Keeping Employees Happy in a Post-Recession World

With the worst of the recession behind us, workers who previously felt they didn't have options may start looking around. Keep them, advises CCL

By John R. Ryan

Employees performed their jobs with a higher level of engagement during the recent global recession, according to research my colleagues at the Center for Creative Leadership conducted in partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton. As layoffs increased throughout the workforce, employees became more engaged.

Why did that happen? Jennifer Deal, a senior researcher here at CCL, thinks one explanation could be that people feel more engaged with their jobs when they have fewer employment options. She also pointed out that the economy is starting to show signs of life again, so businesses will soon face a new challenge: maintaining employee engagement and retention as the job market slowly begins to improve.

Many business leaders tell me that keeping employee engagement and retention high is an increasing concern of theirs. It's on our minds at CCL as well. Like so many organizations, we asked our men and women to make financial sacrifices and take on extra work that helped us weather the worst of the downturn. Now we're starting to look again at ways to reward those employees, and the findings of Deal and her fellow researchers offer insights on how to proceed. Compensation, benefits, and development opportunities play key roles in retaining employees, according to our research. The greatest predictor of how long talented workers will stick around, however, is the relationship they have with their immediate boss.

Here's what the CCL/Booz Allen study found: Among those who strongly agreed that they work for a manager who cares about their well-being, 94 percent said they intend to stay with their current employer. Of those who strongly disagreed that their manager cared about their well-being, just 43 percent planned to stick around.

feedback, coaching, and challenge

That striking disparity reminds us how crucial it is to develop effective leaders at every level of our organizations. If we just leave employee-manager relationships to chance, we're putting tremendous amounts of talent and productivity—not to mention the overall health of our companies—at risk. The good news is that creating rock-solid, productive relationships with our direct reports isn't mysterious or particularly complicated. In fact, our research confirms an adage about those we are privileged to lead: "People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Remembering this principle and regularly practicing a few fundamental skills can go a long way toward keeping your employees satisfied:

• Give feedback: Don't just wait for annual performance reviews to tell your men and women what they're doing well and how they can improve. They deserve to hear from us frequently. How else will they know what we're thinking? How else can they keep getting better?

I meet biweekly with my direct reports at CCL. These conversations have several intended outcomes. First, we want to create relationships with our colleagues to foster honesty about skills and performance. We also want to prevent employees from feeling defensive about constructive criticism; consistent communication helps with that. During my three decades as a U.S. Navy pilot, every flight of my career—whether I ranked as ensign or vice-admiral—got debriefed. It was a great chance to learn what went well and what needed to be done differently. This kind of deliberate, consistent process made me a better pilot. It still serves as a reminder that feedback is truly a gift from people who care about your role, your professional development, and the organization's mission.

• Start coaching: Beyond giving specific, timely, on-target feedback, we should also be coaching the people we are privileged to lead. Effective coaching gets people to look at situations in new ways.

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