Sharing Strategies: Panelists provide insight on long-term engagement to retain employees

A recent panel discussion of business leaders provided reflections on employee retention strategies as the labor market continues to remain tight locally and nationally. 

Building and maintaining culture, engaging employees and establishing worker-friendly workplace policies were among topics covered. The Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the May 22 event.

The Show Me State’s unemployment rate was up a tenth of a percentage point in April, according to the latest data from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.

Missouri’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate last month was 3.9%, which was slightly above the U.S. unemployment rate of 4.2%. The national mark was flat for April from the prior month.

Additionally, the Springfield metro area saw a month-over-month decrease of 400 jobs in April, with seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll at 236,700, according to MERIC.

Jonathan Garard, co-owner of Grooms Office Environments, said employee growth and retention for his company comes down to placing people over profit.

“That’s a hard thing to say when you’re in a business environment, in a world that we live in,” he said. “But people matter. It has to start with leadership. There has to be a heart and passion to serve those around you.”

Joining Garard on the panel were Lynette Weatherford, president of Human Resource Advantage LLC, and Beth Keeling, chief people officer at Paragon Architecture LLC. Moderator was Brad Coy, senior executive search consultant with Toledo, Ohio-based WorldBridge Partners LLC.

The panelists shared the following tips:

On questions for employees to ask about company culture:

Keeling: “Do I have a voice? Am I allowed to speak what is important to me or share my ideas? Or share maybe something that’s contradictory to what’s being said in a really respectful way?”

On leadership communicating a clear vision to employees:

Garard: “If you don’t have the vision laid out in front of you, and you don’t recommunicate that over and over, sometimes it’s [easy] to lose sight of the why.”

On the importance of strategic planning:

Keeling: “Every single employee goes to our strategic planning session, from interns to owner. And when we say you have a voice, it isn’t encouraged; it’s expected. We want to hear what you have to say, and we want to know your thoughts.”

On embracing challenging conversations with employees:

Weatherford: “Communication is key, and it’s OK to dive in. It’s OK if you feel like it’s going to be defensive or confrontational, but you have to get past that. And they have to truly feel like the leaders and the managers are there for servant leadership.”

On praising employees for contributions:

Garard: “We all are working and contributing towards something bigger than ourselves, but it’s ownership and leadership’s responsibility to recognize the individual contributions that are made to that team effort. That has to be done verbally. You have to say it out loud and you have to say it publicly.”

On leadership providing fun activities for employees:

Garard: “If you’re in a leadership position, you better go all in with them because they’re following your example.”