2023 is quickly approaching and the beginning of the new year tends to bring a wave of people who are looking to switch things up in their professional lives. Now is the time to double down on talent retention. Ask yourself, how will your company keep its talent in the new year?
We’ve generated three key workplace New Year’s resolutions for 2023 based on emerging trends from organizational psychology research. By continually innovating workplace strategies to follow research on best practices, you’ll have a competitive advantage over companies that stick to the status quo.
New Year’s Resolution #1: Equip Leaders to be Coaches
Increasingly, organizations are incorporating workplace coaching. This is more than a fad: substantial research supports the use of coaching in organizations to enhance workplace attitudes, employee performance and skills, and goal-directed self-regulation among employees. If employees report to a leader who coaches them, they are far more likely to feel motivated and engaged. Consider the differences between traditional management and leaders who coach:
| Coaching Leaders | Traditional Management |
| Asks direct reports questions and actively listen | Answers questions and clarifies |
| Seeks to inspire and motivate | Seeks to give guidance |
| Helps direct reports envision and reach their unique goals | Points employees to the typical next steps in a career trajectory |
Coaching is effective because it builds relationships and motivates employees. While external coaches can be beneficial, equipping your leaders with coaching skills so that they can have the agility to dive into coaching conversations on a daily basis might be a more cost-effective strategy. Coaching involves emotional intelligence, communication skills, and empathy – all of which are skills you want your leaders to have in 2023.
(We offer a Learning & Development opportunity called Turning Managers into Coaches, which talks about all of this more in depth. Contact the Titus team to learn more.)
New Year’s Resolution #2: Evolve Your Performance Management
Performance management has major implications for employee engagement and motivation. Major takeaways from the most recent research in regards to performance management include:
- Ensure that performance objectives for each employee are highly specific and involve measurable outcomes. Employees need to know exactly what their responsibilities are and what outcomes they should achieve. Solid performance management begins with clear performance objectives. It’s worth revisiting performance objectives to ensure they are specific and up to date for 2023 goals. (Download our Performance Objectives guide HERE to learn more.)
- Make performance management a 2-way conversation. A great way to begin a performance management conversation is to ask the employee, “How do you think you’re doing?” This lowers defenses and allows employees critical self-reflection time. Aim to make performance management conversations increasingly interactive in 2023. Our preferred modes for these conversations are frequent one-on-ones and in-depth coaching conversations.
- Emphasize consistent, informal feedback over annual reviews. Employees thrive off of high quality, consistent feedback. When employees receive feedback in real time, they can make immediate changes to their performance. Why wait for an annual review when you can provide on the spot feedback? Consider providing a company training on giving and receiving feedback in 2023, to mitigate reliance on formal annual reviews.
New Year’s Resolution #3: Equip HR with Data and Tools
If your HR department is relying on hunches in 2023, you’re behind the curve. Data analysis is a powerful tool that should not be limited to your sales department. HR needs data to keep a pulse on employee engagement so that they can take action to retain talent. Here are some data your HR department should be capturing:
- Turnover rate.
- Not all turnover is bad (losing an employee who isn’t aligned is typically a good thing for the company). However, turnover is a cost to the company and should be closely monitored. Is there a specific department that suffers a high turnover rate? This is valuable knowledge for HR.
- Reasons for turnover.
- Along with turnover rate, it is highly helpful to capture data on the reason(s) for employee turnover. Are you consistently getting beat by other companies on compensation? Does a certain leader in your company need more training on engaging employees? Is your onboarding process effective? Consider capturing this information through things like exit interviews and employee onboarding satisfaction surveys.
- Employee engagement.
- If an HR department can spot low engagement levels before employees leave the company, they can potentially intervene before it’s too late. Capture and analyze engagement levels in 2023 through tools such as an anonymous quarterly engagement survey.
If you are hoping to retain your talent in 2023, it’s imperative that you evolve company practices based on current research. Sticking with a comfortable status quo jeopardizes your competitiveness in the current worker’s market.
Equipping leaders with coaching skills, revisiting performance management methods, and providing HR with tools and data can make a drastic difference in employee retention. While these New Year’s resolutions take significant effort, they are well worth it in the long run. So roll up your sleeves and resolve to keep your talent in 2023.
Schedule a demo today to see how Etho can help you build a deeply connected, high-performing organization going into 2023!
