Retaining top talent and reducing turnover is a key component to the growth and success of your company. According to the Corporate Leadership Council, highly engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave their companies than their less engaged counterparts. How can you ensure that your best employees don’t leave?
Drive employee engagement by clearly communicating a compelling vision for your company. This is the unique factor that sets you apart from other job opportunities. When employees feel connected to the bigger picture and see themselves as key contributors within your organization, engagement goes up and people are less likely to look elsewhere.
What does a compelling vision look like? The number-one mistake I see leaders make here is creating a slogan instead of a vision. In order for your vision to be effective, it has to be specific. You have to clearly define it, and that requires more than one sentence. I refer to this as a vision script rather than a vision statement.
Here are the four components of a compelling vision script you can use to reduce turnover:
1. Vision for your team. It’s important to start by focusing on your team, because they are the glue that holds your company together. Imagine your company three years from now. How do you want your organization to be viewed by its employees?
How will you take care of your people? What benefits do you hope to provide in terms of work environment, career growth, and work/life balance? What values and core traits do you want your team to embody? Having this defined from the top down will help each member of your team be invested in the overall culture of the organization.
2. Vision for your product or services. Take the time to define what you want your products or services to provide to your customers. What need do you fulfill, and how do you want to go about doing it?
Outlining this clearly will establish straightforward expectations for what you offer now, as well as outline a path for future products or services. When you clarify the vision for what you bring to market, you also give your company a means by which to measure whether or not a new idea fulfills and drives the vision you set.
3. Vision for sales and marketing. Think big here. This is the big picture of how you want your company and products to be viewed by your customers. What impact do you want to make in their lives? How do you want to do it?
Connecting your employees to why it’s important to provide this product or service will help drive engagement. The point is to provide a clear touchpoint as to how they fit into this vision and their role in it moving forward.
4. Vision for the impact. If everything came together as you hope, if your goals were met or even exceeded…what would that mean? Define the outcome you want to achieve. This can include the financial goals you have set as well as other less tangible goals, such as influence.
Taking the time to clarify and communicate a well thought-out vision will excite and motivate your employees. It will connect them to the bigger story they are a part of and, in turn, drive employee engagement and reduce turnover.
Last modified on October 11th, 2022 at 9:37 am
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