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Do your clients and employees feel valued?



Bill Doucas was a typical car dealer. He was hard to get a hold of, he had a million projects in the air and he rarely had time to meet with advertising reps. I used every trick in the book to get my first appointment. Seeding was my preferred method of warming up cold calls — finding relevant articles and sending them to prospects in the hopes of engaging them in conversation and securing appointments. After "seeding" Bill for about six weeks, I finally got the meeting. We connected and started doing lots of business together. Six months into our relationship, Bill said to me, "Before I knew you, you used to send me all sorts of articles that I found interesting enough to meet with you. Now that we are working together, you haven't sent me any articles. Why?"

Ouch!

I was so concerned with going after new business, that I had neglected to provide the same value to my current businesses. Thankfully, because of Bill's admonition, that never happened again.

Fast forward to 2022, and we are in the midst of the Great Resignation. Seemingly every business on the planet is searching for new talent. I wonder if there is a "Bill Doucas" type lesson here for those of us in leadership/management positions. According to the Achievers Workforce Institute's 2022 Engagement and Retention Report, up to 66% of your current workforce may have one foot out the door. You read that right – 66%. "On the flip side, our research shows that employees who are explicitly not planning to job-hunt this year are those who feel valued and supported by their employers."

In our quest to find new talent, are we neglecting the current team, as I did with Bill Doucas? Here is the key problem identified in the report: "41% of employees do NOT feel valued at work."

Ouch!

Here are the three things the report suggests we do right now to improve that number:

Acknowledge — Ensure that employees know that you're aware of their workloads and are working to alleviate the burden.

Assist — Take steps to offer support, resources and assistance where possible.

Recognize — Recognition can go a long way towards ensuring that employees feel seen and valued.

Whether it's a current client or team member, saying "thank you" is likely not enough. Achievers Workforce Initiative suggests these best practices:

Timely — Your recognition should be given for something that just happened.

Specific — Don't just say thank you, thank them with specifics. ("I like how you used seeding to cultivate that prospect.")

Public — Recognition should be given publicly so that team members can share in the praise and those being recognized can bask in the limelight.

Values — Aligned — Tie the recognition back to the core values of the organization. ("I like how you used seeding to cultivate that prospect because as you know new business development is one of our core objectives and you are helping us achieve that.")

Client or employee — do they feel valued? It's something to ponder and perhaps motivates you to develop a strategy to make some improvements.

Jeff Schmidt is SVP-Professional Development at the Radio Advertising Bureau. You can reach Jeff at jeff.Schmidt@Rab.com or follow him on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn.

Source: Jeff Schmidt, SVP of Professional Development, RAB