Streamline Training & Documentation: Respect Pays Off (and So Does Trimming Deadwood)

Friday, September 15, 2006

Respect Pays Off (and So Does Trimming Deadwood)

Even though, as explained in an earlier post, I'm quite confident that treating employees with respect is an essential part of managing well, I'm always on the lookout for fresh evidence of the accuracy of this view.

The September issue of Training magazine picks up a press release from Sirota Survey Intelligence reporting "two common-sense human resource polices" that can promote employee retention. One of the policies is treating all employees with respect, and the other is dealing effectively with poor performers.

The supporting data:

"Employees who do not feel treated with respect by their employers are more than three times more likely [63% vs. 19%] to intend to leave their jobs within two years than those who feel they are treated respectfully ..." (from a survey of over 370,000 employees)

"37% of employees who feel very good about how they are respected are enthusiastic about their employers, compared with only 12% of employees who just feel good about how they are treated."

"While almost half of senior-level managers feel they are shown a great deal of respect, just one-quarter of supervisors, and only one-fifth of non-management employees, feel the same way."

"Only 2 out of 5 employees who feel their companies are doing much too little to correct poor employee performance are favorably engaged at work ..." (from a survey of over 34,000 employees)

Conversely, there is "a favorable engagement level of 73% among those who feel their companies are taking the necessary steps to correct poor employee performance."

"... 33% of management and 43% of non-management employees think their companies are not doing enough to deal with poor performers ..."

David Sirota identifies indifference as the main failing of employers whose employees feel they are not respected. In other words, recognizing and rewarding good performance is a big part of what makes employees feel respected.

As for dealing with poor performers, the most common shortcoming is managers' reluctance to confront problem individuals. CIO Magazine offers a five-step process for dealing with poor performers here. Though the article is addressed to IT managers, the advice is suitable for any part of an organization.

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Labels: Management practices, Respect, Rewards and recognition

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