The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

With everyone in the nation’s capitol atwitter about a soon-to-be ex Senator’s admission to having taken a “wide stance”, we’ve decided to take a position on the subject, too. No, not the wide stance that is gaining Larry Craig more fame than he yearned for, but the one many corporations take in their effort to boost employee retention.

Hardly a week goes by that we’re not asked to comment or give a speech on some aspect of improving workforce engagement or retention. We’re delighted by the opportunity to do so because it is smack in the middle of our “sweet spot.”

Too often, though, what we wind up hearing from the organization is that they are in search of yet one more program or initiative by which they might quickly and painlessly slay the problem of employees unplugging and taking their act elsewhere, or worse yet, just unplugging.

The bothersome aspect of this is that there isn’t any magical elixir that yields a focused, fired up, plugged in workforce. No pill to swallow, no initiative to launch. Deep down, everyone with more than an intern’s level of business acumen knows that, but we still keep searching and asking for the silver bullet solutions anyhow. We continue to cast about, adopting a plethora of programs that run a mile wide and about an inch deep. Wide stance (lots of goofy, frilly, faddish stuff) and very little substance.

Employee engagement is not (repeat, NOT) about programs, but about commitment, attitude, and execution. It is about having the fortitude to say that we’re going to treat people a certain way around here, and meaning it. It’s about treating people as the intelligent adults we thought them to be when we hired them, rather than turning them into idiots by refusing to give them real responsibility and expecting them to think. Trust us on this one… far more people quit jobs because they are bored silly than because the company lacks pet friendly workspace.

Employee engagement comes from having a winning attitude that resides in every crevice of the organization. People know that having a spot on a winning roster is something special, and they’ll think twice before giving it up. And it comes from executing every day - doing all the little mundane things that make Acme Widget Company a great place to work, and an even greater place to do business.

Your comments as always are welcome.

Godspeed!

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