I was hanging out with a friend over the weekend who's a leader at a
local company, four or five hundred employees. He was telling
me that retention in his division that he leads is super
high. And in another division it's low. And they're looking for new
people, looking for things that can help retain
employees. He intentionally plans in time
for connection. He's intentionally
encouraging his team from the way he describes it. And
that made me think, well, what kind of
value? First of all, how do people retain employees? And then what type
of value does that add to a company?
Welcome to the Decide youe Legacy podcast. Today's episode is
on how positive relationships in the
workplace are. Retention strategy number one. Three moves
that you can make starting today. And this content not only
relates to the workplace, but it relates to retention
in any relationship. So long term relationships and
friendships over time they create
tremendous benefit because they know you, they know your history. You have
go tos in your life, these lifelong friends and what can
lead you to building those types of long term
relationships. So by the end of this episode,
I can imagine that you're gonna
feel like you have tools. In fact, I
know you're gonna feel like you have tools that can help you build closer
connections with your family, with your team and
with your coworker. Relationships
and really people around you build closer connections.
How will you make turn these relationships into longer term
relationships? I'm your host, Adam Gragg. I'm a legacy coach and a family
therapist. Been a family therapist for over 25 years.
I'm dedicated to helping inspiring
people and organizations to face life with courage,
to live life with courage and relationships are what trigger the
most fear for people, I find. And that's where the biggest benefit
is. As you build closer connections. People are
lonely. People don't feel understood. I hear that in my
office frequently from clients from businesses.
They don't feel connected, they feel lost.
It's a big fear that people have that when I have problems in my life,
who is going to be there? Who's going to show up for me when I
need them the most? Who's going to walk through life with me when I need
them the most? Who's going to help me face my fears and
when I need help. And for me, I find that
I'm much more willing to do courageous things when I know people
are backing me up and they care about me regardless. I have friends that
are like that in my life and I'm very blessed because of that.
So here are some statistics that are pretty powerful when it comes to the
workplace. That's what my friend asked me. He said, do you have any statistics that
show how connection really helps
retention? And I told him, well, I've seen them. I can't
recite them right now. And so I jap GPT it.
And I got some really cool statistics to share with you today about
how connection in the workplace impacts not only retention of
employees, but performance as well. Increased
revenue over time, performance. We're talking people are focused more
at work, they're getting things done, they're doing the hard stuff.
And that retention creates more performance. Who doesn't want
that? So stronger workplace connections
equals higher engagement. So one study from
Gallup found that employees with a
close friend at work are seven times more likely to
be engaged in their jobs. And same study,
highly engaged employees are 59% less
likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months.
Pretty cool stuff. So we're talking
about three moves you can make to
increase connection in the workplace,
which will increase employee engagement, which will
increase longevity of your employees and
workplace performance. So move number one that you can make is
to incorporate more purposes into the work,
into the workplace. Have
intentional times to focus on the impact that
this company, your division, your team is making.
Keep it at the forefront. Mid level managers,
C suite managers, I don't like that term.
Hire managers, whatever. We're all leaders. We lead in
different ways so we can make
the purpose paramount. You do this by
talking about successes. You do this by
focusing on the impact that's being made,
not only in the lives of your customers, but the impact that your company
is making in the community, the impact that your company is
making in the lives of other employees, the
relationships that are being built in the workplace, you're
highlighting that and that's building connection. People like to
rally around a cause, to feel as if what
they're investing their time and energy into is making
a difference. That's why testimonial videos are
so powerful, because they do highlight the impact and the
purpose. I know you don't probably do that for your company team, but you
could. It'd be kind of fun. I'd never really thought of that until right now.
But to actually make an impact video that your team is
shared with your team, even something that you make with your own phone that you
send out. So belonging increases
as you focus on the purpose. Another study,
this is from hbr,
not sure what that stands for. It's a study on belonging at
work. And sense of belonging reduces turnover.
Employees who feel a strong sense of belonging in their work environment.
There's a 56% increase in job performance.
Wow, that's pretty cool. Impacts the bottom line over time and
a 50% drop in turnover. And then
compared with company companies with a strong
workplace culture of connection,
driven by relationships and trust, they saw an 11%
lower turnover rate compared to other companies.
Good. And that's going to pay off right there.
Losing employees is discouraging. I mean, if you have a great employee and
they get recruited and go to another employer, I mean, not only can they be
taking away trade secrets, although they're not supposed to, but can taking
away all the knowledge they've built up in your work environment. But it's costly to
hire somebody new and train that person. It's costly to the culture because
that person is likable and liked there. And so you have to get somebody new
on the team. That creates anxiety for other employees potentially because they
don't know it's pushing against, up against their fear. So
the cost is great to lose somebody. We want to retain our employees,
our good employees. I mean, there is good turnover. There's
very good turnover. In fact, some of you listening, you're probably needing to turn over
a few employees right now as we talk, because you're waiting. Don't do that. That
causes even, potentially even more damage than keeping an
employee, than losing an employee. So the move number
two is be intentional. Remember that you as a
leader, again, we're all leaders in some facet of our lives. You as
a leader must go first. You must
go first. So I was engaging in a team
development exercise. We lead these for companies.
And one of the conversations I'll have with the head leader before we do any
team building activity, which for me it's being vulnerable and
open with our emotions, how we feel, our struggles, our
challenges, our life experiences. We're being open. I will say
they are only going to open up as much as you're willing to open up.
You have to go first. So if you're going to share things
where I challenge them to be more open about their lives,
you got to do it first as the leader. And
you have to be intentional about it. So it can't just be once a quarter
at a leadership team meeting or once a
year at an annual event. No, it has to be something
you're working into, your interactions with your team. It
won't happen if you're not intentional with
being open. And that's how you build connections. Because you don't build
connections unless you're showing people who you really are. And
then people have a chance to step up and help you. They see your vulnerabilities,
they see where you need help, they see your weaknesses, they see your challenges, your
fears. And the good people in your work environment, you get to see them
and they're revealed because you're opening up and the leader starts it.
People will often
even tell me like I can't get my team to open up. And it's often
always the same thing. They are not opening up
themselves. I
am a fan of team icebreakers.
Things that get people to be vulnerable. One of my
favorite icebreakers is where everybody identifies a skill
in their life that they're fairly good at and then for five
minutes they teach somebody in the group how to do that
specific thing. If you like that too and you like
icebreakers, hit the link to get an article on some of my favorite
icebreakers as well. Icebreakers, meaning it breaks the ice, it loosens people up,
it gets people to open up as well. Start meetings off with
something positive. Even if it's as simple as what
were the good things that happened last week in your job? What are
some celebration worthy
successes from last week? Get people thinking
and they may come in over time they'll be prepared to come in with a
positive, but right now in some of your meetings, they may be
prepared to come in with what's not going well. Thinking that's the focus of the
meeting change that you don't want that. You want people to be excited about
meetings because you're celebrating and you're growing and you're solving
real problems. Which means that in those meetings you're letting
go of the outcome. Which means that when you're intentional and
you're opening up, you're letting go of the outcome. Some people may not like it,
they may be uncomfortable by it. They may even treat you as if you've done
something wrong and say that that's not appropriate in the workplace.
Don't listen to them. I'm not trying to get you to do something that's
unprofessional. I'm simply challenging you to share how you
feel, to share who you are and to be willing to go first
and let people know who you are so they're willing to open up and expose
their giftings and talents and struggles and fears as well.
You gotta trust the process. Great study on this too
by SHRM Society of Human Resource Management. The study
is on employee job satisfaction and engagement. It's a report
so 94% of employees say that mutual respect and
Good relationships with coworkers are important to their
job satisfaction. They don't brush it off. 94% of people say, that's important.
I gotta have that. I want to have that. Poor workplace
relationships are cited as a major reason for
voluntary turnover by 1 in 5 employees.
This taking the time to invest
in improving the culture on your team, in your company
is going to make you money. It's going to decrease
employee turnover. It's going to increase employee performance.
So the third,
the. The third move you can make,
which I want you to make starting today or starting soon, is
that you remember
how you add value. So that's connected to the first move.
Find purpose, and it's connected to going
first. But you're remembering how you add
value. How do you do that? As a leader? You're reminding your team of how
they individually and corporately. Individually
is where I'd encourage you to start. Add value.
You feel as you recognize, as you're recognized by
other people on your team for what you bring to the table.
And they point that out. You do a great job at this and that, and
you're really excellent. I couldn't do it as well as you. And you're reminding them
of that. You're intentionally reminding them of those great traits.
You're building them up in a very healthy way. It's not an egocentric way.
It's a way where they can see how they impact other people's
lives. And I would encourage you to be specific. Give
them an example. Hey, I saw what you did
on. On the project on the
proposal for XYZ Company. Your
wording, your grammar, just. You put it together
in a way that I could not have
imagined. And it's so creative. I presented it to the
company. They thought it was amazing. And I just got to give you a lot
of credit. Your wording, your writing skills are excellent,
Kelsey. Keep it up. If you give them a specific
example, it's going to stick for them. More
related to how they add value. And I would like to go even a step
further where, for, let's say I had a team of eight people
where I'd make it a goal to have a list of how they impact
other people's lives related to their job, which is pretty
broad because relationships at work are a big part of our
lives. People find their spouses at work, people find
their best friends at work. People find the people they hang out with on the
weekends and their kids make friends with their
coworkers and people they brush shoulders with professionally.
It's not what you may think it's much deeper than that
when it comes to these connections at work. It's a pretty modern
phenomenon that we work in offices and away from our
families even. I mean, historically, agriculturally, we worked around
people that were our family and that were our close friends. That, that's
the way I find. I find
encouragement knowing that these are a big deal,
these relationships are significant, and people want to feel connected
at work. So you can help them find that. You can help them make their
own lists of how they add value to other people's lives. That's a great thing
to look at when you're selling your company as well to
a potential customer. If you remember how you add value, then you, you
can help. First of all, you want to understand them, but you can
help point that out because that's how you can add value to their lives or
at least remember those things as you interact with them, because that's a
asset that you bring. So A study by O.C. tanner
2023 Global Culture Report on
recognition and connection matter. How they matter. So when employees feel
recognized and acknowledged,
they feel connected in the workplace. So when that happens, when employees feel
recognized and connected, they're 63% more likely to stay
with their current employer over the next three years.
That is exactly experientially what I
have seen. That's what I heard from my buddy over the weekend. That's what
I hear. And he has the highest retention, I think, in his whole company or
in the company wide. Very good at retention level in his division. I think he
has like 25 employees in the company. Company's a thousand plus.
But locally in Wichita, I think it's 4 or 500. But that's powerful.
Think about that. 63% more. More likely to stay when
they feel acknowledged for their contributions.
Very cool stuff. Now I know for
me, one of the challenges when it comes to connection is
I have abandonment fear. And when I am reaching out and connecting with people,
that abandonment fear can be highlighted. It can be
triggered. And when we are triggered, and that's about relationships and connecting
with other people. If I know that when I go into
interactions where I'm being more open, even challenging
people, not being the expert, but being open
and learning and listening, I know that if my abandonment fear gets triggered,
then all of a sudden I go into old
unhealthy coping mechanisms. And for me it's the desire to
isolate. So I'd encourage you to remember that. And remember
that isolation is exactly what loses employees.
Employees that are isolated and don't feel connected are the ones that are going to
end up leaving. Companies that invest in connection driven
cultures see significantly higher retention and stronger performance. They
build trust, they increase engagement, they foster a sense of
belonging. All of which dramatically reduces the
likelihood that an employee will ever
leave. So
to summarize, we can do things
retention strategy number one,
relationships. That's retention strategy number one.
There's actions you can take right away, well,
at least hopefully soon, to engage
and to increase that kind of engagement. These moves you can make, I want to
review them. Number one is create purpose for your team.
Number two is be intentional in opportunities
that you create for connection. You must go first or it won't happen. And number
three, big move number three is remember
to highlight how they add value. It's not going to
make them arrogant. It's actually going to make them more likely to
connect with other people with confidence. Confidence is not arrogance. Confidence is knowing
what you bring. It's believing in yourself. So
check out Shatterproof yourself. It's live.
This is a course on seven small steps to a giant leap in your mental
health and the Shatterproof community. You interact with people going through the content.
We do two live events a month. You get to interact
over the app as well and that's included in your lifetime
membership. Six months of the Shatterproof communities included.
We cover relationships. That's step number seven. And we
also cover perspective, having a good
attitude overall, that's on. That's step number three
right there. And so that content is gonna help you
to go deeper with this podcast content as
well help you improve your workplace connections. So take action.
Take action. Nothing makes me more proud and excited than
hearing from a listener, hearing from a client, how they've applied content.
Take an action to face a fear and they see results.
Take action and follow me. Subscribe, leave a rating
and review wherever you get your podcast content. Check it
out on YouTube. There is no positive change
until you decide to change. Decide today.
Your legacy depends on you acting, doing
something to decide means eliminating other options.
Your legacy is the impact that your life has on others.
I want to close the way I always do. Live the life today
that you want to be remembered for 10 years after you're gone. You
decide your legacy. Nobody else. I appreciate you greatly
and I'll see you next time.