If you’ve ever spent a Valentine’s Day night in front of the TV, a big bowl of popcorn in your lap, with a bad romantic comedy on the television, you know the big conflict in nearly every one of the movies: One of the characters refuses to commit.
With more than 50 percent of marriages ending in divorce and job turnover rates in many industries at staggering levels, you might say we’re in something of a commitment crisis these days. But it hasn’t always been that way: Remember, back in the day, when couples stayed together forever, and students would graduate from college and start a job with the company they’d eventually retire from, some 50 years later?
There’s a lot of talk out there about how employees can be more committed to their jobs, how to rise above their competition and keep their jobs in a persistently difficult employment climate.
Why isn’t there more talk about employers committing to their employees?
According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), the biggest challenges facing HR professionals in the near future aren’t in dealing with problem employees. Rather, the challenges are in hanging on to the best employees and developing them into leaders. The other big challenge is fostering corporate cultures that attract high-achieving employees to organizations.
It’s encouraging to see challenges like this — they’re all about committing to employees. So with Valentine’s Day in mind…how will you commit to your employees this year?
Offer Mentorships
Offer your commitment to your employees by pledging yourself to making them better at their jobs. Whether you’re offering your time to individuals directly or putting a program in place to create a structure of leaders educating future leaders, investing in mentorship and staff development shows employees you really care about their success.
Celebrate Your Employees Internally
Make an example of your employees — but not when they do wrong. Celebrate your employees’ achievements instead of only punishing their failures, and make sure other employees know when one of their colleagues has succeeded!
Doing so can create even more of a team environment and even foster a little healthy competition among your employees as they jockey for the next opportunity for your recognition.
Recognize Your Employees Publicly
The comment card and suggestion box may have gone the way of the dodo, but “employee of the month” could still be alive and well. Only now you can tell everyone: Use social media to recognize your employees’ achievements publicly!
Post a photo of a smiling employee who’s done a fantastic job for you, and talk about how important they are to your success — your customers and clients will see your commitment to your employees, and it will lift everyone within your company up in their eyes.
Reward Employees
You don’t have to regularly give out huge raises to your employees to show your commitment to them. Sometimes, a surprise — like a Restaurant.com Gift Card or a small bonus — can go a long way, and it costs a lot less than systematic pay increases.
Offering tokens of your appreciation at random means a lot to employees and may help them strive to be better every day.
Bottom Line: It Pays To Commit
What will it cost you to show your commitment to your employees? That depends, but it probably won’t cost as much as it would to find new ones after losing those you weren’t committed to: The average cost of replacing an employee is up to 20 percent of their annual salary!
I read a quote recently: “The truest form of love is how you behave toward someone, not how you feel about them.”
You can say you’re committed to your employees and their success, but if you aren’t showing them, they’ll never know. The best way to ensure your employees’ commitment to you is to offer them the same.
How are you committing to your employees?
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