How To Hold On To Your Talent

Retaining talent is a major concern for most organisations – especially so, given all of the fevered speculation around ‘The Great Resignation’.

A survey conducted by Gallup showed us that, in any given year, less than one-third of employees would describe themselves as actively engaged and committed to their work.

Perhaps more worryingly, according to a new O.C Tanner report, most employees would quit their job today if offered a position at a different company with a similar role, pay and benefits.

But interestingly, when it comes to losing talent, pay and benefits is not the main culprit.

In fact, only 12% of people leave for more money whereas 79% of people quit their jobs because of a ‘lack of appreciation’.

The good news is that engaging with people more effectively is one element that leaders and managers have the power to change through a simple behaviour change.

This means that if you’re struggling with high attrition rates, you can help your leaders and managers to acquire the skills they need to keep your talent on board and shining brightly.

In fact, it’s been shown that if your leaders and managers were to do just one thing differently and that was to adopt an Operational CoachingTM approach into their everyday management style, they could improve their ability to retain their talented employees in just six months.

A large study carried out by the UK government in the height of the pandemic and then independently evaluated by the London School of Economics, found that the only difference between participating organisations who retained their talent during the study period and those who did not, was whether or not leaders and managers adopted an Operational CoachingTM approach as part of their everyday management style.

Participants of this randomised control trial were randomly split into a control group and an intervention group but only the intervention group had access to the multi-award winning online management development programme STAR® Manager in order to embed Operational CoachingTM skills into their management style.

From the study, LSE evaluated 35 different outcomes at the learner level and 14 organisation outcomes and in doing so discovered an interesting and positive trend that could help organisations hold on to their talent:

The intervention group employed MORE people and IMPROVED staff retention (which is indicative of improved engagement) in spite of the short 6-month measurement window in which most businesses were set on cutting back staff numbers due to the devastating impact of the pandemic.

The study highlighted that when leaders and managers adopted an Operational CoachingTM approach, their organisations experienced almost a zero loss of staff compared to much higher attrition rates in the control group who did not.

And, interestingly, almost half all of the successes experienced by the intervention group related to improved engagement and productivity.

“I used a coaching approach with one employee who wanted to leave the company. I actively listened and asked questions to help them to better understand what they wanted. As a result, they decided to stay and their decision to stay saved our project where they are an important member.”

“Since practising the STAR® model I’ve seen the motivation levels rise in my team.”

“I feel I am a better leader now than I was. My team is happier and they are more productive. They are achieving more without having to come to me for the solutions. I’ve used the tools and methodologies I’ve learned to get better overall results.”

“The conversations I’ve had with my colleagues have resulted in greater engagement, which has led to greater work productivity.”

“By asking insightful questions and engaging team members in discussions around decision making, I have started to get to know the team better and can see them more as potential allies in working towards a streamlined and effective service. By unleashing the potential within the team I can already see them take more ownership. The team is benefiting from personal and professional development and my time is freed up to think about future initiatives rather than always playing catch up, and the organisation benefits from having a happier and more effective team, leading to more robust and dependable services.”

“Wow! What a difference. I’ve always had a strained relationship with one of my team. We work together professionally, but we haven’t managed to build much rapport. I decided to try out my last Mission during our 1-to-1 and asked a question instead of giving advice; they immediately relaxed and started talking. I felt that we achieved more in that 1-to-1 than in the last 2 years working together.”

“I recently had a difficult conversation with a team member. Normally this type of conversation would have ended in me getting fairly angry, however, the tools learnt throughout the STAR® programme enabled me to actively listen and be much more constructive which resulted in a far better outcome for both of us.”

“This has been fantastic. It has helped me grow as a leader and has given me new skills and confidence that I can use at work and at home. It has made me look at the way I work and how I respond to my colleagues differently and has shown me that there are many different tools and ways that you can develop and engage with others.”

Notion’s STAR® Manager programme was at the centre of this government study and has been proven to generate changes in everyday management behaviours that increase productivity, performance and engagement in less than six months.

What we’ve also discovered from decades of client work, is that when leaders and managers address day-to-day, ‘matter at hand’ situations regularly using an Operational CoachingTM approach, they encourage greater levels of resilience, self-reliance, confidence, appreciation and trust which all contribute to higher levels of engagement and higher rates of retention.

So if you want to hold on to your talent, request a virtual tour to find out how STAR® Manager can help you to shine a light on the talent in your organisation in a way that gives your talented employees no reasons to leave and every reason to stay.

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We’d love to team up with strategic partners to help achieve our vision of transforming 1 million STAR® managers by 2025.

We partner with organisations all over the world, combining our unique experiences to create mutually beneficial and collaborative relationships. If you’d like to explore teaming up with us on this journey please do say hello and we’ll schedule an informal call.