Hiring Wisdom: Why a “Chat Out” With Employees Can Improve Performance

Many of the nation’s largest companies have spent millions on exhaustive research into the link between people, profits, and motivation/employee engagement.

Typical results include:

Companies with highly committed employees had a 112 percent three-year total return to shareholders compared to a 76 percent return for companies with low employee commitment.
Satisfaction rose in lock step with employee engagement. Boosting worker morale drove up profits significantly.
Seasoned workers are, on average, 40 percent more productive than rookie hires. Driving up motivation – and thus employee retention – saves a ton of money.

Here’s a two-minute-a-day way to get you on track to enjoying those kinds of results…

What you will get out of a regular “Chat Out”

Folks in the retail industry call it “The Chat Out.” It is a brief conversation with employees before they leave each day or, depending on the size of your staff, at least once a week. The benefits of this simple technique include:

Increased engagement – It’s an opportunity to ask for feedback, ideas, and opinions as well as to recognize/appreciate a job well done. Both are free, surefire, guaranteed ways to keep workers on-board and involved.
Improved accountability – You can ask for examples of what they did that day to meet an agreed to goal or deadline.
Better communications – You’ll have fewer interruptions as well as fewer cases of crossed signals when your people know they’ll soon have time with you to share important, new information. Employees will also be able to share things that may not be appropriate to air in staff meetings.
Training/coaching – If the person has encountered a roadblock or is struggling with an issue or co-worker, you can help them come up with a solution.

For a suggested script of what you might say in these chats, click here and kick start your campaignn to energize employee engagement and ramp up revenues and retention.

This was originally published in the August 2015 Humetrics Hiring Hints newsletter.