Three Resources for Improving Employee Engagement

It’s December. As the year wraps up many companies close their books and put finishing touches on next year’s annual plans. Something that I bet few executives are focusing on: their retention strategies. They might want to rethink that. According to a Right Management poll of American and Canadian workers, 83% say they plan to actively seek employment elsewhere next year. Senior leaders should take a look around. If these stats are correct, that means four out of five employees are preparing their resumes.

If you are in management, are you willing to lose over 80% of your staff next year? Even if the Right Management stats are high (let’s say the number is closer to 50%), are you ready to deal with every other staff member in your department considering checking out?

Sounds sort of grim, doesn’t it?

Well, there are no easy fixes, but there steps you can take to improve employee engagement, which will help boost retention. I did some research and rustled up three resources to help you learn more about employee retention and engagement.

First, let’s start off with a series on employee engagement that I did with author and business owner Kevin Kruse. What I liked about Kevin’s philosophy was his down-to-earth approach to employee engagement. No elaborate incentive programs or employee surveys, just practical day-to-day advice on how companies of all sizes can improve the interaction amongst employees. (Bonus content: Consultant Jim Canfield conducts a series of YouTube interviews with Kevin on employee engagement.)

Did you know there’s an organization dedicated to finding companies that are “great places to work”? It’s called (surprise!) The Great Place to Work® Institute and they research and share best practices on creating positive company culture. Their blog offers tips from people who work for these “great” workplaces. Check it out at the Great Places to Work blog.

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) is a research organization that works to identify which “people” practices have the highest chance of creating high-performance organizations.  Even though they are a membership-based organization, i4cp offers free downloads of some of their research, including an on-demand webinar on “How to Strengthen Your Culture through Employee Engagement.”

That should be enough to get you started. Good luck!

I’d love to hear from you: what employee engagement issues would you like to see addressed here on The People Equation? And, what resources do you use when you want to improve engagement in your organization?

 

Disclosure: I received no compensation or other benefits from mentioning these organizations.