One year. Did you know thatâs the average tenure of an employee at giants like Google and Amazon?
When the average salary for a Google software engineer is $111,149, you canât really argue that the tech giants underpay their employees. So why do good employees leave high-paying jobs so quickly, and what can companies do to combat it?
Harvard professor Teresa Amabile conducted a study observing the daily activities and motivations of several hundred employees over the course of a few years and found external incentives, such as salary and perks, have little to do with employee tenure.
She notes, âthe key to motivationâŚdoesnât depend on elaborate incentive systemsâ at all. In fact, Amabileâs study revealed the top motivator for employees is simple. Making progress.
âOn days when [employees] have the sense theyâre making [progress] in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive.â
â Teresa Amabile, Harvard Business Review
Seems simple enough. But, the difficulty for managers is that over time, as employees improve and grow in their jobs, the work that once was a challenge, that once represented making progress becomes routine. So, how can leaders make sure employees continue to make progress and are challenged?
The answer is to rethink how we think of âfeedbackâ at work. Feedback has come to be the dreaded synonym for constructive criticism. Itself, another synonym for stuff your boss wants changing.
If companies want to attract and retain the best talent, they have to get past this old-fashioned way of thinking, and moving toward what HR leaders call âa culture of feedbackâ but ultimately just means the ability to have honest conversations.
Ideally, a culture of feedback should be one which is frequent, quality and honest.
Regular peer-to-peer feedback builds a team culture of helping each other to achieve more. Not just manager-employee, not just because of a looming performance review.
A mechanism for employees to request feedback and advice from peers is crucial to helping your company become more transparent and supportive.
Peer feedback also gives employees the chance to demonstrate their expertise and offer others the opportunity to learn about what they do.
Through 360 feedback, employees are able to elicit more opinions and get a better view of how to grow.
According to Spotify, ââŚeveryone needs [autonomy] to own and drive themselvesâââit is about development and personal growthâ. 360 feedback provides the autonomy for more than just the direct manager to give feedback.
In fact, high-performing teams share six times the amount of feedback compared to other teams. So in this case, quantity does equal quality.
Feedback from employees to managers about their feelings towards work shows top employees they are not only valued for their work but as people as well. One of the most efficient ways to comfortably address how employees feel about their work is by normalizing open conversation between employees and their managers.
We know from Gallupâs recent employee study that only 29% of employees in the U.S. and Canada are engaged at work. Perhaps if there was a culture of open and honest feedback between managers and employees we could offer a lot more to employees.
As a leader, itâs not your job to give all the feedback, or even to get managers to give more. Itâs to create an environment of honesty, and a process where employees are constantly challenged to grow, and when they donât feel challenged can make it known.
Perhaps the best and most cost effective way to retain employees is to create an environment that allows everyone to give and request peer feedback. Demonstrate to your top talent the company is listening and will act on creating an environment for them to grow.
Retain your top talent by opening an environment for regular feedback to drive the growth of employees.
This is just a small sample! Register to unlock our in-depth courses, hundreds of video courses, and a library of playbooks and articles to grow your startup fast. Let us Let us show you!
Submission confirms agreement to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Already a member? Login
No comments yet.
Already a member? Login