Increasing Employee Retention Through Meaningful Work
I applied for a job as a Community Relations Assistant at my local library fresh out of college, where I majored in social work with minors in English and theatre. While I saw myself as well-rounded but directionless, they saw someone who was creative, reliable, and detail-oriented — and they referenced those skills as they developed my role in the organization. Over the next few months, with zero prior experience, I learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign to create monthly library newsletters, helped organize and run a variety of library events, took over coordinating over 100 library volunteers, and learned how to hang an art gallery wall, among many other things. I regularly felt challenged, valued, and fulfilled as my supervisor trusted me with more and more responsibilities.
Recent studies show that employees most often leave their jobs because they are offered greater opportunities for career development, work-life balance, and better-paying positions elsewhere. The employee-employer relationship is also a huge factor, with many people citing bad management practices as a reason they left prior positions as well. There are countless reasons to leave a job or company, but I believe a lot of these reasons can tie back to an employee’s desire to be entrusted with meaningful work.
WHAT EXACTLY IS MEANINGFUL WORK?
Consider an entry level part-time sales associate in a retail company. They spend their day greeting customers, selling products, handling minor complaints, etc. and then they go home. The responsibility and pay are relatively minimal, but for many employees, the hours are few and flexible so it works especially well for students or those with other demands outside of work.
As a manager for this retail company, you become concerned with a recent dip in sales. You run the numbers and gather some data to show recent sales trends. You begin implementing some ideas to improve sales based on the numbers. Some tactics result in a brief boost of sales but overall, the improvements are not sustained.
While numbers are great, you are missing a huge opportunity: the valuable input from your sales associates. Yes, the position is low in the company hierarchy, but consider their skills: perhaps one is an honors student at high school, and driven enough to keep a part time job while working toward graduation; perhaps one is in college, majoring in marketing and can bring valuable and applicable knowledge to the organization; perhaps another is easing back into working after taking time off to raise kids, but had years of experience in sales before taking a hiatus. Moreover, your entire team is great at connecting with customers, lending a valuable view into who is purchasing the product, why, and what is stopping them from buying it.
If you want to look beyond the quantitative data, perhaps ask the sales associates for THEIR input. Perhaps ask them to start keeping track of their own observations for sales trends and customer interactions. Perhaps set a follow up meeting a week or two in the future to discuss their findings and suggestions. Perhaps let THEM make a plan and drive the follow-through.
These additional responsibilities could be considered “meaningful work.”
To determine if the work assigned is meaningful, ask yourself:
- Will the assignment lead to further knowledge or growth for the employee?
- Is it in a field that they want to grow in?
- Can they grow in the company in this area? Is the ability for rising in rank clear for their department/role?
- Can they FINISH the project, which will bring a sense of satisfaction?
- Are you demonstrating TRUST in the employee? And with that, have you set clear expectations to set them up to win?
- Does it build upon their strengths?
- Will it help them see how they individually are helping to build and benefit the company?
In the case of the sales associates, inviting them to contribute in more meaningful, impactful ways offers the company not only immediate and invaluable input, but also increasingly loyal employees, lower turnover rates, and employees with the drive and passion to grow with the company, even into management and corporate positions where applicable. This saves the company a significant amount of money by reducing hiring, onboarding, and training costs at the very least.
In turn, the employees themselves feel more valued and find great satisfaction in the work they’ve completed. Their continued input and value to the team could lead to pay raises, an increase to full time hours, and promotions as management sees fit.
There are a lot of reasons why employees choose to stay at or leave a company. I can say with certainty, though, that if an employee finds no value or fulfillment in a role, their contribution will be far less and they probably won’t last long. When employees are given meaningful work, both the employee and employer reap the rewards.
HOW TO START
Each company is unique, and the tasks and contributions of employees will vary. Here are some ideas to get you started on assigning meaningful tasks to employees, but I encourage you to really ponder the needs of your company, the tasks that some individuals handle that could be better suited for others, and areas in which you can mentor lower level employees to help them grow and benefit the company.
Some ideas:
- Seek ongoing feedback: Consult the team regularly. They know the work best — they’re IN it every day and can give very valuable feedback. Consider implementing regular department or company-wide meetings, or creating a way for employees to submit feedback in another way.
- Developing more efficient processes and protocol: Invite a high performing team member to consider better techniques, processes, and protocols to help their work flow more smoothly, increase productivity, etc. Set a follow up meeting. If the plan seems viable, invite them to implement the new process.
- Cost saving research: Invite a finance-savvy or detail-oriented team member to help review some of the financials. Are there expenses that can be eliminated or replaced with a less expensive alternative?
- Researching new tools: Is there a better app or software to help the team do work better? Invite them to explore this and find what works best for their work.
As you begin inviting employees to stretch a bit in their roles, be sure to convey detailed instructions, expectations, and make yourself (or another qualified individual) available to answer questions as needed to set them up to succeed. Consider yourself or another individual as a mentor to the employee. Be patient as the employee learns the new task or skill. If the employee seems to be excessively struggling with the new task or skill or seems to have lost enthusiasm with this added assignment, you’ll be able to learn more about your employee and can perhaps consider a better fitting role for them in the company — or maybe they weren’t the best fit in your company to begin with. Either way, you will both learn from this opportunity.
TRUST
Give them an opportunity to earn your trust.
What if you don’t want to put too much trust into the hands of your lower level employees?
I would suggest giving your employees a chance. Let them surprise you. While you may be able to perceive someone’s work ethic and skill set immediately, this may also be an area where you may have to take a step into the dark. Give them an opportunity to earn your trust. Try giving an employee an opportunity to go above and beyond their usual daily tasks. This means giving them meaningful work — even just a single additional task or responsibility — that will stretch them. This will give them an opportunity to earn your trust, and trust is one of the most fundamental elements of a healthy working relationship (for more about this, check out The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey).
Trust must be earned, but it also has to be offered and practiced. How can trust be earned if it’s not offered to someone else? Additionally, how can you expect to trust someone if you aren’t trustworthy in return? Look inward first before expecting it from others.
Consider your own trustworthiness:
- Your words and actions are aligned — you talk the talk and walk the walk.
- Along those same lines, you’re consistent.
- You’re reliable — if you say you’re going to do something, you do it.
- You’re honest.
- You are always respectful of others.
- You take accountability — if you mess up, you apologize and make things right with everyone.
You can’t expect characteristics or values in others that you don’t hold yourself. That said, we’re all works in progress and we can always work to be more trustworthy in each new interaction.
CONCLUSION
I found out after the fact that before I became the Community Relations Assistant, the role was essentially folding newsletters and sitting quietly for hours at the front desk. My immediate manager, the Community Relations Coordinator, was the one who fought to develop the role — and the people who filled that role — into far more. Since coming into her role at the Provo City Library, Erika Hill has organized and hosted hundreds of events, facilitated the opening of an art gallery in the library, coordinates and installs new art exhibits in the space quarterly, constructed and opened a mixed media lab, and has surely accomplished a thousand other things that I don’t even know about. She is making amazing things happen for the library and bringing her trusted team along with her. Her boss trusts her with meaningful work, and she trusts her employees with the same.
A large part of increasing employee retention comes down to trusting your employees with meaningful work. The possibilities are endless and truly unique to the company and the individual employees. Try making this part of your company culture and see how your company — and the individuals within it — grow. And let me know if you need a gallery wall hung, because I’m amazing at it.
Source:
Mauer, R. (2018, December 12). Why Are Workers Quitting Their Jobs in Record Numbers? Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org
