A Conversation Over Coffee
One of the most interesting parts of my job, and the one I look forward to the most, is sitting down and having a one-on-one conversation with our clients. Not in a formal setting or with an agenda, but in a simple conversation over a cup of coffee. As CEO, it’s important for me to get unfiltered feedback from our clients to understand what we do well and where we fall short. Combined, that gives us a continuous improvement cycle with data from the people whose opinion of our solution matters most – our users.
When I get these opportunities, we generally talk about several topics, and I’d like to share some of what I have learned from these friends in recent months.
The first question really gets the conversation going, and in these calls I am generally speaking to the head of HR or the head of Compliance, depending on where the system lands in their company. Occasionally I am speaking to both!
I ask them about the general trends they are seeing, how those trends are impacting their business, and if we can help. It should come as no surprise to anyone that for the past two years it was all about COVID and closing offices, dealing with work from home issues, re-opening offices, mask mandates, people who won’t wear masks, vaccinations, people who won’t get vaccinated…
Communication and Retention
As life begins to look more like it did pre-pandemic, the top concerns have shifted. One concern that is at or near the top of almost everyone’s list in these conversations is navigating through the “Great Resignation.” What interested me the most is that not all see it as a threat; some see it as an opportunity, and some see it as both.
Some interesting data comes into the conversation with those clients for whom we manage their stay and exit interview processes. When employees returned to work, especially in companies that reopened offices for on-premises work, it was after a period where the company had been getting little employee feedback - at least less than prior to COVID.
In 2020 and 2021, fewer companies stuck with their traditional employee feedback processes like annual, quarterly, and monthly goal setting. In these cases, employees returned to the office and felt somewhat rudderless. Many employees felt lost and tried to find direction somewhere else.
This was particularly true for lower-level positions, even what traditionally might be called entry-level positions. Those are now viewed as some of the most difficult to fill! Entry-level employees took the hardest and fastest hit in general and perceived themselves as disposable without guidance and goal setting from their higher-ups. Direction, feedback, and acknowledgment are the three levers that most help these employees avoid the disposable feeling. When they have clear goals, feedback on their progress, and positive reinforcement, retention is much higher.
What does that tell us? First, even entry-level employees need to feel valuable and not disposable. You can accomplish that with clear goal setting, helping them with feedback, and acknowledging their growth. Second, if you’re not doing exit interviews – start now!
The Cost of Employee Retention
The second concern I heard the most from clients was related to pay. This seemed to center on several areas of the organization, with the biggest outlier being IT resources.
Compensation increases for IT resources, particularly developers and cloud engineers, have dwarfed pay increases in other areas, and the gap seems to increase every day. This puts resources at risk of leaving that were happy 6 months ago and are suddenly unmotivated and disgruntled.
One client reflected on this and commented that the raises they needed to give just for retention consumed more than their entire IT budget for growth in 2022. In other words, they had budgeted a “normal” pay increase for their IT resources, but the minimum raise for retention was 4-5x. They had also planned growth in the department which has been scuttled to repurpose the money for the new hires into raises for the current staff.
Now, just 60 days later, they are having retention issues because the workload is not allowing a sufficient work-life balance. They’re losing them, and they can’t replace them. It will be interesting to see how this challenge sorts out. Maybe I’ll keep asking in my conversations over coffee and report back as things progress…
The ETHIX360 blog brings you weekly updates on all things human resources and compliance.
MEET THE AUTHOR
J Rollins is the co-founder and CEO of ETHIX360. J is a well known leader and innovator who has served on senior leadership teams ranging in responsibility from Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, SVP of Product Strategy and Chief Operating Officer.
ABOUT ETHIX360
At ETHIX360, our goal is simple: to provide an affordable, flexible, and comprehensive answer to employee communication, policy management, corporate training and case management on issues related to corporate ethics, code of conduct, fraud, bribery, and workplace violence.
