Retention strategies: Do you really mean it?

As leaders, we hope that if we dress our mission statement up in heels and a hat that we will attract the employees we need. And keep them at that! Perhaps this strategy worked at one time or even worked for a short time. But employees now, especially after the pandemic, take a different, more sober look at what a company has on offer. They ask big questions, so we want to be ready with big answers.

The heart of the business‍

Let’s begin with a tough question, one that leaders would do well to ask: Does my business have a heart? There is a process of inquiry to help develop a strong answer to this question. First, you might ask, What is the intention at the heart of my business? This intention has to do with why people would care about your business. What question does my business answer? The inquiry process suggests that you continue to pose these same questions again to deepen your understanding of the highest role your business can play in both your domain and in the larger community.

A related concern is this: How do you express why you created your business? If your manner of expressing your mission relies on manipulating strategies, rather than a heartfelt expression of what your business is called to do, then the heart of your business will not ring true. And employees will sense that.

Employees‍

The first question in this category is, How do you share the development of your company’s mission with the employees? More than a strategy, this is about deploying your employees to co-create with you at the very heart of your business. As leaders we ask a series of questions: Why are we in business? What does that call us to do? Who does that call us to be? And, Who would we become as a business by answering that call? And in fact, this is the same process that an individual employee goes through, asking Why am I on the planet? What does this call me to do? Who would I have to be to answer that call? And, finally, Who would I become by answering that call? In our work in leadership design with Burgerville, a progressive fast-food chain in the US Pacific Northwest, we cultivated the employees’ sense of their individual life mission coordinated with their contribution to Bugerville. This investment in the employee’s sense of their deepest life’s purpose engendered a tremendous amount of loyalty and commitment to the business.

It is important for HR to create a process for each employee to develop the answers to these foundational questions. When their answers are cultivated over time, the company and the employees are in harmony in their pursuits, creating an integrated workplace with a cohesion among all the employees across the board. This in turn enables a flexibility and a responsiveness in the company, allowing it to respond well to unexpected challenges.

As employees of whatever rank, we seek for a company that speaks to our own purpose, something larger than ourselves, and a place where we can see we have a voice and value. This is the sincerest way to recruit and retain employees.

Congruence of purpose and strategies‍

We all know the Frank Capra business villains. Take the classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, where the Dickensian villain, Mr. Potter, remarks about a fellow member of the town, “Peter Bailey was not a business man. That's what killed him. Oh, I don't mean any disrespect to him, God rest his soul. He was a man of high ideals, so called, but ideals without common sense can ruin this town.” In fact, of course, it is Mr. Potter himself who is ruining the town, his common sense without any purpose larger than his own satisfaction creating a rift between himself and his employees, between himself and the town. It’s this very separation that companies on the forefront of business can avoid. By putting ourselves in the shoes of those we wish to hire and retain, and by developing skills to integrate our employees into our deepest purpose, we will successfully keep our people, and keep them engaged, loyal and creative, enhancing our company, avoiding the unnecessary loss and cost of employee disengagement and eventual quitting.

Conclusion‍

If the mission at the heart of a business actually speaks to your heart as a leader, this is the first step in engaging employees. Once you know why people would care about your business, that will be a magnetic draw for hiring talented individuals and keeping them. Once you cultivate your answers as a business leader to the questions of Why, What, and Who, combining that inquiry with HR options in place to encourage the employees to do the same, then employees will be engaged and committed members of your workforce. And once you convey to the prospective employee that you are hiring a person and not a skill set, and that you value their autonomy, your workforce will surprise you by the product development they bring forward, together with their enthusiasm for their job. Employees are now sounding the depths of the commitment of business leaders to a purpose larger than their own benefit.

Daniel Goodenough, Co-Founder, The HuPerson Project

Dedicated to science, art and spirit, Daniel inspires individuals, teams and enterprises to live their unique vision in the way the world most needs it. Co-founder of The Way of the Heart with Kimberly Herkert, Daniel designs processes for people to live more fulfilled, purposeful, and intentional lives. He recently published The Caravan of Remembering, a powerful self-directed inquiry for discovering our deepest calling. Together with Jill Taylor and Shelly Cooper, in 2023, Daniel co-founded the HuPerson Project to help leaders develop a deep awareness and presence, opening new structures of thinking so that corporate and entrepreneurial enterprises are able to embody their vision and become a remedy for the needs of the world today.

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