Employee Retention: The Key to Meaningful Work is Psychological Safety and Civility

(Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to
you by our
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help organizations energize their cultures and unlock employees’ passion and
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Employee retention continues to
be a major concern for organizations. With unemployment at historic lows,
organizations want to know that, when they hire someone, they’re going to stay.
It makes total sense. And I’d like to think by now we know the way to get
better retention is by giving employees the ability to do meaningful work in a
workplace where they feel respected by their manager and peers.

The good news is, if you’re
organization is doing just that – treating employees with respect and providing
them with the ability to contribute in a way that’s meaningful – then you’re on
the right track. According to WorkHuman’s latest survey “The
Future of Work is Human”,
the most important factor to employees is meaningful work. The second most
important factor is compensation, including benefits, and supportive
management. The third factor is company culture and a fun team.  

I hope you’ll take a moment to download the
full report for two reasons. The first one I just mentioned. Companies focused
on providing respectful workplaces and meaningful work are going to see
positive results. The second reason to download the report is when employees
don’t feel that they’re getting the things it takes to create meaningful work
(i.e. good compensation and benefits, supportive management, fun team, etc.)
they have other options. And they’re not hesitant to start looking. The
WorkHuman survey stated that 21% of respondents are currently looking
for a new job.

Meaningful Work Isn’t a Millennial Thing

Before someone starts thinking, “Oh, it’s just
those Millennials.”, let me say that I believe what we’re seeing in today’s
market can’t be explained as a “Millennial thing”. I spoke to Jesse Harriott,
executive director of WorkHuman’s Analytics and Research Institute, about the
study and how age factors (or doesn’t factor) into the results. “We didn’t go into the
research with any pre-conceived notions about age differences – although it’s
well established that workplace attitudes can differ as workers age or between
generations. However, we do see a consistent thread across age groups that
‘meaningful work’ is rated as most important to an employee’s career.”

The reason that creating a
respectful workplace where people can do meaningful work isn’t a Millennial
thing is because the barrier isn’t a Millennial thing. In the report, the
reason that employees feel they can’t do their best work is because they don’t
feel safe. That’s the barrier. Employees won’t feel like they have
supportive management if they don’t feel safe. Employees won’t feel like they’re
working with a fun team if they don’t feel safe. And organizations might offer a
great compensation and benefits package, but if employees don’t feel safe, is
it really enough?

Right around the time WorkHuman shared their report with me, I ran across an article from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) that reported inequality ranks low on global HR’s concerns. This made me realize the trend workplaces are facing. How can employees feel safe if they don’t feel that they’re equal? I felt like this article from SHRM aligned with a few of the findings in the WorkHuman report:

26% of employees have felt discriminated against during the course of their career



50% of women reported that a manager has taken credit for their work



50% of women in technology said hiring and promotion decisions are based on gender and/or race



100% of women in the hospitality industry said hiring and promotion decisions are based on gender and/or race



When asked why they felt discriminated against, the top responses included age, gender, race, political views, and sexual orientation.

But
what might have been even more interesting than these statistics about
discrimination in the workplace is that this isn’t the top reason that
employees said they don’t feel safe at work. So as bad as these numbers are…it’s
not the number one reason. The number one reason that employees don’t feel
safe at work is a toxic work culture. I asked Harriott if
they expected to see culture
as the number one reason employees don’t feel safe. “It’s not surprising that
employees report that toxic culture is the #1 reason they don’t feel safe. Psychological
safety is critical for employees to be productive, strive for excellence,
innovate and generally bring their best selves to the workplace. Toxic work
cultures are a breeding ground for things that undermine psychological safety:

Lack of recognition for good work,



Fear of failure,



Poor leadership,



Lack of trust, etc.”



Civility Training Can Improve Psychological Safety

This is the hard part. Some of
you are reading this and saying, “Of course, toxic work cultures are the
problem. Tell me the answer.” And some of you might want to know exactly what
defines a toxic work culture. Let’s start with the definition of a toxic work
culture. In addition to Harriott’s comments above, think of a toxic work
culture as one where people don’t practice kindness and respect. Where
employees aren’t civil to one another.

Which is
where civility training could be viewed as a possible solution. Christine
Porath is a tenured professor at Georgetown University and the author of
“Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace”. She also has a TED talk on
“Why
being respectful to your coworkers is good for business”.

Porath
shared with me some statistics on how incivility has a direct impact on the
bottom-line. Some of them would be no surprise to you like 12% of employees
said they left a job because of uncivil treatment. But there were a couple that
surprised me. Like 25% admitting to taking out their frustrations on a customer
and 63% lost work time simply avoiding the toxic person. It’s
estimated that organizations lose about $6 billion a year because of workplace
incivility.

When it comes
to training, Porath emphasizes the need for organizations to start by defining
civility. “When establishing specific principles that you want employees
to follow in how they treat others, I’ve found that it’s beneficial to engage
them in an ongoing conversation about what civility means. These discussions
garner more support and empower employees to hold one another accountable for
civil behavior. Organizations can ask employees “Who do you want to be?” And
then ask what norms are right for their organization. The result is a ‘civility
code’, a set of rules for which they are willing to agree upon and hold one
another accountable.” This sets the stage for civility training because it
raises awareness and provides skills.

Retain
Employees by Focusing on Human Interactions

The
key to employee retention is having a culture where employees can do meaningful
work. Discrimination, toxic work cultures, and incivility are barriers to achieving
that goal. Again, I would recommend downloading WorkHuman’s “The
Future of Work is Human”
and checking out Christine Porath’s work on civility. It can help your
organization ensure that the workplace you’re creating is one where employees
can thrive.

P.S. And don’t forget to mark your calendars
for WorkHuman Live in San
Antonio, Texas on May 11-14, 2020. Best-selling author Dan Pink has been
announced as a speaker. You
can get a $100 discount on registration by using the code WHL2020HRB100.
The discount code expires October 31, 2019 so book
now. Look forward to seeing you there!

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