A Young Professionals Guide to Helping Your Boss w/ Employee Recognition

Retention is another big HR word, you read about it in a lot of blog post, so of course, you’re going to read it in mine 🙂

As the #HRNewbie in the office setting, you get to see the company through a fresh pair of eyes. I’ve said before, don’t go into a company and try to change everything without understanding the why.

At a previous job of mine, we went through at least 5 General Managers or acting General Managers within 1 year – I’m not exaggerating. One of the biggest issues I noticed from each of these people was, they came into a busy company making changes without sitting back for even a day to find out what was actually wrong.

This annoyed me to no end, observation is your best friend when you’re starting a job. Now if it’s a serious issue then no, you shouldn’t just sit back and watch it happen, but you need to get to know your employees, your leadership team, coworkers, and the company.

As you can imagine, with all of those GM changes also came a good amount of terminations. The employees we had weren’t listening to anything management had to say, HR was hours away, our District Manager didn’t know everything that was going on … it was a train wreck. I was an employee at that time, not a manager, and even now I sometimes wonder how I became an assistant manager because my team members have stories! But, the point is, as a team member, I still understood what the problems were and was able to go to the DM about them.

We finally got a GM to stay, things weren’t there best, but at least the store had a little bit of stability. Now they had to work on how to get the employees to stay.

In this case, one of the best options for our company was recognition and employee benefits. Helping your boss understand what new benefits employees might be interested in, do we have a wellness program in play, what about child care? The key is to be realistic about these goals as well. It could be something as simple as rewarding a team member by allowing them to make their schedule for one week. Getting them lunch for a job well done.

Yes, we are paying our employees to do a job, but people are more than just money. Making a real connection with your coworkers and employers is just as important for a good number of employees.

As a young professional, you can help your boss to understand what your employees are wanting to make them better in the workplace. We won’t be able to fix every situation or supply them with every benefit, depending on the company, but this small change can improve your retention rate, your new hire rate, the culture, and overall happiness of the entire company.

Until Next Time …