Managers Think It's All About the Money (Employees Disagree)

Special from the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, Las Vegas
When employees and their managers are asked about what they value at work, the answers are surprisingly different, says consultant Andrew Botwin SPHR. That disconnect will result in expensive turnover.
Botwin, who is CEO of SPC (Strategy People Culture) Consulting, offered his engagement tips at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium held recently in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What Managers Think Employees Want

In one study by the Labor Relations Institute of NY, managers selected, in order,  the following as what employees most value:

1. Good wages
2. Job security
3. Promotion and growth
4. Good working conditions
5. Interesting work
6. Personal loyalty to workers
7. Tactful discipline
8. Appreciation for work done
9. Sympathetic help with personal problems
10. Feeling “in” on things

What Employees Say They Want

When employees were asked to rank the same characteristics, the list came out like this:

1. Appreciation for work done
2. Feeling “in” on things
3. Sympathetic help with personal problems
4. Job security
5. Good wages
6. Interesting work
7. Personal loyalty to workers
8. Promotion and growth
9. Good working conditions
10. Tactful discipline

Note that the top three on the employees’ list are the bottom three on the managers’ list. What this means, says Botwin, is that unless we recognize what employees value, we are managing to a disconnect.

Why Do We Care?

First of all, turnover is expensive. Estimates vary, but 75% to 200% of annual salary is a common estimate. If you have 1,000 employees and you take $70,000 as an average salary, every 1% of turnover costs you from $525,000 to $1,400,000, says Botwin.
Beyond the direct replacement costs of turnover, says Botwin, consider the following costs:

• Lower productivity (according to one study, “actively disengaged” employees cost U.S. businesses $300 billion in productivity)
• Increased error rates
• Lower client satisfaction
• Higher turnover
• Higher legal expenses
• Less creativity to improve processes

• Engagement Impact on Recruiting

  Botwin offers the following impacts of engagement on recruiting new employees:
  

  High Engagement	Low Engagement
  Lower recruiting fees	Increased recruiting fees
  Less strain on internal resources to recruit	high strain on internal resources to recruit
  Recruiters have more time to find top talent	Recruiters simply try to fill job requisitions
  Increase in employee referrals of quality candidates	Less help from staff to find talent

  Engagement Impact on Productivity

  High Engagement	Low Engagement
  Employees care more about quality of work	Employees do their job with less care
  Employees are more focused on their work	Employees are more focused on complaining
  Employees dot their i’s and cross their t’s	Employees do the minimum to avoid getting in trouble
  Employees identify issues and work towards fixes	Employees see issues and ignore/complain about them
  Employees display more creativity and ownership for quality	Employee don’t care

  Engagement Impact on Client Service

  High Engagement	Low Engagement
  Customer sees cohesive team/vendor	Customer sees vendor as unenthusiastic, disinterested
  Positivity about a product or service is contagious	Customer feel unappreciated
  Perception is that the customer is buying something better	Customers wonder why they are buying from you
  Customer enjoys the experience	Customer can’t wait to leave
  Relationships built with clients	Clients are transactionary

   

  Engagement Impact on Sales

  High Engagement	Low Engagement
  Increased repeat business	Clients likely to try competition
  Increased cross-selling	Limited cross-selling
  Clients more likely to work with you to solve problems	Clients just return product
  Clients happy to hear from you	Can’t get client on the phone
  Better reputation on the street	Bad news travels fast