What’s Critical to Retention? Clear Communication and Trust

In December 2009, The Economist Intelligence Unit surveyed 410 senior executives from across industrial sectors and countries on the talent management challenges they face as they recover from the recession, issuing the results in their Companies at a Crossroads report.

Among the key findings were the realization that business confidence is returning, resulting in increased hiring, talent issues are high on the agenda, and employee trust becoming an issue. Nearly 90% of respondents expected a slight to significant improvement in overall growth prospects for their company in the next three years, signaling a need to hire, train and develop talent.

The majority (57%) agreed that clear communication of the organization’s strategy was the most important action to take to rebuild employee trust. This response was well balanced between respondents aged 18-39 and those 40-69. However, a significant disconnect between those two groups on the current level of trust could potentially skew the message and success of any such communications.

In response to the question: “How would you describe your employees’ attitudes to their jobs right now?” only 21% of chief executives, presidents and managing directors replied, “Levels of trust are very low: I am concerned a lot of people will resign in the next 12 months” as compared to 55% of managers.

Since managers are arguably closer to the pulse of the average employee, I would encourage senior executives to listen to the need to repair the trust relationship. As Doug Conant, president and CEO of Campbell Soup said, without trust from your employees you cannot achieve amazing things. And “amazing things” are precisely what companies will need from every employee to thrive in the recovery.