Book Sarah
289-929-2625

Greatness Magnified

Three Ways to Create a Healthy Workplace Ecosystem

By Leave a Comment

A number of years ago when we were looking for a cottage. We met a great realtor who was excited to be able to help us find our first leisure property. Every time he’d get out of the car, he would do a very interesting but strange thing; he would go right down to the water, take a look around, and within 30 seconds say either, “You can’t buy this place” or “Let’s go inside for a look around.”

We made the assumption that he was rather obsessed with the waterfront. After about the third day of us looking, we said, “Out of curiosity, why do we have to base our judgement on the waterfront?” He shared, “It’s not actually the water. I’m looking to see if there’s any frogs in it because you see, frogs have such sensitive, delicate skin that they can’t survive in an unhealthy body of water and ecosystem.”

What he was explaining to us was that the evidence of frogs was more accurate than any water testing and health records; he could tell, simply by the habitat, if it was hospitable or not.

The same applies to any work environment. People make an impression about your workplace within a minute of setting foot in it. When it comes to clients, new staff, potential partners, they’re looking for how healthy your workplace is, and if they want to do business with you (or if they have no choice, if they can expect a good experience or a less pleasant one). You may be so immersed in it that you can’t tell. You may also feel powerless to change it if it’s not as healthy as it could be. In this blog, we’ll show you what you can do about it, no matter what role you have on the team.

Here are a couple of things you can think about to ensure your team has a healthy ecosystem. Perhaps you’re reading this blog because you’re in a position of deciding if you want to remain in that ecosystem or not. All the more reason to see what can be done about it before you jump ship.

Signs of a healthy ecosystem (anyone can initiate):

1.Celebrate each other

As much as we think people have thick skin, everybody needs to feel acknowledged, appreciated and valued (rather than just told what is needed, how to improve and what to do differently). On the surface, someone may seem tough as nails. But within all of us is the need to do meaningful work and feel valued for it. This is at every level – coaching clients in the c-suite to business owners to folks just starting their career – they share their deepest regrets, their pains, their frustrations, plans they’re not sure about, not feeling valued – and it impacts their energy and productivity. We need to celebrate each other – in small and large ways – on an ongoing basis. When people are working so hard, they need to feel that their greatness (their talents, passions and virtues) are being cultivated, appreciated, tapped into, utilized and valued.

Do you celebrate and value your staff, peers, boss, partners?

2.Ensure every voice is heard

When you listen to an environment with a lot of frogs, they croak in the night. My son loved to catch pollywogs when he was younger, bringing them home to my parent’s pond and watching them grow. Perhaps to my mother’s chagrin, as they would be so loud, croaking all night long, keeping her awake. But you knew they were there!

Do you know what your talent has to say? Do you hear lots of ideas? Do you hear people chatting with each other, interacting on a social level, getting to know each other as people? Are they connecting, sharing and contributing their best ideas to important projects, pitches, clients and problems? Or is there silence? In a meeting, around the office, meeting with you, if you hear little to nothing, that’s a good indicator that there’s some toxicity present such as mistrust, disengagement, or inter-team tension. This can’t be ignored.

Do you ensure every voice is heard?

3.Growth

When a healthy ecosystem exists in nature, the population of its inhabitants grows. Do you have people who want to come and work with your team? Is there a lineup of people waiting to get in, and therefore, do you have a stack of resumes waiting for the first vacancy? Are people inquiring about your organization to become your client, partner or next hire?

There’s a number of organizations I’ve worked with, that never have to post a job advertisement because as soon as somebody leaves, through natural attrition, they are the best recruiters for that team, that organization, and know who to recommend. Do you have people who want to grow and be part of that team, and are the people who are already there, growing and nurturing as well? Or are they stale and stagnant and there is just no appreciation or acknowledgement for the importance of growth within the team?

I hope this has given you a perspective on the importance of focusing on healthy team ecosystems. If you feel that this is valuable, subscribe to my YouTube channel so that you can continue to get your dose of Greatness Magnified, for your work, family and for your life.

Five ways to retain top talent during fast-paced growth

By Leave a Comment

How do you keep up recognition of your top talent even when your business is growing at an exponential pace?

This is a question I have been asked by hundreds of individuals, leaders and business owners over the last few months. The assumption being: we don’t have time for recognition during growth cycles.

But I would question the assumption underlying the question.

Recognition needs to be front and centre all the MORE when your team, organization or industry are growing and the pace is exceedingly busy. This is when you need your best people the most, and it’s also one of the times you’re most at risk of losing them.

When your focus is not on recognition, it can lead to your most needed and valued people feeling like just a cog in the wheel of growth. They may feel like giving up and burning out. They may begin to wonder, “could the grass be greener on the other side?” The fallout: intention to leave.

Ironically, simple acts of recognition can help to insulate against fatigue and keep people motivated to do their best even during those exceedingly busy times. When your organization or industry is in a period of exponential growth, taking on more and more, that is exactly when you need your top talent the most, focused, implementing and performing. You cannot afford to lose your best people any time, and certainly not when you’re growing.

But leaders think they have no time. They cannot fit it in and certainly, can’t afford to not do it. And, the fallout (e.g., recruitment) is way more time consuming than simple acts of acknowledgement.

Recognition can help insulate against burnout and fatigue and provide an opportunity to see how scalable your recognition efforts are. Consider:

  • How committed are you to making sure that your best people know they’re appreciated and valued?
  • What is your people philosophy on the long-term?
  • What do you want your people to be saying about the organization on the other side of your current growth cycle?

It’s a great opportunity to ensure your vision for the future keeps your people at the forefront. And here are some ways to ensure recognition now helps retain them so they stay with you later.

  1. Provide the unexpected

When your best people go the extra mile, do something unexpected, surprising and personally meaningful. For example, you have a core team working late for a few weeks, sacrificing a lot. The surprise recognition gesture: send dinner home to their families.

Think about it. They miss dinner with their families. Someone has to pick up the slack at home. Many people don’t like cooking (or certainly the dishes that follow). When your top people go home to smiles versus upset kids and spouses, they’re less frustrated about the extra time. And the cost is pretty low in the grand scheme of things.

Dinner sent home sends a message to the employee that you recognize and appreciate the extra effort and commitment. It sends a message to the family that you understand the sacrifice they’re making and appreciate them too. It also sends a message throughout the company that even though sometimes you have to ask people to work longer hours, it doesn’t mean you expect people to be married to the job; when you have to take time away from family, that will be acknowledged versus expected.

  1. Have a milestone celebration!

As much as you may have this huge growth, stop and celebrate. It doesn’t have to be a long pause. The importance of that pause is remembering how far you’ve come since the last time you took a pause. It’s that sense of accomplishment, that hit of dopamine, that allows you to feel the sense of success. Otherwise, it just feels like there’s more to do, and you get overwhelmed; the path to burnout.

I spoke for a client at a milestone event, celebrating progress so far on a long, onerous project (where no wins were that visible yet) after a multi-company merger. The energy in the room and appreciation for taking the time to break bread together, hear a non-work motivational speech and get to know each other on a social level was appreciated by every person I spoke to. They all said, “They didn’t have to do this. But it matters that they did.”

I hope you’re doing shout-outs all the way along. That is not just for your leaders and the business owners, but it’s also for your colleagues as well. Peer-to-peer recognition is one of the easiest ways to keep recognition momentum going. When you have that, as you’re growing, it allows everybody to have an opportunity to keep that strong recognition culture afloat.

  1. Strategize using an employee think-tank

If you are finding that you’re growing so exponentially that you can barely keep on top of it, bring the employees together to strategize together. Ask things like:

  • What are we doing that’s working?
  • Is there anything that’s not efficient?
  • Is there anything we could be doing differently?

By asking for feedback (especially feedback that starts with an abundance mindset about what’s already working), you’re showing you value their feedback and they’re not just “worker bees”. Take the quick wins (even better encourage people most passionate about the quick wins to run with it) and put ideas into place right away. Keep that sense of ownership, that feeling of “I belong here despite the changes”, alive and well.

Something like this if not geared at being a complaints session. It’s not a passive “suggestion box” type of idea. Rather a strategy and opportunities generation session. What you’ll find is, there are things taking away good people’s time and attention that really aren’t important, and you can likely get much of that cleared away so they can stay focused on the most important work needed for growth.

  1. Strength discovery is critically important

There’s a free, really valuable tool called the VIA Signature Strength Survey, although maybe you have already done a strengths tool. Look at the results and map out their individual strengths. Consider if they are well aligned with the work being done. While you’re growing, the easiest, most efficient way to maximize people’s talents is to leverage the strengths and expertise they already have. When you’re trying to work outside of your strengths and push yourself, on top of having a huge volume of work and tight deadlines, it’s exhausting and not as rewarding. Map out the strengths and try as best as you can to match your growth strategy to how you already have strengths within the organization.

  1. Measuring matters

Finally, find a way to have those performance milestones. Are you measuring performance and progress as you’re growing? Are you still measuring the cultural variables that individuals feel most strongly about preserving? Are you measuring both process and outcome measures (usually we like to measure the final product – outcome – but that doesn’t keep people going, nor does it allow for quick course correction, when measured in isolation).

What you measure matters. As you’re measuring it, as you’re going through those milestones, I hope that you have some of those “people measures” as well. And pull them into the celebration!

I hope these tips have been helpful as you continue to embrace recognition. What other suggestions do you have?  Pop them in the comments below.

For other free resources to help you keep recognition strong in your culture, feel free to hop over to my website for the Cool Stuff page and download many helpful tools to use even when you’re growing.

Five Keys to Retaining Your Best Staff

By Leave a Comment

Recruiting your internal staff first is one of the most powerful recognition strategies right under our noses!

When we don’t provide our internal staff with the opportunity and treat them as the priority, then how can you expect them to feel valued and respected? Especially if they’ve been looking forward to these great assignments, stretch projects and promotions.  When suddenly, that new opportunity arrives and just like that they don’t get it and hope is dashed. Especially if they were never really taken seriously. It’s just so painful.

Here is what we know about how to best retain top talent by first looking seriously at our talent within.

  1. Make a decision: do we have a ‘first try to hire from within’ philosophy?

Sometimes people will tell me they cannot hire from within because there just isn’t the talent there. But do your people know that? If someone doesn’t know they’re not performing to the ability and the level that they could be to have access to an opportunity, that’s your first problem! And it needs fixing fast!

Let’s assume, however, that this is not your issue. Does your organization value external people more than internals? Do they take outsiders’ perspective to be wiser, more valuable, and more respected? Or is institutional knowledge, fit with the culture, and “better the devil you know” fit more with your approach? If it’s the former, what evidence do you have that outside is in fact better?

The other piece is that it’s going to take a lot more to onboard somebody who doesn’t know your organization and get them up to speed compared to somebody who does. One of the greatest opportunity for recruiting our internal folks first is that you know them already.

  1. Shift your thinking: what ripple effect does our hiring philosophy have on engagement?

What message does your philosophy about hiring from within have on engagement? If people feel they’re likely to get passed over, why would they give their discretionary effort, ideas and improvements? Or at least, they’re less likely to.

Your philosophy will also approach how you think about investing in developing people. If you want to hire your own, you’re more likely to grow them. The law of reciprocity kicks in and they want to do more for you as they know they’ve been invested in. See the cycle?

You also need to understand where development needs to happen. This may come out of your job evaluation process and your performance appraisal process, of knowing what talent you need and where that growth needs to happen.  Are people ready for those opportunities? If not, help them prepare. It can also impact what sort of training you do and what coaching and mentorship needs to be available in order to ensure the readiness of the next group of leaders or folks who move into those lynchpin positions that are so challenging to recruit to.

The other opportunity is it allows potentially your employees to get involved in the process. To be able to put up their hand and say, “Yes, I would like an opportunity if it became available.” You don’t want to ask them if, in fact, you have every plan to give it to somebody externally.

I’ve heard from a lot of business owners and leaders that they’re concerned and hesitant about making this their process and policy. You may or may not be one of them. Perhaps you already have a process where internal applicants are given the opportunity before external, which is great. My question to you is, is it consistent?

  1. Upping the Preparation: Have you clarified your intent in your People Plan?

If you don’t have a People/Human Resources Plan, well, that’s where you need to start. But let’s assume you do. This is where you build in your philosophy and operationalize your strategy. This is where you can clarify how and why your recruitment practices flow the way they do. This is how you ensure continuity and consistency – from job postings to interviews to hiring decisions and beyond.

Do you have a process of being able to look at your existing talent pool and seeing what kind of development they’re going to need to be ready for those positions you anticipate will come available? Consider your turnover patterns – your past is the best predictor of your future – is there a way to leverage an internal recruiting approach to ensure you don’t have big gaps and anticipate the external recruitment you’ll need to do? And of course, build in what you already know about natural attrition, i.e. people retiring, moving, and contracts renewing.

  1. Spreading the Communication: Do all stakeholders know your philosophy?

If you have external or internal stakeholders with a vested interest in certain candidates, bring them in sooner rather than later. It could be your union colleagues, a shared management agreement with another organization or individuals identified through succession planning and so on. Make stakeholder consultation a part of your recruitment process; even staff positions you can have a colleague sit on the interview panel. As much as possible, make hiring decisions a shared process (yes the buck stops at one person, however, if others are involved at all levels then when decisions about going outside must be made there’s confidence it’s because it was necessary).

Of course, adjust your policies and your approach, not all of this has to happen overnight. However keep your people and related stakeholders informed about your intent to recruit from within first, that you value the talent already in the organization, and you want to know how to support people until such time the right opportunity comes along.

If you’ve found these suggestions helpful, why not share them? Let’s have more intentional discussions about our “recruit from within” philosophy. And of course, share any suggestions or comments below.

Three Hacks to Get Unstuck and Stay Motivated

By Leave a Comment

What happens when you’re feeling unmotivated? We all have days like that, and sometimes those days turn into weeks or months. Sometimes, it’s just the external environment that makes you unmotivated. Or it might be a rough patch in your personal life or professional career.

Lack of motivation and self-doubt can also seep in when we’re on a steep learning curve. Really any time we’re doing things outside of our comfort zone. We may get so unmotivated we just cannot take the next step. We get frustrated with ourselves and may even experience a lack of enjoyment; the struggle, the difficulty to keeping on keeping on, the plugging through it leaves us wondering – “is it just me?” We look around and see all these motivated people so happy and accomplishing great things. It deflates us further (for another VLOG, are those people quite so contented?)

In other words, when we’re feeling unmotivated, we see we’ve got a problem on our hands.

Or do we?

Consider this. Maybe it’s actually a cue to take a look at our life and see what expectations we have of ourselves, whether it be tasks, inflated hopes and high expectations.  Maybe it’s a chance to consider if we’re really happy and if our life and career is working as it should. Maybe it’s a chance to ask, “what can I let go of?” It’s also an opportunity to revisit what’s working, what’s worked in the past, and make shifts to fix a few things.

One of the greatest gifts of being unmotivated is that you get a chance to ask yourself, “How have I been on autopilot?”

For those of you who run your own businesses, keep your household going, are leaders or have an organization depending on you, you may feel an extra sense of responsibility to keep your motivation level high. Here are some suggestions that I use in my own life and share with my coaching clients when they find themselves unmotivated:

  1. Backtrack

Revisit the last time you were unmotivated. What helped you get back on track? You already have the answers within. You’ve done this already.

Four years ago, when we were going through a very serious family crisis, we had to make some pretty big decisions. I left my job to start my own business and the kids switched schools midway through the year as we moved to a new community. Circumstances and the monumental changes that were in front of us were exhausting, and many times, we were not motivated at all.

Looking back to that circumstance, understanding the steps we took to be able to figure out what that next path was, and to be brave enough to take it, makes it easier to follow those same steps now. In fact, I was so excited to do that, it got me so motivated to translate it into action, that I built a virtual program with all these steps called, “52 Weeks of Greatness: Satisfaction, Clarity, and Direction in Work and Life.” I work my own program because it worked in the past. What it reminds me is, if I could get through that difficult tie, I can get through other demotivating times. So, look at your own journey, about how you’ve been able to get motivated again because there’s gold in your experience.

  1. Practice a daily self-recognition ritual

When I first made the leap, I had no one telling me if I was on track or not. So, guess what I thought? I wasn’t on track! I had to start recognizing myself every day. Literally. I’d take a piece of paper (yes in the shape of a FROG) and acknowledge one thing a day that worked. At first, it was tough. Then it got easier and I’d think, “Oh I could write that down, and that thing, and that…”

How does this help with motivation? It celebrates your successes. It’s a concrete strategy or ritual that reinforces this too.

It’s like setting a goal. We’re more likely to do it when we make a decision and know exactly how to execute it in a simple way.  Then, when you achieve the goal (even if it’s a tiny one like writing an acknowledgement on a piece of paper), you get a dopamine hit, the juicy achievement chemical, that your brain loves which elevates your mood. Good mood increases motivation. See the cycle?

  1. Decide how you want to spend your time

Take a look at all the things that are taking up your time, particularly if you’re feeling overwhelmed; lack of motivation can come from being too busy and distracted – “where do I start?”

Ask yourself, “Is there something that I can put on hold or stop completely?” When I was feeling very overwhelmed, it almost paralyzed me from moving forward. What I noticed was that I had too many things on my plate for my business and that I was having to start making choices about family or work.

As a self-proclaimed family-first entrepreneur, I make choices every day about what to say yes and no to, which clients to work with, and even how far to travel for work based on fit with family and lifestyle. Leaving money on the table used to scare me (okay, it still sometimes does) but I am actually less motivated when I make more money but feel misaligned. What are your priorities? How can you use them to determine where you wish to spend your time and resources?

These are the top three things I suggest for you to get you back on track when you’re unmotivated. What additional tips do you have? Comment below.

Now, you may have read this not because you are the person who’s unmotivated. Maybe it’s somebody in your life. Maybe it’s somebody on your team, in your family, or a friend. Someone you know is a rock star yet they may not see it in themselves at the moment. Share this with them with a note you know this will pass and you hope these tips will help. And if it helps, I have three complimentary modules from the 52 Weeks of Greatness Program you, your friends and your colleagues are welcome to take (just click this link to take advantage of it)!

I hope you found this really helpful because:

Trouble Finding Talent? 8 Common Mistakes that Scare Away Great Candidates

By Leave a Comment

Wondering why great candidates are not knocking on your door for that awesome position that you have available? You’re probably wondering how on Earth people can be passing this up. It’s the opportunity you think people have been begging for years to apply for, and yet all of a sudden, when you finally have an opportunity to post, where is everybody?

In Canada, our first quarter of 2018 showed unemployment numbers lower than it has been in 40 years. This on top of the fact we are already in the midst of talent shortage. What that means is that people have a lot of choices, and they may have already moved on to your competitor, or even completely re-trained in another industry.

The question I get from a lot of HR professionals, business owners, and leaders is, what do I do? How can I still get noticed in the midst of all of this competition? After all, one of the problematic outcomes of these gaps in unfilled positions is – other people have to pick up the slack. They get frustrated, burnt out and you worry about them leaving as well! To fill these positions is a frustrating, costly and perhaps an unrewarding part of your job. To make matters worse, when you finally reach the point of finding the perfect candidate they say, “I just accepted another position.”

All this adds to your already bursting work, more tireless paperwork, not to mention the nuisance factor. Good news is, out of this challenge comes an opportunity to consider your current recruitment practices and make sure they are setting you up for success. You may have been able to coast when it was an employers’ market. Plus, best practices are evolving. Here are eight common roadblocks to recruiting top talent.

  1. Having a traditional job posting process and job description

Does your job posting look, feel and sound very official, typical and, well, blah? Does it contain the same words as all the other organizations in the industry?  Words like, good communication skills, word processing skills, team player…see how boring this is? How you just blend in with the rest? Separate yourself. Make yours stand out and yes, some of the positions you’re posting will have collective agreements behind it, and you need to make sure it’s vetted and so forth but try to make it interesting and separate yourself from the pack. Even if you’re a hospital or a large pharmacy company, you can still separate yourself. What juicy words do you use to describe your organization? Do you paint a picture of an ideal day for potential candidates? Do you share your successes so there’s a sense of pride (they call that “Presuasion” which by the way is a delicious read.)

  1. Social media let-down

We know people spend a lot of time on social media. Are your job postings circulating there? And I don’t just mean on the same main sites everyone else is posting on. Is it in the places your ideal candidate spends their time (professionally, personally) such as LinkedIn groups, Association Lists, Facebook? And is it all corporately driven or do your own folks share a posting and say, “Hey come join my team!” Social media is really one of your best recruitment strategies because it’s low pressure, high consumption, with reliable analytics and low to no cost. Ensure your raving fans – employees, partners, suppliers – know they can share your posting.

  1. Recruiters are within

Are you using your existing employees and leaders as your recruiters? If they love working in your organization, they’re going to want to help, and likely know a great candidate. Just like you could probably determine, just by meeting somebody for the first time, if they would be a good candidate. Conferences and networking events are great ways to spread the word; it doesn’t just have to all be in the busy and perhaps overwhelmed HR professionals’ hands.

  1. Experience only

Are you looking for just experience? Experience is important, particularly in highly technical skilled workforce jobs, and those jobs are the ones where we have the biggest amount of boom. Not only is it important to look beyond how you traditionally would consider experience, but there’s such a strong movement to hiring people from a values-based, heart-based orientation as well. The fact that you can’t find somebody that fits exactly the technical or skill requirements, may actually be a great opportunity because now you can start hiring for their values, and who they’re going to be in the job.

  1. What does your website portray?

Does your website have a very “corporate” feel? Does it feel inclusive? Does it feel helpful and informative? What are the words that you would hope that people would experience and feel from your job recruitment process? Case in point: I was the opening keynote at a company’s annual sales kickoff meeting. The only thing I could find online was a series of stuffy videos of the CEO talking about their stock prices, the mission, vision and values and where they were located. Yet, they were an incredibly dynamic group of people, keen to grow and super innovative. The website completely misrepresented how engaging, progressive and supportive the culture actually was. Go to your website now. Does your website feel interesting, inviting and inclusive of potential candidates? Or could you actually turn off the people you most want to attract? I know that that’s not a small and easy task to update or even replace a website, but, by perhaps by making some tweaks, you just may attract the right people on the short term.

  1. Communication with a live person

Is there a person in your organization that a potential new hire could speak with? Often, what I see, especially in large organizations, is there’s a very formal process with many layers between you and a live person. It’s great when you’ve got buckets and buckets of people applying and hardly any position (it works for you as it weeds people out). However, in our current reality, some may not even be willing to jump through the hoops. How many steps does your recruitment process take before actual human touch? If there are about 16 steps before you even get to a real human being, you’ve probably lost those very heart-based, relationship-oriented people who are in demand, not just because of how the process made them feel, but also because it will take too long! Plus, someone can be disqualified because they missed a technical step or didn’t check a box. Consider what it feels like from the new or potential employee standpoint. If it feels cold, it’s not giving a great first impression.

  1. Have a realistic job preview

Do you have a realistic job preview option? In other words, letting someone experience the job, colleagues, and culture before officially starting. One of the things, of course, is getting people in the door doing the recruitment process, but when you’ve found someone great, why not do you both a favour to ensure fit by letting them experience you, boots on the ground, first. Even if it’s just an hour or half a day, both sides can gauge fit much more accurately than an artificial set of interviews? And, it continues to separate you from the pack as virtually no one is doing this.

  1. Love it or leave it.

If you’re not in love with your position, you’re probably not the best person to recruit for your organization. This may be a very challenging thing to hear, but if you’re feeling burnt out, or if your HR team is completely overwhelmed, the question is, who is the person that’s going to be able to represent your organization best? Maybe you need to give a little bit of self-love, a bit of appreciation to those people who are working so hard to bring people into the organization, so that they can put on the best, most resourceful and resilient face to the organization. Because the job seeker is very savvy. They’re scanning and assessing to see how people seem to be experiencing their own job to help decide, do I want this job?

What other tips do you have? What have you improved or tweaked in your recruitment process that we can learn from? Comment below. And of course, if you would like these tips every week, you are welcome to subscribe to my YouTube Channel or receive the Greatness Magnified weekly VLOG in your inbox by signing up here.

Talent Shortage: Three Ways to Stop It Affecting Your Bottom Line

By Leave a Comment

The first quarter unemployment results in 2018 in Ontario is really good news. We haven’t seen unemployment this low in 40 years. However, for you as an employer, a business owner, a leader, this means that there is going to be an even stronger war for talent than there ever has before. How do you keep top talent in this job seeker’s economy?

I’ve shared in previous VLOGs, we already know we’re in the midst of a talent shortage that shows no signs of easing until 2030 (Deloitte). In addition, with it being a job seeker’s economy, this means we can expect an even greater talent squeeze for no other reason than people have more choice. If the grass seems greener on the other side, there is less fear and greater motivation to check out other pastures.  For two industries, in particular, tech and healthcare, this squeeze is even stronger than it has been in a long time.

Rather than panic, there are some easy ways to retain top talent and keep them even more loyal than ever before. And given how few organizations are turning their mind to this, you will stand out from the rest.

Hear that? It’s opportunity knocking. You have an opportunity to be the employer of choice. The one that people run to. If you haven’t decided that you are going to be the employer of choice, maybe it’s time to consider the benefits. I hope this evidence and data substantiates the value of this commitment (and that no, it’s not just logos and award ceremonies…it’s a way of being as an employer that is dramatically different than unhealthy places to work.)

Here’s the deal. Despite the fact that industries are experiencing a talent shortage, there are still some organizations that have no vacancies beyond natural attrition. People in these organizations would not think to leave the organization they love! How do you become that place where your recruiter is bored stiff (HR friends, wouldn’t that be a dream?) Well, here’s a few tips:

  1. Be a Great Place To Work

Make a decision to be that great place to work. Great Place to Work Institute has found that trust is the number one variable that separates good places to work from great places to work. So, be impeccable with your word. Be very transparent. Demonstrate trustworthy behaviours. These are not things that cost money and they may take some time, but it’s powerful. (Want to read more evidence on this? Check out my co-authored article with GPTW here).

  1. Practice Recognition Daily

Getting back to the basics, and what I so often talk about, is to ensure your talent know they are valued and doing a good job. Recognition is the key to a happy workplace as it boosts engagement, trust, continuous improvement behaviours, satisfaction with leadership and intention to stay (read more about the evidence in HR Professional Magazine  here). Plus, it is what staff say they want! Conference Board of Canada’s Study on Application showed simple acts like a verbal or written thank you with personal and specific words of acknowledgement is lacking but desired (you can read more here). Celebrate the teams, particularly if, in this current talent shortage, you have people filling in the gaps picking up the slack. Celebrate and acknowledge your people going above and beyond. Tell them how glad you are that they are still here.

  1. Remain a Great Place to Work

As a leadership team, or owner of the organization, decide that you are going to stay a great place to work. Even in an economic downturn, how are you going to lead your organization so that you will remain a great place to work, even when you could easily put the brakes on all the focus on talent? It is never a time to put the brakes on that. And trust me, leaders and biz owners, your HR people get very frustrated when those downturns happen and the focus on people wanes. They know at some point the organization is going to have to pay the piper, and they feel undervalued when their voice is not heard when they reinforce the importance of valuing people even when there isn’t a talent shortage.

See the value here? Why not share with your team so that together, you can engage in a conversation about just how well you are going to be able to survive this talent shortage and the job seeker’s economy.

Blog Categories