Over the last few weeks I’ve been writing and speaking about corporate culture and as a part of that effort I sent out a survey to see what my audience thinks about the topic.  In today’s post we’ll take a look at the results of the survey and I’ll share some of my own insights as well.

What Matters The Most?

In the first question, I asked respondents to rate various factors so that I could see what ranks as the most important for job seekers.  Here’s what we found with the results:

1. Among the 6 factors presented, salary ranked 4th in terms of importance to respondents
   1. If you’re trying to attract a candidate, keep this in mind.  Ensure that your salary offer for the position is fair, and then move on to the cultural aspects to seal the deal.
2. The team you’ll be working with ranked as “very important” to 95% of our audience.
   1. This really highlights the importance of having a good on-boarding process.
3. Over two thirds of our audience said it was somewhat important or not at all important to see reviews from current or past employees at the company they’re considering.
   1. Based on these results we can infer that your candidate would rather experience your company’s culture first hand so have them meet your team as early as possible in the process.

While I expected some of the trends we witnessed with this question, I was a little surprised by the overwhelming response on a few of the factors.

What Makes People Leave?

The 2nd question asked people to share the “catalyst” moment that made them decide to leave their last job.  Some of those moments were unique but here were some of the trends that stood out.

1. People leave when there’s a lack of material and cultural support from their manager.
2. Transparency has a direct correlation with employee feelings on company direction.
3. When someone feels like they can no longer contribute to a company, they start looking for their next opportunity.

The bottom line here is that if you want to keep your talent on board, you’ve got to; understand their needs and provide them with support, treat transparency as more than just a buzzword, and allow your employees plenty of opportunity to grow as professionals.

Do Managers Understand?

One thing that always interests me is how people interpret the relationship with their manager.  In the 3rd question, I asked people to rate how well their manager understands them and the news is somewhat good for the managers out there.  Over two thirds of our respondents said that their manager understands their needs at least moderately well.

Understanding the needs of your team is obviously very important but you have to follow it up with action.  If you aren’t sure where to start, here’s what I would recommend:

• Carve out at least 20 minutes a week to check in with each person that reports to you.
• Ask them for the 3 things they like the most, and the 3 things they dislike the most about their role and document accordingly.  If there are overlaps on likes/dislikes between multiple team members, pass that up to your C levels.  
• Ask them if there are any tools, training programs, or new processes, that you can set them with to help them achieve their daily tasks more efficiently.

Remember, it’s not enough to know what’s wrong if – you need to have some solutions in place and stay focused on making things better every day!

More To Come!

In the next post we’ll dig into what people highlighted as their favorite and least favorite elements about their current organization.  We’ll also review some of the common perks that companies offer to see how they rate in terms of importance to our audience.  Finally, we’ll explore the process of employees voicing their concerns to management.  Hopefully I can help you navigate those muddy waters and keep your team moving forward!
Tyson Conrad