Editor’s note: “The Angel Connection” is a regular feature in WRAL Local Tech Wire. LTW asked consultant Bill Warner to share advice for entrepreneurs seeking angel investors and/or venture capital investment. He is chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over 100 members throughout the Southeast.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – The nature of the relationship between employers and employees has undergone a fundamental shift. Today, workers don’t expect to work for the same company forever; they don’t want to. But, at the same time, they don’t really want to shift employers every two to three years for their entire careers. Similarly, companies can’t afford to replace large portions of the workforce on such a schedule.
How can leaders ensure that the employee-employer relationship pays off for both parties?
The most effective executives and managers are applying these strategies:
• Align career growth with company goals. When a company helps its employees develop expertise that furthers their professional development and enables the company to address its important challenges, both types of loyalty align powerfully. Encourage managers to discuss their direct reports’ career goals with them as often as possible. Managers need to help their people identify links between their own professional goals and the company’s goals. When people understand the larger business context in which the company is operating, they can more easily define ways to advance their own careers.
• Jobs that provide variety and the freedom to make decisions and mistakes engender extensive loyalty. Allowing people to take ownership of projects gives them the opportunity to develop new skills and, just as important, the chance to show what they can do.
• For many employees, loyalty is born or cemented through relationships with supervisors and colleagues. The number one reason people leave an organization isn’t inadequate pay or benefits. It’s the day-to-day relationship with their immediate superior. Leaders seeking to secure employees’ loyalty must work to create a positive working relationship. Employers have to make and keep commitments. Be fair in distributing rewards and punishment. Clarify your expectations, and make sure people have the resources and skills they need to fulfill those expectations.
• Highlight the link between the employees’ values and your company’s mission. Emphasizing a company’s purpose also engenders loyalty, especially when employees see the connection between their values and the company’s mission.
The employee is the one responsible for loyalty, so if the person does not care about loyalty no matter what you do as an employer, you will not see any positive change in loyalty. The employees must be responsible for themselves. They need to have personal development plans to build their skills. They need to have the inclination, ability and understanding of the importance of influence and relationships.
As a CEO you must build a culture of employee importance to company success and you must hire quality personnel who fit that culture.
About the author: Bill Warner is the managing partner of Paladin and Associates, a business consulting firm in the Research Triangle Park area of central North Carolina, and is the chairman of the Triangle Accredited Capital Forum, an angel investor network with over one hundred members throughout the southeast.
