Need to improve turnover, culture, engagement + morale? Start here.
Turnover is increasing, communication is breaking down, progress is stagnating, tempers are short, & people are burnt out, disengaged, & unhappy. Your wheels are spinning & you’re stuck in analysis paralysis. You’re in an echo chamber with yourself trying to find the answer to “fix” the problem. Sound familiar?
You know your team & culture need something, but you have no idea what it is or where to start. Well..start here!
1. Shift your mindset: Don’t try to be the hero
Improving turnover, culture, employee engagement, & morale is no small feat. It’s not a ‘check the box’ situation or something you can accomplish overnight. This isn’t something that you can, nor should, do alone. Acknowledge that you might not (& probably don’t) have all of the answers. And that’s okay! You don’t need to be the culture hero who swoops in & saves the day. You need to be the culture guide who admits you don’t have the answers right now, but that you are committed to figuring it out by working with others, researching, leaning on your network - whatever you can to do what’s best for the company. You don’t need to be right, you need to get it right.
2. Get out of your head & ask your people!
So, now you’ve admitted that you don’t have the answers (phew! What a weight off your shoulders!), but your wheels are still spinning, you’re stuck in analysis paralysis, & you don’t know what to do next. The best thing to do in these situations? Get out of your head & ask your people! Too many leaders waste their time trying to figure out what to do on their own (i.e. be the hero), when that time would be better spent asking their team what’s working, what’s not, & what ideas they have for how to improve the turnover, morale, & engagement. While it feels like these issues are all resting on your shoulders, they are actually everyone’s responsibility. Culture is something that has to be co-owned & actively built by every single person at your organization. Give them the opportunity to positively contribute to the change needed.
Some of my favorite ways to engage the team & get feedback are:
1:1 Stay Interviews - Like exit interviews only better because instead of asking what could have been done better so you would’ve stayed, you can be proactive & ask what can be done better now, so that you never leave! Learn more about how to conduct Stay Interviews here.
Employee Listening Sessions - Get your team together in different groups (10 people max. per group), put on your curiosity hat, ask open-ended questions, & then LISTEN. Don’t rebuttal, or try & explain why something was done a certain way, just hold the space, & make it safe for them to share their feelings, thoughts, ideas, & experiences.
Anonymous Employee Engagement Surveys - Surveys are another great way to get feedback from your team AND you can pair it with Stay Interviews & Listening Sessions. No need to pay a lot of money for a survey tool - we love using Google forms for ours! And if you’re looking to implement a continuous employee feedback system, I highly recommend TinyPulse.
Not only will doing one or multiple of these feedback methods give you the clarity & direction you need to make positive change for your team & culture, but by engaging your team in the process, you’re showing them that you care about their feedback & respect their ideas. They will feel seen, heard, & valued. You are already improving the culture by engaging them in the culture improvement process! Win-win!
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SIGN UP3. Formulate a Culture Improvement Action Plan
Once you’ve completed your surveys & listening sessions, reviewed & analyzed the feedback (click here for tips & best practices on how to review & analyze your employee engagement survey results), you then have the information & data you need to begin to put together a Culture Improvement Action Plan. A Culture Improvement Action Plan includes 3 different elements: (1) Culture Baseline, (2) Ideal Culture State, & (3) a plan for how to get from #1 to #2!
Before you look to improve, it’s important to know your starting point. This is your current state, or your Culture Baseline. This is based on the data from the surveys, feedback in the listening sessions, & any other information you have gathered on where your company is currently at.
Once you know where you’re at, then it’s time to envision where you want to go! Let’s say I wave a magic wand, & you wake up tomorrow & everything at your company is rocking & rolling - the energy is high, your employees are engaged, your clients are ecstatic, unwanted turnover is 0%, & you feel amazing, too. What is happening? What behaviors do you see everyone doing? What is different in this ideal state compared to the current state? This is your Ideal Culture State - it’s what you are ultimately driving towards.
With your Point A (real culture) & your Point B (ideal culture) defined, now comes the exciting part of figuring out how YOU & YOUR TEAM want to make it happen! This part can seem daunting, but I promise you, it’s actually where the most fun lies. Get creative! Get innovative! There is not one right answer for how to get to your Ideal Culture State - take the route you want (even if it’s the one less traveled)! Based on your employee feedback data, what is the one thing that will make the greatest impact? Maybe start there. Again, there are no set in stone rules here! This is your Culture Improvement Action Plan.
Want help creating your Culture Improvement Action Plan? Meet with a Perk Coach!
Culture is not a problem to be solved. It’s something to be built & evolved.
To do people & culture work you must be passionate about growth & continuous improvement. There’s no such thing as a “perfect culture”, & your culture is constantly evolving.
Committing yourself & your company to proactively working on something you know will never be perfect is definitely not the easy thing to do. But it is absolutely the RIGHT thing to do if you care about your people & the success of your company.
Acknowledge (internally & to your team) that the culture will never be perfect, but that it will remain a focal point, & always be intentionally worked upon. It’s all about progress, not perfection.
And yes, while improving turnover, culture, engagement, & morale can be hard, it is not something you have to do alone! We are here, & more than happy, to help you brainstorm & strategize for your unique organization.
Meet with a Perk Coach to learn how we can help you with employee engagement surveys, Stay Interviews, listening sessions, & culture assessments.
Alright, Leader. Jump in, indulge, enjoy, & have some fun with this!
Pssst...I LOVE connecting with & growing my community! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn - see you there! 🤗
