Motivation on the Run

Star workers tire of performing while others loaf | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

What if you found out that nearly half your department’s star performers - the dream employees you couldn’t imagine not relying on - were seriously looking for new jobs?

What would you do?

That’s a very good question and the answers carry significant weight, if you are the employer. Almost half of your key employees are actively trying to leave, and you can’t blame them. It’s your fault, according to this survey.

The survey, conducted by Leadership IQ, confirms the worst fears of employers. The best people are trying to leave, while of the worst, only 18% are looking to leave.

So what can you do? Focus on the couple of key people, rather than the masses! Find out what is happening with them, and make plans to retain them. Don’t wait for them to come into your office and give notice before you ask, “what can we do to keep you here?”

Peter Rea, a teacher at Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio, recalls a similar Gallup survey that confirms the Leadership IQ data. Here is what he says …

In a typical organization, twenty-eight percent of employees are highly engaged. “These are the people for whom it’s a career and not a job,” he said. “They’re the heart and soul of your company.”

Fifty-five percent of workers are less engaged. “For them, it’s a job, not a career,” he said. The remaining seventeen percent are not only disengaged; they are “actually working against the goals of the enterprise,” he said.

This is an area that requires the attention of senior management to resolve, but those middle managers must identify the people you absolutely can’t afford to lose.

The bottom line is … there is no employee that can’t be replaced, but at what cost to the organization?

[tags]motivation, leadership, management, engagement[/tags]