Why Do Your People Come To Work?

He looked at me like I had three heads.

There I was - sitting opposite of my client, having spent the last ten minutes listening to his disdain for millennials.

I sensed an opportunity to dig deeper and seek to understand where the disconnect between his perspective and that of his younger counterparts was coming from, so I asked in a curious-yet-neutral way:

“Do you know why they come to work? What motivates this group?”

“Or let’s simplify the question and just focus in on Tania*. She works on your team, takes direction and learns from you every day - what is important to her as she grows her career at your firm?”

He looked at me like I had three heads. He had never thought to ask.

I am sure my surprise showed more than I had intended, which was mirrored in his expression that was somewhere between incredulous and perhaps an ‘aha’ moment. He still did not see why it was his job to ask. But was it ever.

I hear a lot of concerns from business owners and business leaders about the challenges they face attracting and retaining talent. These are meaty challenges that are impacted by a number of factors, some within business’ control and some outside of it.

So where to begin?

By acting on what is within a business’ control. Simply by having a candid, caring conversation with your team members about what drives them, what motivates them, and what is important to them. From there you will have more insight into how to align opportunities that may exist in the business that will further engage them or provide them with the experiences they are looking for and, in turn, help them see a future for themselves in your business. These conversations also have the added benefit of allowing you as the business owner or leader to dispel any misconceptions your team members may have about the business and its goals, while taking positive steps to create psychological safety (I’ll do a separate post on this big and important subject).

As having these types of conversations is not necessarily easy for everyone, some questions that could be helpful are:

• What attracted to you this role? What’s keeping you in it?

• What do you enjoy about your role?

• What are your career aspirations?

• How can I help you get there?

What happens if your colleague shares great insights and you don’t know what to do with them? Or what if there just are no apparent opportunities for them in your business currently? Or worse yet, what if you find out that they are not that excited about their role, and may even be looking to leave?

Not to worry. All good outcomes, and here is why:

• The worst possible situation is mutual guess-work caused by not having any conversation at all. You are guessing whether or not your team member is engaged, or they are showing signs they are not but you don’t know why. Your team member does not see a future with your business or is afraid to ask for fear of appearing to not be a ‘team player’ or risk being written off as someone who is looking to leave anyway. Result? No one moves forward and lower than optimal engagement and productivity.

• So your team member indicates they are looking to move on. By remaining open and curious, you can learn why they feel this way and whether or not there are any misconceptions about opportunities in your business - and you have the opportunity to dispel them! If you can see their perspective and their goals do not align with your current business opportunities, you have the opportunity to be a constructive part of their career journey. Don’t forget - it’s a small world. Many great employees boomerang. Others become referral sources or even clients. Supporting employees in their exit is not only a kind thing to do but it also happens to be a great business decision.

• Or finally, your team member excitedly shares lots of ideas, dreams, aspirations and completely overwhelms you; you can’t see how to connect the dots between where they are and where they want to be. That’s ok. I’ll go as far to say that that’s not your role. Your role is to be interested and express your willingness to help them (if it is authentic - whatever you do, don’t fake it).

Without having the information as to what your people want, need, and why they come to work other than the paycheque, you are exposing the business to undue talent risk.

The attraction and retention market is tough enough; don’t add to it by avoiding the conversation.

Want support with unearthing how to attract and retain top performers? Contact us today.