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Seen@Work: The Podcast is hosted by Natalia Eileen and features the efforts of human capital professionals around the United States and showcases how they are helping their fellow employees feel "seen at work."
Do companies really have to be thinking about retention right now? Hey, everyone. It's Natalia Eileen with Z Network and back with another weekly wisdom. Today, I thought I would jump in with a question that I was asked when I went to a networking event recently. I was introducing myself.
Natalia Eileen:I said, hey. I help companies with their employee retention, employee experience, and employee engagement. It's nice to meet you. And the person responded with, are companies really trying to retain employees right now? Fair question.
Natalia Eileen:You likely are very familiar with the fact that right now, it's a very tight job market. And many companies are seeing that their employees are holding on for dear life, making sure that they keep their jobs. It's called job hugging. That is what we're seeing more than anything else. Fair enough.
Natalia Eileen:We also are seeing that a lot of companies are laying off employees. This is not only a tight job market, but also an uncertain economic time. Companies are unsure of what the outlook of the next few years will be. There are certain things that companies are thinking a lot about, and in some instances, that means shrinking their current employee base. So fair question.
Natalia Eileen:Are companies really thinking about retention right now? My argument is that they should be. Only because in order to get the best out of your people, you're gonna wanna think about retention. You're gonna wanna think about making it so that your employees are staying not because they have to, but because they want to. Because employees that are working because they want to perform better.
Natalia Eileen:So thinking about employee retention strategies allows you to better engage your employees and get more out of them. Today, I wanna talk about three recognition rituals high retention companies use to create that culture where people not only want to stay but also end up doing their best work. When I advise clients on creating cultures where people feel that they want to be there, I will often go back to the basics. You wanna be intentional about how you're building culture. The three recognition rituals are three ways that you can leverage recognition to build a sense that people want to stay there, to build that sense of belonging, to build that sense that they are seen and recognized for their work.
Natalia Eileen:When I talk to folks about recognition, often this is the one thing they're already doing. They're hosting that year end celebration where they recognize contributions at all levels from major wins to behind the scenes efforts at the end of the year looking back on the year before. That's fantastic. Make sure you're doing that. And, again, this is a recognition ritual that you will see within most organizations that are known for high retention and for creating a sense that people's work is going to be acknowledged.
Natalia Eileen:A peer to peer shout out system. This is a structured yet simple way for employees to recognize each other. It can be digital coodle board, physical cards, Slack channels. One thing I have to say about this is sometimes people think shout out systems are cost prohibitive. Yes.
Natalia Eileen:You can spend a good amount of money on a beautiful platform. There are many that are out there that are actually quite good. However, if you are on a budget, you're not looking to spend money, you don't have to spend money in order to make this possible. As you can see here, you can do a peer to peer shout out system with physical cards with your existing Slack or Teams channels. You can create a digital Kudo board in many different places within your organization and in a way that is low cost to you but still creates that sense that this is part of what we do.
Natalia Eileen:This is a ritual that exists within our organization. When I have a sense that someone's done something amazing, I know where to go so that I can acknowledge their contribution and thank them for what they've done. Monthly or quarterly public announcements, something more frequent than annual. This is an acknowledgment of an employee whose recent actions and body company values. This could be a monthly meeting segment, or it could be a dedicated email or video.
Natalia Eileen:Think about infusing these into what you're already doing. So many organizations, maybe they have a monthly newsletter that updates folks about all sorts of different things, but there's a section that highlights an employee and their actions. Maybe there's a monthly all hands or a quarterly all hands that the company hosts already, and there is a segment in there or several segments in there highlighting, spotlighting the great work companies or the great work individual employees are doing. These are just three recognition rituals, one, two, three, basics that you can incorporate into your organization to make sure that people recognize that they are recognized here within your company. This is the thing, though, that I alluded to earlier.
Natalia Eileen:You can use these recognition rituals not just to create higher attention company, but you can also create a higher attention team. And, again, are we trying to retain employees in this time? Maybe your organization is struggling with the fact that so many people are really hanging on. That makes sense. However, we wanna be thinking about how our people are giving their best, are feeling as supported and as seen as possible so that you get the productivity outcomes that you want from the folks that you do have.
Natalia Eileen:These are some ways to do that by creating this kind of culture. So this is not just about companies. This is also about your team. You can make sure that you are honoring and reflecting back on the year at the end of the year with your team, giving folks their their kudos, their accolades for how much work they did this past year. On your team, you can create a very simple, low tech peer to peer shout out system.
Natalia Eileen:I know for me and my team, every week at the end of our weekly meetings where we make sure everything is aligned, we also have a shout out section where people can shout each other out for what they that week. And I know that people plan to hold on to those shout outs so that they have that airtime because that is a ritual we've created within our organization and within our team. You can do that within your team as well. The last thing you can do is to create a monthly or quarterly public announcement, a place where on a more regular basis, you are shouting people out. Maybe it's a quarterly meeting you already have.
Natalia Eileen:You insert a slide or two about some fantastic work done by folks on your team. Let's talk about what this looks like in real world practice. We have a company like Southwest where it's public knowledge that they have a kicking tail program where peers can recognize each other and give swag. They also have a winning spirit award every year where at the end of the year, employees are recognized. This is just an example of what this could look like in the real world for an organization, for a company.
Natalia Eileen:Again, you don't need to be in charge of the entire company or in charge of the entire company's employee engagement practices in order to create this sense of connectivity within your team. You can take some of these elements and implement them right now. Speaking of implementing these as an individual right now, I have a blog post all about a recognition leadership habit that people can adopt individually, the recognition matrix. And you can find that on scene at work.com/insights. I also am excited that now all of these weekly wisdoms are on our podcast.
Natalia Eileen:So if you want to, you can listen to our weekly wisdoms on a weekly basis on the Scene Network podcast. We also will have guests every once in a while come online and talk to us about their great work and employee engagement and belonging. I also wanted to shout out that when people do ask what we do, it's helpful for us to have a special place where you can go and find our services. Our 2026 service catalog has launched. You can see that our 2026 service catalog includes the training and the programming we offer.
Natalia Eileen:We offer nine workshops that can be tailored in terms of length. We also have programs. We have culture building, culture sustaining programs like our circles, our mentorship and sponsorship program, or our employee resource group leadership summits. So check us out. If you are interested in working with us, we would love to work with you.
Natalia Eileen:You can schedule a consultation at cnetwork dot com slash consultation. And of course, we continue to be really passionate about bringing you tangible ways that you can create a more inclusive and more engaging workplace environment for your employees. You can also find us on social media. We are on Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and there is a newsletter, so please sign up. And with that, I'll see you next week for another weekly wisdom.