Jani’s Journal Issue 29: Labor & Leadership
9/3/2024
In this special Labor Day edition of Jani’s Journal, we celebrate nonprofit workers and focus on the growing challenge of leading a highly engaged workforce with tighter-than-ever budget constraints.
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🔗 42% of Employee Turnover is Preventable, but Often Ignored 🔗
Gallup's latest research reveals that 51% of U.S. employees are currently watching or seeking a new job, with long-term commitment at its lowest in nine years. Moreover, 42% of employee turnover is preventable, highlighting the critical role managers play in retaining talent. Gallup emphasizes that proactive conversations and engagement can drastically reduce turnover rates. Here are key conversations every leader can have with their teams to prevent turnover and retain their top talent:
Compensation and Career Advancement: Regular discussions on fair compensation, career paths, and promotions are essential. Be sure to check out the MIT Sloan article below on the importance of Career Path Discussions.
Relationship Building: Weekly meaningful interactions between managers and employees boost engagement and retention.
Removing Barriers: Addressing organizational issues and workload concerns helps prevent burnout and dissatisfaction.
Identifying Disengagement
🔗 How to Identify Employee Disengagement 🔗
This McKinsey & Company article offers a quiz to help managers identify employee disengagement and take action to improve engagement. The quiz items themselves also provide insight into the red flags of disengagement managers should be looking for:
High likelihood of quitting: Employees indicating they are likely to leave within the next 3-6 months.
Double employment: Employees holding two or more full-time, salaried jobs, suggesting disengagement or lack of fulfillment.
Low job satisfaction: Employees who are mostly dissatisfied or neutral about their job commitment.
Poor performance ratings: Employees who are rated below average or just meeting job requirements.
Low well-being: Employees reporting low levels of well-being, indicating potential burnout or dissatisfaction. Be sure to read the Gallup article on Well-being below.
🔗 Stop Playing Favorites 🔗
A recent Harvard Business Review article highlights the unintended favoritism many managers show, which can harm team dynamics and employee engagement. To determine if you're playing favorites, consider these red flags based on research and real-world examples:
Who Are You Engaging With? Ask yourself if you frequently seek out the same few employees for input or social interaction, while neglecting others.
Acknowledging Capabilities: Reflect on whether you consistently acknowledge the strengths and contributions of all team members or if certain employees receive more praise and opportunities.
Supporting Growth: Evaluate if you are equally supporting the career growth of all employees through stretch assignments, feedback, or mentorship.
If you find gaps in these areas, it's crucial to address them by building rapport, seeking diverse input, and fostering a more inclusive environment to prevent feelings of exclusion and disengagement among team members.
🔗 Talking Politics At Work: A Double-Edged Sword 🔗
As the 2024 presidential election approaches, many managers will simply discourage any political discussion to minimize potential conflict, but doing so may leave them missing out on the benefits of facilitating healthy discourse. But, as this Gallup article highlights, this is not without risk. Political discussions can help employees feel included and even bring colleagues closer together, especially if they share similar views or leave discussions where there is disagreement having felt heard and respected despite the disagreement. When your employees are already engaged, political discussions are more likely to be perceived as opportunities for deeper understanding and camaraderie. However, for some employees, political conversations can lead to discomfort, feelings of exclusion, or perceived unfair treatment exacerbating existing disengagement. By proactively managing the workplace atmosphere, leaders can help mitigate the negative impacts of political discussions while fostering a more inclusive and engaging environment during the election season:
Promote Respect and Inclusion: Encourage a culture of respect where all voices are heard, regardless of differing political views.
Foster Trust: Build an environment where employees feel safe to express different opinions without fear of retaliation.
Set Clear Expectations: Establish guidelines for managing political discussions to ensure respectful behavior and address any issues that arise.
Combatting Disengagement
🔗 Employee Well-being Hinges on Management, not Work Mode 🔗
Gallup and Workhuman's research reveals that while flexible work arrangements like remote and hybrid models are popular, they do not automatically improve employee wellbeing. Effective management practices are crucial to fostering a thriving workforce regardless of work mode. They highlight three human-centric management practices that managers can use to support employee wellbeing, regardless of where work is performed:
Establish Clear Expectations: Clear, communicated expectations reduce stress and burnout, improving work-life balance.
Set Realistic Performance Goals Together: Collaborative goal setting helps employees manage workloads and maintain healthy boundaries.
Uplift Employees Through Recognition: Recognizing achievements, both work-related and personal, boosts morale and conveys that the organization values employee wellbeing.
🔗 For Ambitious Employees, A Viable Career Path Can Make Up for a Just-OK Manager 🔗
This MIT Sloan Review article underscores the importance of career growth opportunities in retaining talent, especially as employees shift focus from immediate concerns to long-term career development. New data from Culture Amp reveals that "career opportunities" have surged to become the second-strongest driver of employee commitment in 2023, up from seventh place in 2021. The findings also highlight that 60% of employees with a great leader but a poor manager are committed to staying, compared to 38% with a great manager but a poor leader. As the freelance market expands, with 38% of U.S. workers freelancing in 2023, organizations face increasing pressure to provide clear career progression to retain their skilled workforce. MIT Sloan notes that by aligning employees' career ambitions with organizational growth strategies, leaders can enhance engagement and retain top talent even in times of economic uncertainty. Here’s how:
Communicate Vision and Growth: Leaders must clearly articulate how employees’ growth aligns with the company's strategic goals.
Demonstrate Employee Value: Regularly show how employees contribute to the company's success and keep them informed about opportunities.
Create Structured Career Paths: Develop transparent pathways for career advancement within the organization to keep ambitious employees engaged and committed.
🔗 Unlocking Organizational Communication: Five Ways to Ignite Employee Engagement 🔗
This McKinsey & Company article provides strategies for leaders to enhance communication and foster a more engaged workforce, particularly relevant for nonprofits uniquely positioned to leverage their mission to address workers’ need for purpose. Here’s a summary of the five approaches:
Embed Communications at the Core of Your Role: Leaders should prioritize clear, compelling messages that rally teams around a unifying theme or purpose. In nonprofit settings, this means consistently communicating the organization's mission in a way that inspires staff and aligns their efforts with the organization's goals.
Talk in Your Audience’s Language: Using language that resonates with the team fosters a sense of belonging and validation. For nonprofits, this involves speaking in terms that reflect shared values and the organization's mission, ensuring communication is inclusive and relevant to all members.
Converse With, Not At, Your Audience: Engaging in two-way communication fosters inclusion and empowerment. Nonprofit leaders should regularly seek input from staff and volunteers to understand their motivations and concerns, helping to align individual contributions with the broader mission.
Make Technology Your Assistant, Not Your Boss: While technology can enhance communication, maintaining a human touch is crucial, especially in nonprofits where trust and authenticity are key. Leaders should use technology to support but not replace direct, personal interactions that build stronger, mission-driven relationships.
Always Bring It Back to Purpose: Aligning organizational and individual purpose is essential to drive engagement and fulfillment. In a nonprofit context, this means consistently connecting everyday work to the organization's mission, helping staff see the direct impact of their efforts and reinforcing their commitment to the cause.
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