Want to Become a Great Leader

To plan for 2022, many leadership teams with great leaders have had to address employee retention to a greater extent than ever before. What used to be enough to keep employees happy – think remote work, office perks, and so forth – just isn't enough now.

During the most significant personnel change in recent memory, I met with three leaders to discuss new talent retention tactics for the next year.

Put a priority on the act of listening:

"When it comes to employee retention, there is no 'one size fits all answer. Everyone wants something different out of their employment, and as leaders, you must accept and understand that," said Dean Thompson, HungerRush's chief growth/customer officer. "No two employees are the same, and treating them as such would be a waste of time and money."

Thompson feels that leaders will be far more educated about how to keep employees satisfied if they listen to their employees' opinions. "The most essential method to retain people is to just listen to what they want," he says. "Their responses may differ from what you anticipated to hear, and this input will have a significant impact on how you handle benefits and staff management." To emphasize Thompson's argument, employees don't always desire monetary compensation as much as you may imagine; instead, they want to be heard and respected.

Allow employees to provide feedback in a variety of ways:

All of the executives agreed that listening to employees was important. To go a step further, Mark Woodka, CEO of OnShift, feels that you need to give workers a quick option to express their comments. "Employee-centric initiatives are the only way to keep employees in today's competitive labor market. Employees want to feel appreciated and heard, and pulse surveys are one of the finest methods to do this "Woodka stated.

"Sending fast and simple surveys monthly or biweekly helps managers to monitor satisfaction and gather input so that problems may be addressed before they develop," he added. Furthermore, Woodka feels that providing input isn't the end of the process. "Unfortunately, many businesses do not place sufficient emphasis on identifying and rewarding excellent conduct. One essential to success is ensuring that rewards are valued by employees and that they are distributed fairly and regularly. Otherwise, discontent may result "he stated

Thompson agreed with this line of reasoning and added his two cents on the subject of feedback. "As leaders, we're frequently given credit for things our teams have achieved," he remarked. "When someone congratulates you on your accomplishment, you should stop them. Tell them who performed the job and encourage them to direct their praise to them. When your employees realize that their efforts are recognized, they will be more proud of their job. They will strive to attain even better outcomes."

To avoid burnout, leaders should rely on technology:

 Many businesses were obliged to invest in new technologies and solutions to maintain workflow and reduce fatigue.  Also, keep staff engaged as a result of the epidemic. According to Charlie Lougheed, CEO, and founder of Axuall, these investments should continue to be used after the epidemic has passed. "As we enter the New Year, executive leadership teams should be thinking about how to leverage current tools. And also technology to empower workers to work smarter, not harder," Lougheed added. "Executives who emphasize burnout prevention today will enjoy the rewards in 2022 and beyond. Employees can focus on what matters in their particular responsibilities by automating as much of the monotonous. The administrative aspect of the job as possible. It provides your workers the opportunity to practice at the top of their skill sets."

In 2022, accommodating employees will play a big role in talent retention. "Once these tactics are implemented, your employees will be more involved with corporate projects and improvements. Because their design is based on actual input, and they will reap the benefits," Thompson says.