People retention is a key issue in many sectors - so what can you do to reduce attrition rates? In my opinion, it's about winning hearts & minds rather than just using carrots & sticks. I firmly believe that many organisations fall into the trap of trying to make a boring, tough or stressful job more tolerable through extrinsic motivation. Yes, we know it's not a great job but look at the rewards & benefits package, the team spirit, the social events and the prizes (carrots) you can win! But if you're not very good at it, the carrots turn into sticks. When people leave these organisations, they often talk about missing their colleagues but very rarely their jobs. So why don't you make it less boring instead? Instead of just compensating for the nature of the role, you should also look at ways to make the job more interesting and enjoyable - enabling people to derive intrinsic motivation from it. Creating a role that offers intrinsic motivation is more likely to reduce attrition. It will stop most people looking in the first place and make the others think twice before moving on. If people enjoy their roles, they are less likely to wonder if the grass is greener on the other side. When people do leave, they usually talk about missing their colleagues and loving their jobs. They also tend to retain a sense of pride, loyalty and emotional attachment to the organisation. So how do you create the right environment for intrinsic motivation? Alfie Kohn, in his excellent book Punished by Rewards, breaks it down into collaboration, content and choice. I have distilled this further into practical tips and summarised it on a slide I hope you find it useful. Please use this link to check out my full article on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/post/edit/intrinsic-motivation-key-people-retention-jon-stephenson

1. Collaboration
• Engage with people about decisions relating to them – don’t just impose any changes
• Apply situational leadership and your ‘permission to differentiate’ to treat them fairly
• Ask what they don't like about their jobs and help them to do something about it
• Involve them in problem solving, cross-functional projects, and design workshops
• Ensure they understand how their roles are aligned with the business strategy
• Explain how their roles make a difference to your organisation’s performance
Content
• Equip your people with the tools & equipment they need to do their jobs
• Develop systems that will continuously improve the nature of their roles
• Remove any waste (inefficiencies) from processes that they’re using
• Identify and address the root cause of any customer dissatisfaction
• Automate the boring and repetitive elements of their workload
• Upskill them and rotate their duties to add variety to their day
• Put forward secondments and development opportunities
Choice
• Empower people to make decisions – don't micromanage them
• Encourage them to learn from mistakes, near misses, successes
• Provide them with flexibility and autonomy to do the right thing
• Give them permission to experiment – don't be too prescriptive
Jon Stephenson
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/stephensonjon
People Retention – maximising intrinsic motivation