Picture your top four employees. Now imagine two of the four leave.
What would it take for you to replace them? I don't just mean fill their open positions. I mean find two people who will provide your company the same value as the two who just left.
How long would it take? How much would it cost? What would you do in the meantime? What impact might it have on your remaining top people?
According to Gallup, half of all workers are currently looking to leave their jobs.
That's a bit scary. Especially when you consider the fact that replacing an employee who leaves can cost your company 90% to 200% of that person's annual salary. If your top two people each make $60,000 a year, it will cost between $108,000 and $240,000. Ouch!
So, how can you make your workplace more sticky, a place people are loathe to leave?
One often overlooked way is to help employees find purpose in their work. In fact, according to McKinsey & Company, businesses that foster a connection between their employees and their mission grow twice as fast as their competitors and achieve gains in both employee retention and customer trust.
Here are three ways to connect employees to your company's mission.
Make Your Mission Meaningful
If your mission is full of business-speak and all about beating out your competitors, most employees won't connect with it. Frankly, the don't really care about the competition and most will only roll their eyes at business-speak. A well-written mission statement is a rallying cry. It inspires employees to care, to do their best work, and to stay engaged.
Discover Your Team Members' Values
Every day every employee comes to work with a grid of personal values through which they pass their experiences, encounters, relationships, and responsibilities. They my not have consciously thought through those values, but they still form the foundation of their reactions to their workplace.
Helping your employees discover their values will uncover why the feel, think, and act the way they do on the job. It will also give you insight into how to talk with them about the mission of the organization in such a way that it will resonate with them.
Connect the Dots
Do your team members understand how their every day tasks help fulfill the mission of the organization? Do they see how accomplishing the mission can be an expression of their own personal values? If not, you've got some explaining to do. From your COO to your receptionist, employees want to know they are making a difference, the kind of difference they care about. Help them connect the dots between their values, their responsibilities and the results your organization achieves and your people will stick.
Would it be helpful to have a partner on your journey to become a stickier workplace? I'd be happy to have a conversation with you about what that could look like. Click here to set up a call.