A Culture of Connection: A Strategic Approach to Employee Staffing and Retention

Robin Throckmorton, M.A., SPHR

Because I was able to attend the annual SHRM Conference in Las Vegas on June 25 - 28, I wanted to share with you some of what I learned from the presentation on A Culture of Connection: A Strategic Approach to Employee Staffing and Retention by Dr. Joan Brannick.

Imagine creating a strategic approach to staffing and retention - in this market??? Can you imagine the results if you are successful??

Dr. Brannick began by identifying the four core cultures found in most organizations. These cultures were found by surveying companies about "what is the most important value that drives financial success in your company?" The four cultures were:

Customer service (i.e. Disney): creates solutions, close to the customer, anticipates needs, and empowerment;

Innovation (i.e. Microsoft): create the future, technology, new products, and brainpower;

Operational excellence (i.e. McDonalds): create the process, minimize cost, maximize efficiency, and quality;

Spirit (i.e. Ben and Jerry's): create environment, unleash power of people, higher calling, and collective team energy.

The disconnect comes when an organization recruits for one culture, hires for another, and retains for yet another culture. Therefore, it is important for a company to determine their culture to effectively determine how best to recruit, hire, and retain employees.

From here, Dr. Brannick shared her insight on the eight best practices of staffing:

1) The WOW factor (i.e. Southwest Airlines)

2) Applicant as customer

3) Image is everything

4) Get real (provide a realistic preview)

5) Job or no job (if the person is good - find them a job)

6) Multiplicity (be selective using multiple tools and people)

7) The great employee profile (who are the top 10 - 20%)

8) Beyond benchmarking (don't forget internal resources)

Dr. Brannick discussed some examples of these best practices being performed at various companies. However, she cautioned that you shouldn't copy what they do but rather how they think.

This same thought process applies to the eight best practices for retention:

1) Engage the soul (compelling reason to want to come to work)

2) What gets rewarded gets done

3) More than money

4) Learning drives earning

5) Get a life

6) In the loop (communicate, communicate, communicate)

7) Lighten up

8) Free at last

Again, Dr. Brannick shared some examples of these best practices at various organizations throughout the country. The one example that struck me as very creative was Quick Solutions, Inc. that provided the following benefits after 3 years of employment: house cleaning once a month and a $1200 annual vacation bonus. Don't forget, don't mimic what they did but mimic how they thought.

With these best practices in mind, Dr. Brannick challenged each of us to begin developing an action plan following these steps:

1) Clearly focus on one core culture

2) Prioritize your alignment efforts

3) Obtain applicant / employee feedback

4) Create alignment initiatives

5) Implement alignment initiatives

6) Monitor and evaluate

If you would like to hear more from Dr. Brannick, you may want to consider her book Finding and Keeping Great Employees that received recognition from Fortune Magazine as the "best business book".