years, 20 years, you know, just a year, birthdays, you know, so forth and so on. All right. The next one would be number 7 would be continuous improvement. I'm huge on this, not only for myself, but for my clients. I, you know, come from the belief that We are on this earth to be learning and growing and making mistakes and growing and trying new things, making mistakes and growing until we are 6 feet under. And your employees— one great way to keep them engaged and committed and motivated is to ensure that they are continually learning and growing, continually making mistakes and learning from them, continually showing up and wanting to do even more. So going back to those goals and expectations we talked about, you know, you could start them on a goal at the beginning of the year, but then, you know, change it up a quarter in or half the year in or three-quarters of the year in based on, you know, kind of how they're progressing, what they're bringing to the table, what you're learning about them, even their external passions and hobbies. That may have some relevance to the work that you're doing. But continually give them opportunities to improve. Okay. And number 8 would be work-life blend. I don't believe in balance. Work-life blend. Find ways to, you know, really ensure that everyone's taking care of themselves and their families. And one of the things I walked away with over the last several months from all this work that I've been doing, basically focus groups for an organization, learning really from their employees, like I said, managers and HR, what they need and want. But the one thing that I just walked away, just my heart was glowing, was they just really appreciated and just really revered the people aspect of their work, their personal people aspect of their work. And what I mean by that is regardless of their feelings and that, you know, and their, um, challenges or issues or opportunities with their managers, you know, as I mentioned much earlier on, there's a good percentage of people that leave their jobs because of their bosses, their managers, yet it— and You know, at the same time, whether they do have challenges or issues with their manager, they are so appreciative of the, you know, of their attention to their personal care, their personal well-being, their personal life, their family. You know, a situation comes up at home, or, you know, there's a kid's baseball game that somebody wants to get to. You know, they are very flexible and very agile in making sure that they're taking care of themselves and that they're taking care of their families and that they're able to be there because they're all family, family-oriented individuals. And what a beautiful thing, recognizing that, you know, we're going to get the work done. And but at the same time, we want to be able to be there and show up for our families. Now, are there times that they, as, as much as anybody, has to like work weekends and work very long hours and work continuously, you know, over a period of time? Absolutely. Absolutely. However, any good leader is going to ensure that their people are taking care of themselves. OK, number 9 is inclusive culture. Everybody wants to be included. Everybody wants to be involved. Everyone wants to feel like they belong. And so any good manager turned leader is going to ensure that they do create a not only inclusive but a diverse work environment. Now, that not only has to do with, you know, whether or not there's different races and different cultures and different people with different backgrounds on the team, but it It also means that they're willing to hear from everyone to ensure that they're leveraging and learning about all the different perspectives and opinions and views and beliefs and values and traits and backgrounds and cultures of the individuals that are on their team. And so that diversity and that inclusion will make any one of your employees feel engaged, important, valued, and belong.. And so if you can build that inclusive culture on your team, again, why is it so hard? Why? Why? Well, then you'll just steamroll ahead in making yourself and your team very successful. All right, we talked about recognition and appreciation. That's actually number 10. But again, The simple, you know, thank you, the simple acknowledgement. Yes, it could be, you know, an email. Yes, it could be a certificate or, you know, an award certificate, or it could be, you know, a bonus or a bigger award that you provide. But again, people want to be recognized and appreciated. Okay. And lastly, number 11 is employee feedback. And I'm ending it with this one because this is probably one of the most powerful ones that I have always known over even throughout my career. I always wanted feedback from my managers, bosses, peers. And so, but over the last 12, 14 years in my business, it has been always the number one thing that employees ask for of their managers and even of their HR representatives is feedback, not just during performance reviews in the middle of the year and the end of the year, but regular continuous feedback, making sure that that feedback is not kind of a checklist of the things that I need to say and I need to report on and I need to rate. You know, good, bad, or ugly, but true productive, transformative type of feedback. How are they doing? How are they, you know, contributing? What are their strengths? What are their areas of improvement? What, you know, what development opportunities do they need? What issues have come up? What, you know, conflicts you know, are, you know, exist, so forth and so on. But feedback needs to be genuine, intentional, and it needs to have the ultimate outcome of growth, of development, of ensuring that your people are getting what they want and need. They are engaged, they are motivated, they are inspired, they are learning and growing each and every day. And so I ended it on that note because if there was one thing of all 11 that we've talked about, and I'll run through them real quick in just a second, is if you can start providing your people feedback on a regular basis at the end of a project and when they hand in a task, when something comes up, some, maybe there, it was an issue or a missed deadline. Making sure they get that feedback right then and there. That's what your people are asking for. Okay. So employee feedback. So 11 tips that you can use to ensure that your employees are highly engaged and therefore you don't have to worry about whether or not they're going to show up, even figuratively, or they're going to leave and cost you 33% of their salary. Because of the fact that they don't feel valued, appreciated, recognized, seen, or heard. Now I'm not expecting you to all of a sudden start implementing all 11. What I'd really like you to do, and if any of you know me, I always go with like 1 to 3. Pick 1 to 3 of these tips and strategies that you can start working on. You can start really focusing and being very attentive and intentional about them. And trust me when I say you will transform yourself and your team. Okay. So the first one was team building activities. Number 2 was effective communication. Number 3 was clear goals and responsibilities or expectations. Number 4 was empowerment. Number 5 was opportunities for growth. Number 6 was celebrating milestones. Number 7 was continuous improvement. Number 8 was work-life balance. Number 9 was inclusive culture. Number 10 was recognition and appreciation. And our last one, number 11, a bonus one, was employee feedback. So as you can probably tell from that set of 11, all of that covers the need and the want of your employees to be seen, heard, developed, appreciated, and recognized. Again, if you can take 1 to 3 of them and start really focusing on them with intention and attention, then you will see your, your whole results of your leadership style and your team's contributions change dramatically. Again, it's really exciting when you see managers turn into leaders, leaders that are extremely focused on loving on their people and making sure their people, you know, are developed, have the tools and the resources, feel belonged, feel valued, and, and given the opportunity to really contribute, learn, and grow. And I know you want that for them and for yourself too, because I want to end this on the note that these are the same needs and wants of you. Sure, I heard all of these things from all these employees over the last 12, 14 years, and especially over these last several months. At the same time, they're the same thing when I was in rooms with managers and leaders on what it is that they need and want from their managers and the company. So recognizing that, that there are needs of your own then you can just ensure that they are focused on and delivered to you, also your people. And it's a beautiful thing when one win supports another win and you get a win-win, right? I'd love to hear your thoughts, or maybe you have a question in regards to our conversation today. So feel free to go over to LinkedIn and leave me a comment, send me a private message, or look for any one of our post out there, and I'd be more than happy to get you back a response or even some special tips and strategies for yourself. And if you want some guidance on how you could put together an employee engagement plan for yourself as far as leveraging, you know, 1 to 3 of the 11 tips and strategies that we talked about today, then feel free to book a call with me. Go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall. Let's talk. And I can get you laser-focused on what you could be doing to drive employee engagement and your effectiveness within your team today. All right. Thank you so much for being here with me, and I will look forward to having you right back here next week. Take care, everyone. Bye.