Employers need to “humanate” the workplace if they want to keep their staff.

I was meeting with an employer recently who had a lot of difficulty hiring and retaining staff, even in a recessionary market. This employer is a straight shooter type of guy, who is very successful and intelligent. I really like him because you know what you get with him, no bull. He’s very honest and fair. Ok, so maybe there are lots of employers like him, who know what they want and go out there and get it.

So, why write an article about a typical employer? Well, because he wants to fix his staff turnover problem. He wants to hire people and keep them for a long time, so he needs to know what he’s doing wrong and how to fix it. He wants to hire the best, pay fairly, offer bonuses, and offer advancement and challenge to his employees. This all seems very reasonable to me. So what is he doing wrong?

I have coined a term for employers like this, whose main weakness is that they are missing the human element in their boss/employee relationships. The term I coined for this is "humanate". It’s a strange term “humanate”, I know, but it’s loaded with meaning. Employers need to “humanate” the workplace if they want to retain their staff. They need to welcome new employees with a smile and some warmth. They need to listen and genuinely care about the people who work for them. They need to ask how their employees’ kids are doing and wish them a happy birthday. They need to make their employees feel wanted and needed from the first day onward.

Employers need to make the expectations of the job clear, before a new person starts, so there are no surprises and so the new employee will know exactly what is required of them in order to continue earning their paycheque. Employees are people, not walking job descriptions, so their thoughts and feelings need to be considered. Bosses who “humanate” the workplace, adding a people perspective to the day-to-day working relationships, will be rewarded with long lasting and mutually beneficial employee relationships. Everyone wants to feel valued and cared for, and the luckiest people out there are those who feel valued and cared for both at work and at home.

These days, everyone is looking for extra human interaction and social wellbeing. The workplace may be the only place some people get to be with others and socialize, so the more human we can make it, without crossing boundaries, the better.