Articles
What Makes Employees Mad - Part II | What Makes Employees Mad - Part III
Workplace Wrath: Using Anger to Build | All Praise to the Supervisor | Listen First
Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions | The Emperor’s New Clothes - Providing Negative Feedback
Practicing Safe Stress | The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Recognition
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Recognition
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Opportunity to Do My Best
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part IV – Employer Expectation
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Employee Opinions
The Pied Piper of Employee Retention Part II – Tools and Equipment

Published March 2002
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention
Caring Supervisor

Will the downturn of the economy eject employees from the driver’s seat –from having unlimited options to unemployment lines? Are the concerns about employee retention decreasing and will management now be free to return to autocratic and insensitive practices? Does belt tightening require a corresponding squeezing of attitudes?

In the book entitled First Break All the Rules, the authors, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, write about a survey conducted by the Gallup Poll using the responses of over 100,000 employees. With the expertise of this world-famous polling organization they were able to establish a list of questions which directly related to employee retention. Today’s retention questions “Does my immediate supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?”

A fundamental shift in values began in the eighties with the concepts of the Total Quality Management movement and corresponding but unrelated “re-engineering” organizational changes. With the elimination of many middle management positions, companies now had to rely on decisions made on the shop floor – decisions formally reserved for ivory tower management. In order to accomplish this fundamental shift in power a corresponding adjustment in attitudes was required. Management could no longer view employees as interchangeable parts. Labor could not afford the luxury of no responsibility toward the bottom line. No longer could an adversarial and sometimes hostile relationship exist between labor and management. With an ever-increasing competition in global markets everyone was forced to be on the same team.

Part of the MindSpring Company’s Values & Beliefs is “We respect the individual, and believe that individuals who are treated with respect and given responsibility respond by giving their best”. If this is indeed a true fact of human nature and if a company would adopt this philosophy as one of their guiding principals of behavior, then for most companies a change would be necessary. For this concept to become a living and breathing value, this attitude must transcend economic conditions, good or bad. Regardless of the economic weather outside - the atmosphere in this company is warm!

“Does my immediate supervisor seem to care about me as a person?” is the question of this month’s column. Although employees seldom verbalize this concept, according to the statical data collected by the Gallup Poll it is a powerful awareness held by employees (Gallup Poll also states that this question has a direct relationship with business success).

Once I was discussing a supervisor training contract with a business manager, I was shown a file cabinet filled with job applications. The manager informs me he does not value supervisory training because “if they do not like it here, I can replace them”. That attitude puts supervisors in a difficult position, increases employee dissatisfaction, and places corporate profits at risk. Do some organizations expect their supervisors to obtain their skills by osmosis, invisible airborne particles, or maybe family inheritance?

Metaphorically speaking the supervisor is where the rubber meets the road. No matter how wonderful the automobile, if the treads on the tire is not sufficient, control of the vehicle is very difficult - –especially in difficult conditions. We are now entering a difficult time of economic slow down and how good the corporate treads are will dictate how successful the company is in navigating on these slick business roads. When evaluating this Gallup poll, Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman stated: “Employees respond differently depending upon which business unit they were in rather than the company. Employee’s immediate supervisor rather than the company created impressions. Managers – not pay, benefits, perks, or charismatic corporate leader- were the critical players in building a strong workplace. The manager was the key.” In short, most employees leave supervisors not companies!

All through history great leaders have inspired their followers by obviously caring about them. Today’s supervisor must exemplify that attitude by demonstrating a caring personal attitude. The Pied Piper of Employee Retention will play his employee turnover tunes regardless of the economy and with profit margins stretched even tighter, a good employee’s value increases and the supervisor’s ability to keep the Pied Piper from corporate doors will prove a vital element of corporate success.