Guest Blog: Are you investing in your people?

It's been a little while since we had a guest blog but we are delighted that Robin Goldsbro from Level Seven Coaching is sharing his expertise with us. Our theme for this quarter is all around investing in your employees to achieve greater employee engagement and staff retention. Read on for some great nuggets of wisdom from Robin.

Although UK employment is at a relatively high rate, Gallup’s 2017 state of the global work place survey shows that only 11% of UK employees are engaged.  It’s reported that 67% of people experience job-related stress or anxiety and just 15% believe their company provides a culture which supports their mental health.

When you consider it’s your employees who are engaging with your customers, these figures should be alarming as you begin to wonder what message is being transmitted and received by your customers.  The question is then, could investing more in your people change this?

Most people will say ‘your people are your greatest asset’ but when you think about what really means you begin to realise that’s not the whole story.  What’s true is that it’s the collective knowledge, skills, experience and engagement of your people that makes them the greatest asset.

Regardless of the business or industry you’re in, you know that the growth and reach of your business will eventually involve more people.  What this means is that if we don’t want to dilute our message, we need to fill our businesses with capable, engaged people.

Focusing on your customers is not enough…

Some business owners believe that to create growth you should focus on your customers’ needs.  The sentiment is right but, if you’re the leader in your business, you should be focusing on your staff’s needs  because, how you treat your staff tells them what you care about, your deep values and motivations and these set the standard and tone for how they engage with your customers.

In the connection economy we need as many advocates of our businesses as we can get and we often overlook the people who’ll tell the best story about our business, those that work there.

Investing in your people is good business and it doesn’t need to be complex or costly.

Before I offer a list of suggestions, I’d like to introduce three areas of consideration that are directly attached to how people feel at work.  You can use these as ways to think about how you can invest in your people in less obvious ways. 

Purpose:

As we move up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, working on something bigger than ourselves becomes more important.  It doesn’t have to be putting a man on the moon, but it has to be more than making money. 

The below graph is from Deloitte’s 2019 millennials survey and shows what people are looking for in an organisation.  As you can see, It’s more than just pay and rations.

The question you should ask yourself is how can you create the opportunity for your people to invest in things they care about.  You could start by asking, beyond money, why does your business exist,  What are we to bring into the world and for whom.  How can you tell this story and help your staff invest in it too?

Autonomy:

While most organisations have progressed from telling employees ‘what’ to do and ‘how’ to do it, businesses at the vanguard of organisational design are allowing employees to choose their contribution.  Within a framework they allow their employees to choose the ‘what’ because they know their employees are on the same mission.  I’m not suggesting a free for all but, generally speaking, people don’t like to be told what to do and the more ways we can create autonomy for people will see an investment in them and their future.

Expertise:

We all love that feeling when our views, skills etc are in demand.  The thought that we’re an expert in something, the go to person makes us feel really good.  We all want to grow and feel like we’re becoming more. 

These three areas have to be one of the simplest ideas around engagement and investment there is.  Make people experts or at least better than they are today, help them see that their work has meaning on a bigger scale then create autonomy so they can use their expertise on that bigger purpose.

Deloitte’s 2019 millennials survey echo’s this message really clearly and can provide a checklist for investment.

Just a quick word on money.  People do need to feel like they’re being rewarded fairly for what they contribute but paying people more is not an investment.  Money is a short-term motivator; people adapt quickly and once they’ve adapted their engagement will fall to earlier levels.  Investments should speak to intrinsic motivators such as personal growth.

Building on the three themes above, here are 20 ways you can invest in your people:

• Listen to them.  Have a 1:1 and really listen.
• Give them time to be with their family.
• Give them an opportunity to learn a new skill, not just to make the business more efficient but something intrinsic to them (see point 1).
• Attach their personal ambitions, skills, interest with their work. (see point 1)
• Work on their soft skills so they improve their relationships in and outside work.
• Send them to an event of seminar
• Make it easier to do great work – remove obstacles.
• Free healthy snacks
• Subsidised Gym Memberships
• Get them a coach
• Yoga classes at lunch time
• Lunch and learn events
• Secondments to other departments
• Be clear what is expected of them
• Team building events.
• Make it a great environment to work in
• Recognise their contribution – in a way that’s meaningful to them
• Get rid of bad apples
• Get them the best tools for the job
• Help them with the story they want to tell themselves about themselves (see point 1)

The CFO looks at the L&D budget and proclaims ‘We can’t spend all this money, what would happen if we did and the people left?....The CEO thinks for a moment and replies ‘what if we don’t invest in them and they stay?’

There is no guarantee that if you invest in your people, they will stay forever but if you invest in their intrinsic motivators, they will stay longer and be more engaged and better employee’s.  If they do fly the nest, imagine the stories they’d tell of the amazing place they came from.

Robin is an NLP Master Coach and the founder of Level Seven. At the core of Level Seven is the desire to help individuals reconnect with their authentic self and create the life they want, and businesses people want to work in. Before building Level Seven, Robin worked at a senior level in large, complex IT environments with the specific goal of moving people and organisations to desired future states.

Robin & Level Seven help through:

• 1:1 Executive & Business Coaching
• 1:1 Life Coaching
• Senior team meeting and event facilitation
• Emotional Intelligence assessments and coaching
• Support for organisational change initiatives.

To find out more about Robin and Level Seven please visit http://levelseven.org

At Key Appointments, we have been helping clients attract and retain the best employees for over ten years. We understand how the needs of the workforce are evolving and how employers can meet these needs.

As well as assisting with all your recruitment requirements, we have a network of specialists who can assist you with staff training, personal development, HR and employee wellbeing.

If you need help improving your employer branding, attracting the right people and creating a great company culture, then contact one of our friendly consultants.