How to be a S.M.A.R.T. Employer

When searching for employees, hiring managers are looking for individuals with strong technical skills, communication skills, team players etc. So why shouldn’t employees be looking for these same traits from their employer? Well they should and they are.

One of the most timely and costly expenses a company goes through is turnover. You found the perfect candidate, hired him/her and all has been going well for the past year. Well, in your eyes as the employer it is, but what’s really going on with Susie? Well if you were a fly on the wall you would find out that Susie is bored. She feels that her role lacks the challenges that were promised to her a year ago during her interview. Susie knows that she has a lot to bring to the table, but after countless failed communication efforts with senior management, her frustration is becoming worse every day. So where do we go from here? Well more than likely Susie has been interviewing and will shortly be working for another employer that she hopes will keep those promises of a challenging opportunity. Where does that leave you, the employer? It leaves you with an empty position and marks another expensive notch on the chalkboard to add to your turnover ratio. According to industry estimates, it can cost an employer 1.5 – 3 times the amount of an individual’s annual salary to replace them.

The following will help provide you with ways to improve your relationship with your employees and most importantly, retain the talent you hired.

Supervision

You’ve worked your way up the corporate ladder, have a fancy title and a nice office, now kick back, relax and let your team do the work. Sounds like a great job, but you won’t have a team for long…or possibly a job yourself. To be a successful supervisor, it is important to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. This will enable you to have a physical connection to the process you are supervising. It is essential to get to know the members of your team, their strengths, weaknesses, personalities and who works best together. Keep in mind that every person is different.

Some employees succeed by being micro managed. In these cases, sit down with your employee and set up weekly and monthly goals to be achieved. Stay close with your employee and let them know how they are doing, and if there is room for improvement as soon as you see. Waiting three months down the road to tell your employee that their work product needs improvement, isn’t going to get either of you far.

Other employees work better individually. Give them their tasks, and as long as all is going well, let them do their job. Check in with them periodically (every two weeks, unless otherwise needed) to verify that things are on track. It will show them that you are there to support them if needed, but trust that they will complete the job successfully on their own.


Motivation
Let’s be honest, every employee would love to get a pat on their back from their employer with a big fat bonus check, but in today’s economy, keep dreaming. As an employer you need to realize that people are trained to expect rewards for doing a good job. Think back to when you were 5 years old and your parents said “Now if you keep quiet through dinner tonight, we’ll give you a lollipop!” Unfortunately giving your employee a lollipop isn’t going to cut it these days, but another form of a reward can.

One of the largest complaints employees have is being overworked. Reward your employee by giving him/her incentives such as gift certificates to local restaurants or places they can enjoy. Don’t have any money to spend? Something that they will appreciate even more is time off. Most families these days consist of working parents. Give your employee a day off here and there as a reward for a job well done, allowing him/her to spend time with family…work/life balance goes a long way.

Attitude
Having a positive attitude is always best, but realistically everyone has bad days. You need to learn that when you walk into the office, hang up your baggage on the tree outside, and pick it up on your way back out. Once you start bringing negative energy into the office, it rubs off quickly. Do your best to keep a clean slate because you may not realize that you are taking out your problems on your employees, thus creating a negative environment within the team.

Retention
You have a great team and things have been moving along nicely for the past three years in your eyes. Well what you don’t know is that 3 of your 5 team members are currently looking for new jobs. Those promises for your employees during their hiring process of “multiple challenges” and “increased responsibility” turned into a challenge that they could conquer in their sleep and a slightly expanded list of responsibilities. So how do you fix this problem? First, don’t make promises you can’t keep. Second, learn your employees’ desires and capabilities by creating an individualized goal path for each of them. Finally, take action…we all know actions speak louder than words.

Training
The final party of being a S.M.A.R.T. employer is to focus on training. Every day you hear of new certifications, educational seminars and advanced education programs that are offered. Do some research and find out which programs would benefit your employee that will in turn benefit your team and organization as a whole. Encourage them to learn other angles of your internal departments within the organization. By providing the appropriate training, you are setting your employees up to achieve the next goal on their career path within your organization, rather than unknowingly forcing them to look elsewhere for that “next step.”

So if you noticed, being S.M.A.R.T. isn’t that difficult. These days employers seem to get wrapped up with long conference calls and emails and inadvertently lose the connection with their employees. A brief face to face meeting once a week isn’t too much to ask to keep your team enticed. It’s about keeping everyone engaged with lines of communication open throughout all levels of the organization.