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The Skinny

Phase out.

Posted on Saturday, September 4

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Weekly Skinny

Let’s start off on the right foot

“You were never little red riding hood, you were always the wolf.” –Abby Wombach


 

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The skinny

The workforce is disengaged, which spells disaster, especially for new hires.

Why?

Disengaged employees are basically wet blankets to your company culture party. And these wet blankets aren’t cheap. Lost productivity from not engaged and actively disengaged employees is equal to 18% of their annual salary. 

Must be Egyptian cotton.

A true sleeper hit. Don’t sleep on this tho: If a new hire that you worked so hard to bring on lands on a disengaged team, bad news is they’re probably not going to stay very long.

So, what’s the solution?

Leadership. Engaged managers are the anecdote to the wet blankets; they are like the perfect party playlist. In fact, it would take a 20% pay raise to lure most employees away from a manager they trusted, liked, and felt engaged by.

Pump up the jams then.

That’s the spirit. On the playlist? The 12 essential elements of engagement—clear expectations and learning and growth opportunities, to name a few. Want more good news? 

Always.

Engagement has a reciprocal relationship with well-being. Engaged employees are healthier, more resilient, and better performers overall. That, and they’re more loyal. Once they “subscribe to your channel,” it’s difficult to get them to unsubscribe, aka leave.

What else is on the engaged manager playlist?

Bangers like accountability, individualized performance management, and of course, meaningful conversations. Supporting managers and encouraging (ahem: training) them to provide engaging experiences to their teams is vital to creating a company culture that is unforgettable. AKA a party that no one wants to leave.

Not fun fact: Replacing workers requires ½ to 2x the employee’s annual salary, which could range between $25,000 - $100,000.

Date with data: 74% of employees are actively disengaged compared to 69% in 2019.

Further reading: Next in work: how companies can help their businesses and employees thrive.

Totes quotes: "Reversing the Great Resignation requires fixing the Great Discontent—and managers are the key.” –Vipula Gandhi, managing partner, Gallup, Jennifer Robison, Senior Editor at Gallup


 

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The skinny

Despite being a 20-year-old technique, return-to-work programs could be key to filling open positions.

Remind me what those are again?

Grab your denim and let’s revisit. They are hiring programs that target people who have gaps in their careers for child care or education reasons, for example. Amazon is expanding its return-to-work initiative by hiring/training 1,000 returning professionals.

Wow.

Yeah, talk about doubling down. And the importance of hiring people in this specific demographic cannot be ignored. 

Why not?

It’s a huge group of people. 1.79 million women and 1.75 million men have left the labor force entirely since February 2020.

That’s a lot.

Sure, these numbers are big, but remember the 20-year-old-strategy part? There’s a reason for that.  

Enlighten me.

Hiring and training people who have taken a break from their careers isn’t just good for recruiting efforts, it’s just plain old good PR. And it’s also good for strengthening diversity efforts.

How exactly?

Return-to-work programs signal to employees at all life stages that the company recognizes that careers needn’t be linear, and it normalizes the idea that professionals may leave for a time for personal reasons and come back, better than ever.  

How do you target them?

Returnships are a great way to start your return-to-work program. Just like when you hire a bunch of college interns, you target at least 25 individuals to go through a training program together then partner each “relauncher” with a buddy or mentor would be great for additional support.

Ok, what else?

Don’t forget the importance of goal setting and helping manage imposter syndrome. Here’s the recipe for success: the best return-to-work programs have an executive champion, designated program managers, and leverage internal employee referrals.

Totes quotes: “Companies should reexamine their attitudes toward relaunchers as well. Return-to-work programs provide access to a high-quality, diverse talent pool while simultaneously signaling to current employees and alumni that their company is forward-thinking and employee-centric.” –Carol Fishman Cohen, CEO and cofounder of iRelaunch

Date with data: 57% of male and 74% of female Millennials anticipate taking a career break.

Further reading: How to get back to work after a career break.


 

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The skinny

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, closing out or checking off periods of time can help you move forward.

What does that mean?

Think about it. The human mind craves completion. We need to check box A before we move on to box B. Basically, labeling and closing out the “past” can help you get through periods of stress.  

Still confused.

Take the pandemic for example. We all went through more phases than the moon in 2020. There was the “this is only for two weeks” phase, or the “I can’t believe I just stacked four different kinds of Pringles and created a new flavor” phase, or the “carb + carb + carb + wine” phase.

Wait, still in that last phase.

Same. But the point is imagining these phases (or even writing them down) and then checking them off (or even ripping them up) will allow you to enter a new phase and stop reliving the stressors of the past. Especially for working parents who still might have a little PTSD from the “endless Zoom school” phase.  

**Shivers.**

Now that you’ve crossed off your past, it’s time to start thinking about the next phase. Is this “start a new fun job” phase? Or maybe “get used to being a new mom while back in the office” phase?

“Getting some new pants” phase.

Good for you. For better or worse, those past months of the pandemic are done and dusted. Don’t carry that emotional burden anymore. Enter a new phase, with new possibilities, new goals, and a clean, beautiful slate.

Further reading: Let’s talk honestly about stress in the workplace.

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