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Yes, You Really Want to Get Hot and Sticky With Your Employees
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Are you getting hot and sticky with your employees?
Well we know you are not allowed to do that in the 21st century — HR or legal would be onto you in a flash, quicker than you can say the words “sexual harassment.”
However, I would argue that we do want “Hot” and we do want “Sticky” employees.
Hot employees are those that are engaged and motivated, and truly bring their passions to work. You know it when you see these employees. They have a spark in their eyes, fire in their bellies and just can’t wait to get on with the tasks in front of them.
I have seen this factor in people collecting rubbish from the streets and engaging with the people around them, in Customs Officials who have a banter and an interest in every person they greeted, and in Barista’s who have made my coffee memorable through their service. These people with the spark are the ones that we remember for a long time and they do not necessarily have to be in your Talent, High Potential or Accelerate program but they are the people you want on your team, in your business and these are the ones that inevitably end up getting noticed.
These are the truly engaged employees who have a personal spark that lights up the work they do and those around you.
While “hot and passionate” might be what we want from our employees we also need these employees to be “sticky.”
These are the ones that you really want to retain, and from all accounts the talent wars are heating up right now, and believe me, your “hot” employees are more visible than ever to the rest of the world and your competition, thanks to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Your truly “hot” properties are also the very same employees that are most likely to be engaged in the highly visible world out there, and will be getting approached – and more frequently than ever!
Creating stickiness in your employees requires you to understand exactly what these employees really want, what lights their fire, what talents they want to use and develop, and what their personal underlying motivators and drivers are. Customizing a career proposition for these employees by tailoring a career path and opportunities around their talents, values and motivators is the answer to retention and is easier than you think once you have insight to these key factors.
Often these employees are only looking for minor tweaks to their roles, or small opportunities to contribute more value, or use more of their hidden talents at work.
These micro-tweaks to their roles do not need to cost a lot of money or be difficult for management to deliver on, but they can have a macro-impact on the engagement and satisfaction of that employee, and ultimately have a direct result on the stickiness of that employee.
If your “hot” employees are loving their work and growing their career with you, they will be less tempted to look elsewhere. Daniel Pink has shown us that most people are not motivated by money. Creating “hot,” engaged and “sticky” employees is easier than you think.