WHY CREDIBLE COMMUNICATION LIES AT THE HEART OF PLUGGING YOUR TALENT DRAIN
Photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash
Is your organisation still losing great people? If you’re not feeling it directly, perhaps your clients are experiencing the ongoing pain of staff turnover on a scale we’ve never seen before.
We know good people are leaving solid jobs and attracting new ones is getting harder.
Things are likely to get tougher before they start to improve. In a December 2022 webinar titled The Human Organization: Pulling the Fragmented Workforce Together, Gartner predicted turnover will be 20% higher in the foreseeable future thanks to lower barriers to job switching and more opportunity.
Gartner has also identified the top reasons for people leaving:
1. Poor management
2. Respect
3. Work-life balance
And the top factors that attract employees? Location, work-life balance and respect.
As a leader, you mightn’t have full control over a team member’s sense of balance in their life or the location and flexibility of their role. But you can directly contribute to the culture of the business by your approach to communication and the quality of the relationships you cultivate.
These factors don’t require structural changes or high-cost investments; they involve the choices you make every minute, every hour, when you interact with people across your organisation.
I firmly believe that terrible communication plays a huge part in the “poor management” cited by Gartner as the main reason people leave.
The way you communicate can directly affect whether an outstanding employee hands in their notice or decides to stick around.
There’s always been a need for credible communication from leaders - but it’s especially relevant right now. Your organisation isn’t only competing for good staff based on pay and conditions. You’re competing with a new attitude to work itself, one that emerged during extended periods of enforced working from home when workers “could be their authentic selves”, as Gartner puts it.
The Wall Street Journal calls it a reset in the relationship between employees and employers – one that’s challenging even for companies that don’t usually struggle to attract great people.
In your organisation, what’s the impact of losing large numbers of staff? It’s likely to be corporate history walking out the door, the extra cost of recruitment campaigns that might come up empty, onboarding new people and low morale among those who remain.
If you could stem the tide, even a little, wouldn’t it be worth it?
2023 is a great time to level up your skills as a credible communicator.
Dr Neryl East is a professional speaker and executive coach who shows leaders how to be heard, stand out and command influence. Connect with Neryl on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neryleast/
