Talent and HR News Update: Culture & Thankfulness

As we enter the busiest time of year, we wanted to focus this month’s talent and HR news update on company culture and thankfulness. Whether finding ways to appreciate your employees or better understanding your organization’s culture, we’ve curated five articles just for you. And stay tuned for a special feature from team exaqueo later this month!

1) 3 SIMPLE WAYS TO SHOW APPRECIATION FOR YOUR EMPLOYEES, NO MONEY NEEDED FROM INC.

Making your employees feel valued is easier (and less expensive) than you think.

Your employees play a significant role in the success of your company. You know that, and as an entrepreneur with a never-ending list of tasks, you likely feel never-ending gratitude for the men and women who take things off your plate. As we enter the season of giving thanks, there are many ways you can show your employees how much you care about them. Some methods are better than others, though. Here are three science-backed ways to you can effectively show your employees that they're valued.

2) THE BIGGEST REASON EMPLOYEES AREN'T HAPPY (AND IT'S FREE TO FIX) FROM THE NEW YORK POST 

Workers just want to feel appreciated. That’s the No. 1 factor impacting employees’ satisfaction with their employers, according to data released Tuesday by compensation data and software provider PayScale. It tops good communication, career development, pay and the company’s future outlook to take the top spot.

“Appreciation is key: An employee feeling appreciated or unappreciated moves the needle on satisfaction more than any other variable,” the report notes.

What’s more, showing appreciation to your employees is simple — and often free. There are the obvious things like employee awards, but there are other ways that are sometimes even more effective. Have bosses give employees one-off notes or thank-you cards praising them when they’ve done a good job and saying exactly what was so great about the work they did, says Chris Martin, the lead data analyst for PayScale. And he adds, make sure bosses are trained to give regular, positive feedback for performing employees.

3) HOW CORPORATE CULTURE CAN MAKE (OR BREAK) YOUR ORGANIZATION FROM FORBES

As the entrepreneurial bug bites more people and money floods into technology startups, the buzz about company culture continues to get louder. Whether it’s nap pods, private chefs, indoor tree houses or over-the-top parties, tech companies are pulling out all of the stops in hopes of creating the coolest corporate culture around. But flashy perks don't equal a good corporate culture. Unsurprisingly, many companies are reevaluating these costly perks in the face of high employee turnover and dissatisfaction. In order to create a corporate culture that is truly effective, leaders must look beyond the perks and focus on creating a workplace where employees not only enjoy spending their time but also feel fulfilled and valuable.

Corporate culture itself is much more than exciting benefits. Ultimately, it is the beliefs and behaviors that permeate your organization that are the essence of culture. While it’s not easily defined, culture is a living, breathing aspect of your business that develops and changes as you grow. It also extends to how you work with customers and partners and even how stakeholders and potential hires perceive you. For this reason, when I have the opportunity to work with entrepreneurs to help them build their businesses, I drive home the importance of intentionally developing a corporate culture that will be a truthful representation of their company’s values

4) HOW PAIRING EMPLOYEES WITH MENTORS CAN IMPROVE COMPANY CULTURE FROM TECH.CO

Building a strong culture where employees feel they are heard, included and valued can reduce a company’s turnover. We talked with Drew Johnson, CEO and founder of App Partner, about his employee management strategy, company culture experience, and how he retains employees. Here’s his advice to entrepreneurs:

Keep Candidates on Their Toes. One of my favorite interview questions is to ask a candidate for their elevator pitch. This is an especially telling question for marketing and sales hires, as I want to see if they can think on their feet and come up with a persuasive argument on a time crunch. I also like to ask sales candidates to pitch my company back to me, which allows me to determine if a candidate has done their homework and has an innate ability to sell.

For any position, it’s a great idea to throw a skills test at candidates. For our developers, we may ask them to construct a PHP API Backend. For marketing, we could ask them to throw together a mock social post. We want to make sure that our employees have natural talent in the areas that count, which is why it’s so important for us to test those skills on the spot.

5) EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION 101— HOW TO APPRECIATE THE WORK OF YOUR TEAM(S) FROM MEDIUM

Guiding Principles and Actionable Tips for Effective Employee Recognition in fast-growing organisations (ie. Startups)

If your company is conducting any internal surveys to measure the overall happiness of your employees, chances are that “not receiving enough recognition” scores high up among the areas of employees dissatisfaction.

Why should you care about Employee Recognition as a company? Plenty of research proves that receiving more personal recognition is among the most important factors in pushing your employees to deliver higher performance.

A research by Harvard Business Reviews, on the low-cost American carrier JetBlue, reveals that for every 10% increase in people reporting being recognized, JetBlue saw a 3% increase in retention and a 2% increase in engagement.

6) EMPLOYEE RETENTION STRATEGIES: 39 COMPANIES' KEY METHODS FOR RETAINING TALENT FROM TIME DOCTOR

It’s a troubling moment, isn’t it? When a valued employee tells you that he or she has found a better opportunity?

Employee retention is one of the biggest challenges that companies are facing today. The costs of losing a valued employee are substantial. According to a study by SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management), finding and training a replacement for an outgoing employee can cost as much as the equivalent of six to nine months of salary.

That is certainly not a figure you can ignore, right?

However, this data also has a silver lining – how much can your company save, if it can retain its employees longer? A lower employee turnover rate can make a significant positive impact to your bottom line.

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