3 Top Strategies for Member Retention for Site Staff 19/20

Transcript

Hello! Welcome to today’s training. To help WSC and WRC site staff and encourage retention of members, WSC is bringing to you this training on the 3 Top Strategies for Member Retention.

Let’s start by talking about our AmeriCorps Members. We appreciate them.

Those well intentioned human beings who have dedicated 6 to 10 months out of their life to serve at our sites.

They help improve local communities and do what they can to make the world a better place.

While also learning about themselves and developing new capabilities that will last them a lifetime and impact their future careers.

But serving is not a straight, smooth road from beginning to end and there can be bumps and uphill challenges along the way.

Midway through service term or February can be a particularly challenging time for members. Historically, WSC has observed that at this time of year members have a tendency to exit early. But whether your member is half-way through their service, or just starting out, these tips on Member Retention will help ensure your member has the extra support they need …

to make it through their entire service journey successfully.

Today’s training is part of WSC Core Required Trainings: Serve Today for a Better Tomorrow.

Retention Tip #1: Provide reinforcing and constructive feedback regularly.

The key to positive feedback is to be sure to do it regularly, such as, give each member one positive bit of feedback at least once a week. Putting a reoccurring reminder in your email program like outlook can be helpful too, so you don’t forget.

It’s also important to remember to make feedback specific, instead of just the generic "good" job. Adding some specific and visually, descriptive details about what they did well, is very effective as the word good doesn’t specifically clarify what they specifically did well, so it doesn’t quite pack the same reinforcing punch, as the member may not exactly know what behavior they need to duplicate.

According to a Harvard Business Review study, the recommended ratio of positive feedback to constructive feedback is also important. The ideal ratio between positive feedback and constructive statements should roughly be 5 positive feedbacks to 1 constructive feedback. Otherwise, despite your best intentions, people generally get the impression they are doing more wrong then good, or they may not feel appreciated. This really shows the importance of being strategic with constructive feedback and not overly using it, instead sprinkle in your constructive feedback, along with large helpings of positive feedback.

However, this sprinkling of constructive feedback is really important, so it’s nothing to avoid. Constructive feedback is particularly helpful if there is something a member is doing that needs to be

nipped in the bud right away. Especially, when it comes to disciplinary issues and sooner is always better than later, as whatever a member is doing can soon become a habit for them and become problematic for you. Constructive feedback done correctly is actually a blessing and can help your member grow both personally and professionally.

An expert on giving all sorts of feedback, including constructive, is Shari Harley the founder and president of Candid Culture, an international training and consulting firm. She is recognized as an authority by CBS, ABC and the Wall Street Journal, along with many organizations. Her firm focuses on how to bring candor back to the work place, so conflicts can be resolved and work can get done while creating a safe work haven for employees, managers, and clients. Her 9 minute “Giving Feedback for Strong Performance” presentation contains excellent suggestions on how to give effective feedback. So, let’s take a listen to what Shari has to say: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnSE-Cuxp40 (transcript below. )

Giving Feedback for Strong Performance Transcript (I typed them out and put them below, as the CC on Youtube’s site was very inaccurate.)

What I want to talk to you about today is what we can do with employees to give them feedback in a way that they can hear it, they can take it in and then they can shift their behavior and dissipate some of that defensiveness. Not make it go away which is not a goal, but make it get a little bit less.

So, two purposes of feedback and there are only two purposes. Who knows what's the purpose to giving feedback? To improve behavior or make it better, or to reinforce, and keep doing what you're doing. Those are the only two reasons to give feedback and I'm going to suggest you do something that I call check your motives at the door.

So if you're giving feedback for any other reason other than to help someone improve something or to continue doing what you're doing I’m going to say check your motives at the door. For example, I help companies manage the hiring process and there was a young man who interviewed for training position in a company and it was a joint interview and there was a group of several people who were doing interviews and he was the most qualified candidate, but the people who were interviewing just didn't like him. So he gets the job but the team that interviewed him isn't feeling great and they think the guy is kind of a jerk. And he said to them I'm so excited to be on your team and I think I was your first choice. And they look at him and say actually you are our third. I wouldn't want to be on that team. So check your motives at the door. The purpose the feedback again shift behavior to improve it

or keep doing what you're doing

Gentlemen every Friday you buy your wives or girlfriends or mothers flowers every single Friday for a year and she never says anything. What should you do? Yeah you should go out and buy yourself a really really nice Rolex, because if she isn't appreciating it and she's not demonstrating it, why keep doing it? Same as employees, so let’s talk about how do this.

Okay the two key elements of feedback are attributes and behaviors. Attributes and behaviors not just one. I help organizations manage succession planning to make sure that high potentials have a place to go. And as a result I read hundreds and hundreds of performance appraisals, our favorite year end process. And every time I read them I see the same thing in any country in any part of the US. I see puffed breakfast children cereal with milk sugared corn pops. No food, no nutrients just sugar and milk.

“Shirley is a really great team player. We’ve really enjoyed having her. She works really hard and she's had a great year. Thanks for contributing.”

It’s unfortunate because they aren't actually say anything and your employees need guidance. Your feedback is their compass and their guide and without it's like a little bit like that movie that came out several years ago the Blair Witch Project

Who saw that film? Horrible film. Right? I ended a relationship over that film. I'm sitting in the movie, I'm thinking this is the worst film I have ever seen. And I turn to the guy I've been dating for over 2 years and he says: "I love this movie its brilliant." That was the last day of our relationship. Truly I cannot date this man. But the movie made a really great point. So, in this film it's a group of high school students and their creating a documentary and there in the mountains in Maryland and they're looking for the Blair Witch, which is a little like the Lochness Monster and they go into the woods camping and they're looking for the Lochness monster and they get lost and when one of them gets particularly frustrated, you may remember, and they throw their map into the river and now they have no direction and the rest of the movie they walk around the same river doing laps, and I’m in visceral pain.

This is a little bit like managing people without feedback. They don't know what to do. It’s like going on a road trip and they're taking their kids to New York to Florida that and they didn't bring a map. Sooner than later they end up in Kansas they have no idea how they got there. So if you don't give you employee’s feedback and coach them in a timely way and be really clear direct it's the same thing.

So attributes and behaviors,we are going to practice:

Team player

Attribute or behavior?

Attribute.

Hard to work with. We love those people.

Attribute.

Someone said behavior.

How do you demonstrate being hard to work with give me a couple of examples: You're nastier surly and you come in late you don't keep your word. That is a behavior, so if you really want to people to shift their behavior and do something differently, which again is another purpose to feedback you want to give them attributes and behaviors.

Here's an example: I was working with the manager and a large mutual fund company in New Yorkm and I coach a lot of managers on how to help their employees improve, so she said to me I have this employee who is super aggressive and I just don't know what to do and when I gave her feedback she got really really defensive and nothing got better. And I said well what did you tell her? And she said well I said she's aggressive, and I said aggressive could be a lot of things that could be persistent it could be that you call until you get a yes, it could be tenacious it could be a variety of things. Someone's going to get defensive if they can't picture what you're talking about. Good feedback is like a video camera the person can see exactly what happened and they can see it go by, and that enables them to shift their behavior. So good feedback happens in a timely way I’m going to recommend you practice the twenty-four hour guideline and the one-week rule.

The twenty four-hour guideline and the one week rules, what this means is someone needs to be able to picture what you're talking about if they can't it's a missed opportunity. You just need to wait till happens again and if it's a problem it will. Also if you wait longer than that to give feedback they are going to think you hold a grudge and that's not the manager to you want to be. So again we're practicing timely feedback, and we've going to be clear and specific. So, I said to her tell me what she does that demonstrates aggression. And she said well if she leaves the meeting and she's upset she comes back to her desk and she slams stuff around and she slams the phone and she slams the draws and it's creating tension on the team, and it creates a sense of hostility and its bugging people. And I said that’s what you need to tell her. She said I can't tell her that it will hurt her feelings. I see so we're not going to say anything and hope it gets better?

I'm sure possibly some of you may be doing this at your company or maybe your bosses or someone you know. And it's not going to get better it's going to stay the same or it's going to get worse and it's not those people who leave the company it's your great people your people who really need coaching and feedback they are going to stay put, because they are not so marketable. So we need to get our courage together and we need to give feedback, and a couple things. Don't wait for the upset to go away don't wait for the defensiveness to go away, you should be really really grateful for it. I lover managers who say I'd really love to give Shari more feedback, but she gets so defensive, and I just don't want to hurt her feelings. That's about you not about them. Human beings are wired to defend themselves. Where the people with little children in the room? Who has little kids? When you teach little kids to cross the street. You tell them to do what, to look left, and to look right, and that's to keep them safe. When people get feedback and they get defensive it's the same thing it's to keep us safe.

So don't expect them not to get defensive just to wait for it. when they get upset and they cry they carry on and they might, go "awesome" they are still breathing and they are human and this is very, very good news. And when they stop crying then you have a conversation you be clear, you be specific, you paint a picture and lastly you offer them an alternative way to be.

So even when I see the best managers give feedback there's something they miss. They tell the person what happened, they state the consequence, but they don't offer another way to do things, and I always give people the benefit of doubt. I really think that if we knew another way to do something we would do it, so with the women with being aggressive. Here's what I would have said. I would have said Susie I’ve noticed something. When you leave a meeting and you're upset you come back to your desk and you slam down your phone and you slam your credential and it's creating a sense of tension on the team. Do you know what I’m saying? And you create a dialogue, because good feedback is a dialogue it's not you barfing on your employees. It's you having a conversation with them and involving them in the process.

Here's my suggestion It's when you're upset find another way to dispel that upset before coming back to the team. It's a suggestion and a request and ask if you are willing to do that? If she says well I guess what do you mean? Say take a walk around the block, have a drink, have a fruit smoothie they are good for you protein spirulina. When you feel comfortable come back to your desk, are you willing to do that?

So you have addressed it preferably within twenty four hours, but surely within a week. You're clear and you’re specific. You mention attributes and behaviors, so she can see exactly what happens. You involve her in the process and you give her another way to be. So, if you are really looking at employee retention what does this have to do with employee retention?

We know that people leave organizations the number one reason, because there's no place to go and a place to grow. The only way to help your employees grow and develop is to give them opportunities and coach them along the way. Find your courage, get to know your employees, be direct with them, make a difference with them every day by being honest, and they'll be loyal to you and they'll be committed.

I hope you found Shari’s ideas helpful on how to give feedback. But keep in mind, if you find yourself giving feedback due to disciplinary issues please call or email your WSC/WRC coordinator when this situation arises, as we can help too.

Retention Tip number 2: Provide Opportunities for Growth

Statistics show that people like to spend the majority of the time or roughly about 80% of their day doing what they are good at. The rest or 20% of the time is optimal for challenge and growth. So, a level of comfort in your member’s day is important, as too much challenge can overstress them, but you want to add challenges and opportunities into the mix too.

One way to provide both a challenge and opportunity to members is with ongoing education, training or experiences that they can participate in during their service term, which will also pave the way for professional opportunities in the future.

While your members are learning encourage them and express your belief in them. Communicate that they can achieve, even if there are set backs along the way. Cheer them on as you give them opportunities to grow! All members need a mentor and your support and belief in them can really make a difference in their life.

To help your member with growth opportunities WSC created the Opportunity & Growth Worksheet Activity. This optional worksheet can be a great tool to help you with the meeting, where you’ll map out a plan for your member’s professional development from now until the end of their service term. Feel free to take what you like and add additional elements as you see fit. But ultimately the goal of this activity is to finish your meeting with a plan for growth and development for your member from the present time until the end of service. These activities don’t necessary need to cost money and may include:

• a job shadowing opportunity• a networking opportunity in a field of member’s interest• an opportunity for the member to conduct an information interview in a field of their interest

You’ll want to schedule out an hour for this meeting and if possible have the member bring a copy of their resume and a cover letter, as it may help with the process. Keep in mind that many of these activities can count toward training hours on a Member’s TimeTracker timesheet. Contact your WSC/WRC coordinator, if you have any questions. You will find a copy of this Opportunity & Growth Worksheet on this training page under resources.

Retention Tip number 3: Provide Recognition

Research consistently shows that recognition is motivating. It provides members with a sense of accomplishment and makes them feel valued for their service. Recognition not only boosts a member’s engagement, but it also increases productivity and feelings of connection and loyalty, which ultimately increases retention. Recognition reinforces the behavior or activity you would like to see and so makes it much more likely your member will continue to repeat that positive behavior.

Claire McCarty, a professor at the College of Business and Economics at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls is an expert on how to incorporate recognition in your organization, and how to help people develop an emotional connection to what they do. When members develop an emotional connection to their organization and their service, chances are they will serve to the end of their term, as they are internally motivated. In this 9 minute training “Missing the Obvious in Employee Recognition” Professor McCarty provides effective tips on how to create an internally motivating, effective recognition program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzkxSA47O-Y

(use Youtube’s CC for transcript, as I didn’t type out this transcripts as Youtubes looks accurate this time. )

I hope you found Claire’s recognition ideas helpful and in addition to her ideas, the Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS) also provides a PDF of some simple acts you can do to show appreciation and recognize your members. You will find a copy of this pdf on this training page under resources.

We hope this training provided you with some helpful suggestions. To recap the main points of member retention be sure to regularly:

1. Provide reinforcing and constructive feedback2. Provide opportunities for growth 3. Provide recognition for their great works!

Try some of these ideas today and see the difference it makes.

This concludes our training.

If you have questions, or concerns, please don’t delay in reaching out to us! You can always contact your Coordinator with questions, or you can call our general phone line at 1-888-713-6080 or email us at wscmail@esd.wa.gov and we will help. Have a wonderful day and thank you for all you do.