Picture this.
It’s 3 pm; a knock lands on your office door. You were daydreaming of an after-work Taco Tuesday night with friends. Now, you smile, look up, and wave in your favorite employee.
“C’mon, in.”
He closes the door. Uh oh.
“I quit.”
Ouch. You didn’t see that coming.
Truth is, when you first hear about this “new normal” after the pandemic, you never pictured a ‘Great Resignation’ led by the nation’s largest workforce (Millennials). But this new two-week notice is now part of a much bigger, more dangerous trend you’ve seen in the office.
What’s at stake?
The workplace is imploding.
Or at least it feels that way.
Here’s the biggest issue—your talent pool is now tiny. Record numbers of employees are still quitting around the nation.1 And the rest of team is stuck dealing with the fallout from months of childcare challenges born out of lockdowns. Even if you’re trying to create a great employee experience, company culture can take a massive hit.2
One thing’s for sure: you need a game plan for stopping the mass exit.3
Here it is.
5 secrets to keeping great employees
In a perfect world, employees are so engaged and excited they don’t want to leave.
Even in an imperfect world, several factors can help employees stay. Check out the list:
- DEX.
- Software.
- Make it simple.
- Set up check-ins.
- Start with metrics.
1. Digital employee experience.
In a word, you need people.
To keep them, retain them, and build them up. It’s why you’ve invested in the company culture. And with culture having taken such a hit, you need to help employees to feel excited about work again.
How?
With a digital employee experience (DEX).
Start by finding weak points in the organization. Identify what’s needed to solve these areas and get to work. Then, use a purpose-built platform to change behaviors and create engagement across the team.
That’s how you scale.
In one fell swoop, you capture engagement, prevent churn, and improve the employee experience. In return, team members feel valued and stick around.
2. Software.
Here’s a stat.
Every 7 of 10 workers face at least one challenge with their software at work.4 So, if you’re struggling to find organizational weak points that a DEX can help fix, start with software.
How? Here’s one idea.
Lead out with an end-user survey. Ask which apps cause the most frustration and where users feel they need more support.
Next, provide continual (ongoing) training on those topics and help employees track their progress so they can see improvement over time. You’ll see your software efficiency skyrocket as employees get better, faster, easier, and more consistent.
3. Make it simple.
Start slow.
Remember, you’re running a marathon, not a sprint. Replace long, company-wide trainings, by assigning several 1-to-3-minute videos. Short, skill-building sessions will keep employees engaged, and help to change behaviors. Learning in small sets like this is easier to digest.
It’s a win-win.
4. Set up check-ins.
As you work to create a great employee experience, remember your own days as a newbie.
You start a new job—with new software, new systems, and new people to learn. You’re overwhelmed. So, what gives first? The software. That’s right, $260 of redundant or irrelevant software per computer5 is sitting unused on your company’s digital shelves — right now.
Do the math.
Let’s say you have 500 employees. That’s $260*500 employees = $130,000 of waste. Meanwhile, the cost to train every single one of those people is around $50k.
It’s much cheaper to train the whole team first, even before you count your team’s productivity gains from using software correctly.
Set up check-ins with your staff. Find out which applications they’re struggling with. Figure out the failure points; then, set them up for success with their software.
5. Start with metrics.
Things that are measured get fixed.
So, start with a dashboard. See how your top departments are doing quickly, and easily. Map software skill paths for the users you need to help get up to speed quickly. Then, build a baseline and track end-user progress for the next six months.
Are your people more efficient?
If not, then set a new goal. Imagine a 10, 20, or 30% lift in the numbers. What would it mean to your business to see that kind of increase in efficiency? How much more could you sell?
Likely … a lot.
Think about it this way. By investing in a digital employee experience platform that focuses on the human side of software adoption, you’ll improve your chances to keep great employees.
First step: to make your team successful from day one, set them up with a platform that makes doing their job that much easier. By so doing, you’ll differentiate your business, protect yourself from competitors, attract great employees — and you’ll keep them too.
Want help?
1. How companies can do more with a shrinking talent pool (Influence ecology)
2. Culture in the hybrid workplace (McKinsey)
3. Why companies struggle to find good talent during the great resignation (Forbes)
4. Software survey says workers are struggling (HR Dive)
5. How unused licenses are costing your company (Backupify)
