Compensation is not always the solution to employee retention. Today’s businesses need to pay more attention to building strong relationships between the company and employees, especially in the period when the flow of “Great Resignation” is taking place around the world after the pandemic caused many recruiters and managers to feel bewildered.
If you’re considering a change in management, or are looking for ways to align the spirit of a team or build a unique corporate culture, here are three things you need to consider.
1. Employees leave not because of work but because of bad work experience.
Why do they want to leave?
Most of us feel satisfied and love our work when we join the company. But not many people leave without keeping those feelings. In fact, there are still individuals who leave because they find new challenges or attractive “invitations”, they change jobs but still keep the connection and good spirit with the old company.
However, that number is not much, a survey conducted by Gallup in 2021 showed that the top reason for employees to leave is due to the way the company’s management does not create attachment, creating a lot of feelings, negative emotions such as lack of motivation, failure to build good relationships with colleagues and management.
Nga Nguyen – Senior Customer Success Manager at EveHR shared that Vietnamese people do not lack talent, but Vietnamese companies have one of the highest turnover rates in Asia, over 20% for all industries and increased to 41.5% during the pandemic.
“Customer is king” is the working motto of many companies. Customer experience comes first, employee experience is rarely mentioned. A healthcare company is willing to sacrifice the health of its employees to serve its customers.
“In an employee experience life cycle, there are many touchpoints. Engagement is a touchpoint that greatly influences turnover.” – Photo source: Bobby Vu / Vietcetera.
Such conflict in actions and values is also known as “cognitive dissonance”. In the book Intercultural Management, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Phuong Mai said that this type of conflict can reduce labor productivity, creating “zombie” employees who are not motivated and engaged with the company.
Why do so many companies still accept this?
Many businesses think that they are ready to hire someone more suitable to replace “zombie” employees. However, it should be noted that the cost of money, time and continuous recruitment and training of new employees is not small. Not to mention the risks and opportunities lost in the recruitment and training process.
If the waiting time to “fill” the vacant position is too long, it can also cause problems in the internal process of operating the movement. A Gallup analysis has also proven that in order to achieve high performance, in addition to talent, the connection also requires long-term employee commitment (High performance = Talent + Engagement + Tenure).
Yes, the customer can be king! But employee experience and feelings are just as important. “Upgrading the employee experience not only benefits two parties but also all three parties: Customers, Company and Employees” – Ms. Nga said.
In fact, a new salesperson, no matter how good, is difficult to create trust for big customers like the salesperson who has connected and worked with them for a long time. Take care and treat the employee’s experience as if you were a customer of the company.
2. Need the title “Employee of the day/week”, not just “Employee of the month/year”
When society is changing, people’s perception is also gradually changing
In the past few years, on the media and social networks, people tend to share about everyday moments, encouraging a grateful lifestyle, “appreciating each moment”.
This is nothing new, in fact, this is a trend that has been around for a long time and is mentioned by many famous authors in their books. However, the long pandemic, which entails socio-economic changes, is a strong promoter of this trend. People gradually realized the importance of mental health and began to ask questions like “Do you really need to start chasing lofty goals?”
Because of that, a big change is needed in human resource management and employee experience design. Short-term records (by day/week, instead of month/year) are also starting to be focused. Efforts in the long run but without the appropriate recognition will turn into patience. Prolonged patience turns to dissatisfaction.
The short-term “dividing rewards” will help employees to be regularly recognized for their efforts as well as create a more balance for the team – where every small effort of each person deserves to be honored.
A study by Harvard Business Review also shows that not all efforts are reflective of great results, there are “silent” jobs. Therefore, giving the “Employee of the Year” award to certain individuals can be counterproductive because it is too competitive and causes dissatisfaction for the vast majority of other employees.
“Improving employee experience is a must-have, not a ‘nice-to-have’ (nice-to-have)” – Photo source: Bobby Vu / Vietcetera.
How to split the big reward?
The solution to this problem, at FPT, is an application where everyone can easily give Gold – a kind of reward point that can be converted into cash or gifts, vouchers, coupons, etc. In this way, colleagues and superiors can easily enjoy Gold for each other with compliments, thanks and encouragement anytime, anywhere. That observation and recognition, even a small one, is enough to make the co-worker have a happy and energetic day. Aren’t those seeds planted every day/week to build a strong relationship and work motivation for employees?
Those compliments are both an opportunity for people to interact with each other and as a thank you and acknowledge your efforts to them, so that they feel that they are the “Employee of the day” in your heart.
3. Let the compliments not be “passionate”
One of the “chronic” problems in creating a positive working environment in Vietnam is that the culture of giving compliments has not been really cared about and encouraged.
On the contrary, criticizing or complaining about bad points (although to some extent it is still necessary) is common and easily encountered in any office environment. This problem is so serious that many employees want to change jobs because of these negative emotions.
Giving bonus points with compliments and thanks as mentioned in part 2 can really “replace words”. However, sometimes sincere compliments are misunderstood as cliché.
Therefore, building a rewarding culture at FPT or any other company needs to flexibly apply many combination methods for the best results.
How to praise effectively
Ms. Nga Nguyen suggests the formula for writing compliments according to “STAR” so that the compliment really becomes the most effective and natural. In particular, a thank you and commendation must have the following elements:
- S – Situation: the context, the project, the program that makes me appreciate the efforts of the recipient.
- T – Task: the task they are assigned.
- A – Action: the action they did.
- R – Result: the result they achieved.
In addition, this needs to be taken care of and set an example for management positions, thereby creating a more familiar feeling for employees. This is especially true for companies that are large, have many different office locations, or span employee ages.
Nguồn tham khảo: Vietcetera
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