What do insider threats and girl friends have in common?
They both can screw you over pretty good if you don’t treat them well!
So here are seven things you and leadership can do to keep your employees loyal to your company or agency.
- Choose for the long-term – Just as no one goes into a long-term relationship or marriage expecting it to end, be sure to hire employees who can be there, and support you over the long-term. Do your due diligence; know their background, ask the right questions when you interview them. Do you get the sense they want to be with you for the long-haul?
- Follow through on what you promise – Once they are onboard, follow through on the promises you made to them when you interviewed them – are they being paid what you promised? Are they in the job you promised? With the advancement path you promised? Do they have the authority you promised?. If circumstances change and you cannot, deal with it up front and either renegotiate the offer, or let them go.
- Show them you really care – Don’t say “our employees are our most important asset” and then treat your furniture better than you do your staff. Remember, 90% of company’s value walks out the door at 5pm each day. Work to take care of your employees professional and personal needs in a way that sustains the loyalty they had for you on day one.
- Know what’s important to them – Actively seek and document what is important to (at a minimum) your high-value/high-risk employees, and talk about these things this regular performance reviews. This overt act will go a long way to developing the trust you need to keep good employees from turning into insider threats.
- Share what’s important to you – Just as important, communicate to your employees what’s important to you – organizationally, and on a personal level. Building trusting relationships depends on both parties opening themselves a bit to talk about what’s important, like fears, vulnerabilities, dreams, and goals, or other factors that might affect the relationship. Employees whose value systems align with the organization do not turn out to be insider threats.
- Show sincere interest for their well being – Take time to check out how other factors are affecting their loyalty. Did you put them under an abusive manager? Are they overworked? Are there other personal or family issues that if not addressed, can affect how they feel about working for you? Employees who live a balanced life – professionally, personally, physically, and spiritually are less likely to become insider threats.
- Be all in, or don’t be afraid to end it – Finally, if you can’t keep your promises, or determine that someone you hired cannot keep theirs, don’t be afraid to end the relationship. Keeping an unhappy or disloyal employee around will just compound the problem – just as the U.S. Army if they should have recycled Mr./Ms. Manning when he was first discharged from boot camp. Better to dole out some severance pay now than grow a disgruntled employee that will cost you 10, 100, or 1,000 fold a few years later.
At the end of the day, it really all comes down to making a real effort to hire the right people, give them the opportunities you promised them, and taking the time to check in with them to see if they are still glad they came to work for you.
Remember, no one that comes to work for you on day one wants to hurt you, so take the time and effort needed to keep them feeling that way!
r/Chuck