During these times, talent retainment is one of the most important pillars of enterprise value. Today you need to be asking yourself, “What am I doing to preserve and solidify that talent in my organization”? If you as CEO or leader can’t answer that quickly and positively, then you are neglecting what is a critical part of your job. Sure, during this crisis, the financial situation of your company, another pillar of value, is extremely important, but if you have tunnel vision on the financials and are ignoring your team, I can guarantee that you will regret the consequences once the crisis is over.
If you respond that no one will leave, there are no jobs out there, don’t bet on it. You are right that there are few opportunities, but the truth is that the only talent you are in jeopardy of losing are the ones you can least afford to lose, your best ones. Those that don’t leave now but who because of your inaction, lose engagement with the company during this COVID-19 crisis won’t be far behind when things begin to improve. If your able to execute talent retainment and keep all of your people during this time, then when it ends you will be ahead of the competition. This is all in the name of talent retainment.
If this is the first time your people are working remotely, the potential for disengagement is huge. When some employees are at your company location and others are remote, the old camaraderie and ease of team members helping each other can easily be lost. Everyone knows how tough change is, even when it’s done over a long period of time. Just think how hard the changes that took place literally overnight are for your team. It has changed years of how things have been done. Team members are nervous, they are uncomfortable, and they crave some sense of normalcy. If on top of all that shakeup in your team member’s daily routines, you also had to let some people go, the remaining talent’s apprehension of their future increases even more.
As CEO you have another critical title, CVO, the Chief Value Officer. As CVO you are responsible for increasing enterprise value. In times like we are in today, as CVO it may be tougher to actually increase value but you sure can maintain that value. However, you will not be able to do that if you are losing key talent. Then increasing value in the post-COVID-19 eras will be questionable.
Your #1 Task
The number one task on your daily to-do list must be to increase employee loyalty and commitment through honesty, transparency, constant communication, and simple acts of kindness. A CEO at his Chicago headquarters, knowing that his key employees in four other offices spread out over the country, was working from home rather than in their offices, sent them all frozen Lou Malnati’s Pizzas (a Chicago favorite). That is a simple example of a simple act of kindness. One that says you are important to my team and we care about you. Doing something like this is easy. It doesn’t have to be pizza, it can be any simple gesture that shows that they count and that you care. In another example, leaders have arranged to set up “supply” stores in their facilities with household staples that have been difficult to get. It enables team members to get what they need without going into a store.
The importance of regular communication cannot be overstated. I am not referring to simply work and project-related phone and video meetings, but also to check-in calls, emails, and texts. The CEO of an Arizona manufacturing company with nearly 300 employees spread over a few locations, holds weekly video chats with the entire company to present the “state of the company”. Then, during these chats employees can ask questions, make suggestions, or simply state what they are feeling. The response from the team and the easing of tension on the team have been great.
I have also heard from leaders who value education and training. Some have arranged either company generated or other available online training and education to take advantage of the slower time for their employees who may not be quite as busy as they normally are.
Getting the team involved in the general operating system and procedural improvements can not only create operational efficiencies but also, and maybe even more important today, employee involvement and engagement. There are great opportunities to utilize Zoom meetings to work on projects like these. Zoom type meetings can also be utilized to get the team involved in considering what the post-Covid 19 normal will be and how it will affect your company. Then why not move from that speculation into sessions designed to find innovative ways to grow value in that new normal. Even more engagement!
As these examples illustrate, many things can be done to retain talent in your organization. Be creative, you are the best at understanding what your team needs and how you can best meet that need in these unsettling times. The message to take from this paper is that if you ignore the talent pillar of value creation, if you stop investing in your people, you will be ignoring your responsibilities as the CVO of your organization and you will likely soon regret it. Remember talent retainment, and then execute to success down the road with it.
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