Whether it’s reflecting on the last 8 months and putting in some new goals for the remaining year or looking outwards to the new year, September always feels like a fresh start.  I read an article this morning about HR trends in 2019 that leaders should be starting to think about. The primary theme, which was no surprise, is that there is a talent shortage and

Focusing on your beyond day 1 is a critical piece when it comes to retaining your superstar talent and yes, the hardest part. It typically involves change management and a radical shift in our way of thinking. It means asking yourself the hard questions, answering honestly and then coming up with a multi pronged plan to execute. This is what the great companies of the world are constantly doing, they self reflect on a regular basis and ask themselves what they can do to improve. They see their culture as a living and breathing thing that is constantly evolving.

While these great companies take years to build their culture its never too late to self reflect. So, in the spirit of the September fresh start ask yourself these 3 questions and answer honestly:

1. Does my team understand their purpose in the organization or their department?
2. Does my team understand where we want to go as an organization?
3. What is our organization offering and doing to engage our superstars?

Once you’re through that exercise come up with 1 actionable item that you want to work towards to improve on the gap you may have identified.

For example, maybe on question 1 you identified that during your new hire orientation its not clearly outlined how departments in your organization interact and why certain steps in a prescribe process are important. Your actionable item could be for a new hire to spend a few hours or a day in a different department.

Or maybe you realize on question 3 that you’re spending too much time on the under performers that you are neglecting your superstars. Your actionable item could be to simply go up to your high performers this week and recognize them individually for their contributions.

Regardless of how you answer the above questions, your superstars and people are the biggest asset in your organization. As a leader you continually re-evaluate your business goals and targets and you have to do the same with your people strategy. 

I’ve been in the workforce for some time now and have worked with a multitude of clients to help them transform the workplace. Most of the work has been focused on creating an amazing customer experience and helping our clients adopt a culture of continuous improvement. In all our work, we press upon the importance of bringing the strategy to employees as the missing piece. After all, its the employees who executes the goals set by leaders. So when I read an article the other day entitled “Employees deserve the same digital experience your provide Customers“ by Alan J. Porter it struck a cord.

Over the last 5 years, technology has disrupted the customer experience. Whether it’s changing the way we commute, the way we interact as humans or simply the way we shop; technological innovations have thrown the traditional “customer experience” for a loop, so why hasn’t the same happened for the tools we ask our employees to use? Often when I’m working with our clients and their front line to implement a new and improved CX strategy we are bogged down by antiquate internal tools. Whether its old PCs that can’t run the latest web browsers or bad looking software that takes hours to load.

As business leaders continue to strategize and plan for increasing efficiencies through the adoption of a digital tool they absolutely must consider all of their end users, not just the customer. Abandon the legacy systems that offer terrible user experiences and before adopting any new technology collaborate with members of your staff. Getting their input on the user experience will not only increase engagement when it is rolled out but it will also go a long in engaging employees. Beyond that, ridding yourself of legacy systems will absolutely increase productivity and decrease levels of frustration your employees may currently experience.

Lastly if your one of those leaders who hasn’t made the transition to having online tools for your employees, make the shift – it’s 2018.

Look around your dealership. For every 10 employees you see, chances are only six of them feel engaged.

That tally comes courtesy of a massive employee engagement study by Aon Hewitt, who surveyed 5 million employees across 1,000 organizations worldwide.

Results showed that just 63 per cent or 6 out of 10 employees feel engaged; only 24 per cent of that group reported feeling highly engaged.

How successful do you think you can be running at 60 per cent?

Dealers who focus their attention on engaging their team will provide a better experience to their clients. According to the research, a five-point increase in employee engagement is linked to a three-point increase in revenue growth the subsequent year.

This makes sense because we know that engaged workers are smarter, faster and more eager to learn and help their clients. That’s hard evidence that engaging your workforce positively impacts your bottom line.

The study shows that in North America, the biggest opportunity for improvement lies in better performance management and improved rewards and recognition. Here are some quick wins that you can start implementing today. I have seen them in action so I know they can work for you too.

Rewards and Recognition
While it may come as no surprise that rewards are at the top of the list. There are things you can do to make an impact without making sweeping changes to the compensation structure. It’s not always about the money.

Social recognition is an easy and quick way to highlight and reinforce to your employees they have done a good job and you value their contributions.

This new-age way of saying thanks makes it easy for everyone to get involved. Recognition should not only fall on the shoulders of the manager.

Going one step further, leverage social media to recognize someone from your team. Try a monthly employee post (like a modern employee of the month program) where you highlight their years of service, ask them about their favourite car and point out what value they bring to the organization.

It’s a simple gesture but it goes a long way.

Performance Management
This has become an age-old concept. Ask 10 employees if they have had an annual performance appraisal and the answer will almost always be no.

I can’t tell you the number of times I hear from leaders who tell me they would like to do performance reviews but add that it is not top priority. This lack of importance for the process means it gets lost in the long list of things to do. And to top it all off, it is a daunting task.

The new-age workforce places a top value in knowing where they stand and how they are doing at all times!  They want to be coached and they want to learn.  Empowering your managers to hold weekly check-ins with your team will help deliver on that. Make this a habit.

Meet with your management team monthly to determine if there are issues with performance and build a quick action plan to get in front of the problems.  It is much easier to tackle something before the fire is started versus after. Make sure you stick with these meetings. Don’t just hold one and then stop. Make it a habit.

We know managers are busy, but we have to learn how to make time to develop our employees. We have to step out in front of employee engagement and work from the inside out. Make employee engagement a daily activity. That is your best bet and it’s worth your time.