Episode 38 - Caring for Your Employees with Bev Kaye
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify
Every leader and company I know right now is talking about Employee Experience in one way, shape or form. And, a lot of the emphasis is on recruiting and onboarding… because if there’s one thing people recognize in the job market these days it’s that if people aren’t having a great recruitment and onboarding experience, you’re going to get fewer and fewer prospects in your employee pipeline.
For those of us who have been advocating for the importance of Employee Experience for a long time, it’s quite refreshing to hear it spoken about and focused on outside of the startup and HR circles. There has been evidence mounting for years about the importance of the topic, yet many companies have been slow to actually do anything about it (beyond starting a committee, offering free lunches once in a while, or some other gathering they have deemed “culture”). If it takes a job-seekers market to bring it to the forefront in a way that’s actionable and meaningful for organizations and leaders, then so be it.
In fact, I would say the same thing about culture overall. For a lot of organizations and leaders, it’s been “nice to have” and something someone has been working on off the side of their desk. But now, more than ever before, leaders are recognizing that culture is a key factor in attracting and retaining talent.
When I talk about the employee experience, I always emphasize that the experience begins the minute a prospective employee engages with your organization (often in the form of job listings) and ends the day after their employment is over. Everything between those points in time comes together to create their overall experience and needs to be mapped out and improved upon continuously. The better organizations get at recognizing that the experience goes way beyond the onboarding process and the “fun” culture activities on offer, the more attractive they will find themselves becoming in the marketplace.
One of the hardest things for organizations to master is the offboarding of employees. As, my guest on the podcast today, Bev Kaye notes: there was a time when people would be escorted out of buildings and the door locked behind them. Shutting the door on people that way doesn’t work anymore. It’s much more effective to offer an elegant exit in order to potentially get you a respectful return. Don’t lock the door behind them, rather show the people who leave (voluntarily or not) that you care about them and that there is always a key under the mat for them or the people they know.
The conversation I have with Bev is enlightening and fascinating. She truly has an incredible wealth of knowledge when it comes to career development, employee engagement, and retention. We talk about the talent crisis and what to do about it, company culture (my favourite topic!), the impact managers have on employee wellbeing, how to help people grow where they are now, and more. One of the most memorable things we discuss is the importance of recognizing, then verbalizing, and finally mobilizing when you’re a leader. Especially since most leaders never manage to get past the recognition stage!
If you want to know the context of that conversation, you should definitely give this episode a listen! It is chock-full of actionable strategies, as well as things to think about differently.
And if you want to know more about my guest Bev Kaye you can find her online at bevkaye.com. As well as on LinkedIn (bevkaye) and Twitter (BeverlyLKaye).