Employees want advancement opportunities more than better compensation

By Justin Thompson on Oct 31, 2011

A conversation with Zingerman’s Ari Weinzweig

By Mary Ellen Slayter on October 17, 2011

Ari Weinzweig co-founded Zingerman’s Delicatessen in 1982 with a $20,000 bank loan. Today, the company is an Ann Arbor institution, and Weinzweig has branched out into a number of other businesses. We approached him recently to learn more about his leadership philosophy and his approach to innovation.

Describe your leadership philosophy.

There are many elements to it, but above and beyond all else, it’s centered around Servant Leadership. It’s the philosophy we learned from reading the work of Robert Greenleaf. The approach is based on the belief that our responsibility as leaders, first and foremost, is to serve the organization, not the other way around. One key element of it here is that it means that we—the leaders—view the staff as our customers. We need to give them great service every day to the people who work in our organization. The service that the staff gives to our front line customers will never be better than the service we give to them.

When you’re looking to hire, how do you decide if someone is right for your team?

There’s a wealth of ways to explore an applicant’s potential in the organization. But the most important issue for us is really values alignment. Obviously people need to be able to do the specific work at hand—baking, making sandwiches, marketing, etc. But the most important thing is do they share our values? Are they eager to learn, to work collaboratively, to give amazing service to everyone they interact with, to bring positive energy to work every day, etc.?

What is the biggest challenge your business is facing this year?

I think they’re pretty much the same challenges as every other year really. To continue to improve in every area of our work—to make our food better, our service better, to improve the quality of our workplace, to continue to develop our financial health, to live our values effectively every day. It’s hard to do but that’s the work.

Describe your approach to innovation.

I don’t think we have one actually. It’s interesting because we have highly developed approaches in writing and woven into our training work for almost everything else—we have “recipes” for giving great service, handling complaints, doing visioning, setting up training, tasting food, order accuracy, great finance, etc. Because the way we work—our food, our approach to organizational life, etc—is so different than the way others work, over the last few years we’ve had a fair few requests through ZingTrain (our training and consulting business) for me to present on our approach to innovation.

At first I was a bit stumped, feeling badly because we didn’t have a formal system for innovation. But after reflecting on the subject for a bit, I realized that innovation for us is just what we do. It’s so much part of everyone’s work here every day that we don’t need any formal “program” or policy on innovation and improvement is implicit in every “recipe” we have, in every process, and in everyone’s day to day activity. Everyone here is learning to lead, to run a sustainable business, to improve the quality of what we do.

For us, I think innovation is basically like showing up for work—you just get here and, in essence, it’s just part of what you do all day, just like smiling and greeting customers, checking quality, going the extra mile for coworkers, etc. In fact, I almost can’t imagine working without it. My belief is that most people are innovative and creative. I just think that they’re put into organizational settings in which they’re trained to turn their creativity off and do what they’re told to do. It’s a big loss for the country.

Outside of your own industry, whose work do you admire most?

I’ve already mentioned Robert Greenleaf. Peter Drucker and Edgar Schein also wrote some extremely helpful and insightful books about leadership. Brenda Ueland’s book on writing from 1938—“If You Want to Write”—was hugely inspiring. I’m also learning a lot from a number of the 19th and early 20th century anarchists. Emma Goldman had some pretty powerful things to say. Honestly I admire pretty much everyone who goes into whatever they do—parenting, business, sports, bussing tables, shining shoes, music, art—trying to do great things every day, and do it in a way that’s caring, kind and contributing positively to those around them.

If a recent college grad came to you and said he wanted to start his own business, what advice would you give him?

Without question I’d tell him—or her—to start by writing a vision of greatness. Visioning is a huge piece of what we do here at Zingerman’s. The vision is a picture of what success will look when you get to where you’re going at a particular point in the future. It’s got a good bit of detail—it’s a rich picture of what that future looks like, with plenty of detail about how big your business is, what you’re known for, what the people who work in it think about their jobs, how the community views you. It’s hugely helpful to do a personal piece as well—getting clear about how you feel about your work, what sort of work you do, how much money you make, how much you work, etc. is really valuable to know before you start.

There are no “right” or “wrong” visions—but if you’re not clear on where you’re going it’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to get to where you want be. A vision is not the same as a strategic plan. We do those too. But the vision is where you’re going; the strategic plan is how you’re going to get there.

By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN

Companies are moving beyond the suggestion box.

In an effort to cut costs and create new products and services, firms are seeking ideas from their own employees on everything from money-saving strategies to product design. To encourage participation, some are holding contests, voting and setting up “ideas kiosks.”

It’s often the employees—rather than outside consultants—who know a company’s products and processes best. According to management experts, many of the most innovative companies tend to solicit ideas from staff throughout the organization, not just the executive ranks.

But it’s often hard for rank and file workers to be heard: Research has found that the average U.S. employee’s ideas, big or small, are implemented only once every six years, says Alan G. Robinson, a professor at the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Now though, more companies are realizing the value of their workers’ input. Spurring the process are so-called innovation-management programs such as BrainBank Inc., InnoCentive Inc. and Spigit Inc., which help companies set up online idea-submissions systems in which employees can enter, comment and vote on ideas.

Accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers launched an idea-management website called iPlace two years ago as a way to gather employee ideas that could help cut costs, improve customer service and increase revenues, says Mitra Best, the firm’s U.S. innovation leader.

Employees post ideas, sometimes in response to company-wide “ideas challenges,” and vote and comment on their colleagues’ submissions. The firm promises that a team of senior managers will review an idea within 30 days of its submission and notify the employee of its status.

About 60% of the firm’s 32,000 U.S. employees have either submitted, commented or voted on ideas, says Ms. Best. Of the more than 3,300 new ideas submitted—which range from mobile apps for expense reports to changing printer defaults to print double-sided—140 have been implemented.

Ms. Best says the firm doesn’t directly measure cost-savings from the ideas program, but that some suggestions, such as one that changed the way the firm collects employee expense receipts, have saved “hundreds of thousands” of dollars.

IdeasAmerica, an association for “suggestion administrators,” who manage suggestion submissions, surveyed 31 of its 125 members last year. The study found that submitted ideas saved respondents more than $110 million dollars in time, materials, labor or energy, an average of $1,256 per suggestion.

At Bruce Power LP, a nuclear energy company in Ontario, Canada, employees can submit ideas through 10 special-purpose kiosks throughout the plant dedicated to collecting employee ideas.

They look like ATMs, says Chief Executive Duncan Hawthorne. The company implemented the kiosks several years ago so that the plant’s workers, many of whom aren’t deskbound, could have an accessible way to submit proposals.

Employees vote on submissions. “It’s like the American Idol of ideas,” says Mr. Hawthorne.

Ideas submitted have ranged widely from improving efficiency by increasing stocks of tools to creating a dedicated facility for forklift maintenance.

Some 11,000 ideas have been submitted in three years among the firm’s roughly 7,500 employees and contractors, generating “millions” of dollars in cost-savings, says Mr. Hawthorne.

Some companies pay financial rewards for ideas (typically as a percentage of cost savings, which can be tough to measure) but Dr. Robinson says that isn’t usually an effective tactic for drawing submissions on a continuing basis. What drives most people to submit ideas is a real desire to make their work easier and cut through hassles, rather than monetary rewards, he says.

At Troyer Foods Inc., a Goshen, Ind., wholesale food distributor with about 280 employees, workers who submit ideas to an online system launched last spring receive points they can redeem for merchandise and other perks, such as designated parking spaces.

Becky Ball-Miller, Troyer’s CEO, says the company wants submitting ideas to be so ingrained that it becomes “part of the job expectation and part of the performance review.”

Ideas that have been implemented include adding another refrigerator to the break room and designating a section of the parking lot as “cars only” so large pickup trucks don’t block spaces; there have also been cost-saving suggestions encouraging the company to reexamine some pricey vendor contracts.

Great ideas can also come from unexpected places. When insurer Allstate Corp. held an online idea challenge to design a mobile app for its insurance products, one winning idea came from one of the firm’s Buffalo-based trial attorneys.

“I can guarantee you his boss didn’t ask him, ‘got any mobile ideas?’ ” says Matt Manzella, Allstate’s director of technology innovation.

“Unemployment discrimination” and the jobless
By: Elaine Quijano (CBS News)

Of the 14 million Americans currently unemployed, 6 million have been jobless for more than 6 months.

CBS News correspondent Elaine Quijano reports that many job seekers say being unemployed is being held against them.

Delores Barnes always goes job hunting armed with her dossier of documents, including her birth certificate.

Two years ago, she was laid off from her supervisor job with New York’s Children’s Services. Ever since, Barnes has been looking for work to support her and her nine-year-old daughter, Savianna “I can’t give up. I’m on a mission. I have a daughter, and she’s like, I have to be strong for her. I have to show her that you just don’t give up,” Barnes says.

Yet no amount of persistence can overcome the simple fact that some employers don’t want to hire the unemployed. In job posting after job posting, companies require that applicants “must be currently employed.”

“They have that perception that they are the dead weight, therefore they want the strong people who are currently employed,” says Robert Krzak, president of Gecko Hospitality.

Krzak says some companies won’t even consider unemployed job candidates.
“If there is a candidate out there who has been out there in the job market for six months or even a year or more than a year, a lot of companies are very suspect of that, because why aren’t they working?” Krzak says.

“It’s discriminatory and the fact that just because you don’t have a job you can’t compete for a job,” says Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. DeLauro is sponsoring a bill aimed at stopping the practice.

“These are competent people. They have lost their job through no fault of their own,

Why shouldn’t they have an opportunity?” DeLauro says.
Barnes says the practice doesn’t make sense, hiring people who have jobs when so many don’t.

Barnes is now training to be a computer technician, and says she’ll keep pounding the pavement, even though with some companies she can’t even get her foot in the door.

9 Etiquette Rules That the Boss Shouldn’t Break

From the office Christmas party to friending employees on social media, here are nine new and old etiquette rules you need to commit to memory.

Five Problem Employees and What You Can Do About Them

Small companies aren’t immune from workplace behavior problems. Here’s what to do about them.

By Gwen Moran |   August 5, 2011

Problem employees inevitably surface in most workplaces and small companies aren’t immune. Sometimes, the problems are obvious, such as attendance issues or a failure to deliver results. Other times, a workplace harbors a problem and you might not immediately know the cause, says attorney Lisa Guerin, co-author of Dealing with Problem Employees.

As a busy entrepreneur, you’ll need to make sure desired workplace behavior is clarified or reinforced for each new employee. Sometimes you’ll need patience if an unproductive employee behavior stems from troubles at home. In other cases, the problems are so undesirable and worrisome, the employer needs to take swift, effective action to stave off a major loss. Here are five types of problem employees and what to do about them.

1. The Poor Fit. Bibby Gignilliat, 51, chief executive of Parties that Cook in San Francisco, thought she had hired a winner but found her new employee’s customer-service skills far from polished. “She kept saying things were ‘awesome’ and ‘totally cool’ and she would use ‘like’ every other word, even after repeated coaching, making a bad impression on customers,” Gignilliat says.

Gignilliat’s business of hosting parties with cooking classes — for a corporation’s team building exercise or as a fun event at a private home — requires a sophisticated set of skills to be deployed all at once in the heat of the action. This capacity for deft on-the-job maneuvering is sometimes hard to glean from an initial hour or so interview.

Gignilliat now works with new employees for a three-month probationary period before determining whether she’ll hire them permanently. She has also set up an internship policy to try out employees before adding them to her staff.

Employers need to make sure their expectations are clear through written policies and performance reviews, Guerin says.

2. The Disappearing Act. Sometimes, problematic behavior crops up in connection with troubles emerging in an employee’s personal life. For example, several months after Pac Team America president Eric Zuckerman, 30, gave a new employee time off to recover from injuries in a car accident, she was arriving late to work, leaving early, and sometimes sneaking away at midday for long naps from his Paramus, N.J., merchandise display company. After unsuccessfully trying to discuss the problem with her several times to find solutions to accommodate her, he eventually had to fire her.

Spotty attendance might signal any of a range of issues, from a problem at home or job dissatisfaction, Guerin says. Talk with your employee privately to find out if she has encountered a difficult personal problem or faces a life transition, such as a relationship breakup or an ill parent’s turn for the worse, and express sympathy. You might want to refer the worker to an employee assistance program if your health-insurance plan offers one as part of its package, she says. Or you can enlist an EAP provider to create such a program for your business. An EAP provider might offer counseling services by phone for as low as $18 an employee a year. (Check a national directory ateap.sap.com.) To learn more about EAP programs, consult the website of theEmployee Assistance Society of North America.

Remember: Employees with a personal or family health issue may be eligible for certain types of leave, depending on the situation and the workplace’s state.

If your talk with the employee uncovers an underlying dissatisfaction with your company, consider if he is raising a workplace practice that could bear some improvement. Perhaps the vacation policy hasn’t been clearly laid out, and with summer approaching, he is becoming resentful. But if the chat reveals deep-seated dissatisfaction, perhaps the employee needs to consider adjusting his attitude or if the job is a good fit. You may have to remind the employee that chronic and unexplained absences will be treated according to your company’s written attendance disciplinary policy.

3. The Scofflaw: Randy Cohen, 46, thought he had hired a new employee who fit the energetic, open culture of his Austin, Texas, ticket brokerage, TicketCity. But soon the employee routinely ignored policy and procedures. Cohen found himself constantly correcting the young salesperson’s behavior so that he didn’t alienate customers. “He made the company a bunch of money, but he was a pain,” says Cohen. Over the past 21 years, Cohen says he’s had other employees who’ve bucked the rules, including drinking on the job.

Cohen now has a policy of “firing fast” when he finds an employee who isn’t willing to follow rules. Legally speaking, an employee who engages in reckless behavior, such as driving dangerously or drinking on the job, can leave the employer liable for the actions within the “course and scope of employment.” So, if you learn that an employee is behaving in a way that could put others at risk, immediately investigate the situation and impose discipline, if appropriate, Guerin says.

4. The Sour Apple: Negative employees who bad-mouth the company and its leadership to fellow employees and even customers can disrupt morale. Cohen found one in his ranks after learning about the naysayer from other employees. Eventually the person left the company, but he says he wouldn’t be as tolerant again. “Someone like that can really hurt morale,” he says.

Guerin suggests a frank discussion with negative employees. Avoid discussing personal characteristics, such as “you’re irresponsible and negative.” Instead, state the problem and then explain why it has to change. For example, “You complain about customers and work responsibilities. This is hurtful to customer relationships and morale and needs to stop. If you have a problem with your job or co-workers, follow our resolution policy for these issues.”

Discontented employees who bad-mouth the company and its leadership to fellow employees and even customers can take a toll. Any small company might, as part of its growing pains, have a slipup that’s more apparent to workers inside the company than outsiders. But excessive public grousing by an employee needs to be stopped.

5. The Filcher: Regardless of their diligence in pre-hire screening, employers occasionally discover illegal activity by their employees. Vonda White, 46, recalls having an unsettling feeling about an employee at her Tarpon Springs, Fla., insurance-brokerage firm Collegiate Risk Management. He demonstrated a negative attitude and seemed distant in his day-to-day dealings with her. Eventually she discovered he had copied the company’s database and was trying to help a friend launch a competing company, White says.

Whether there is an increase in shrinkage, the cash drawer doesn’t add up, or an employee is stealing valuable information, theft can threaten your company’s bottom line. Approach employee theft cases as whodunits — the evidence points to a problem but the culprit needs to be found, Guerin says. You may need to supervise employees more closely or install security systems to prevent theft. White installed software that prevents employees from copying large or multiple files. “Depending on the size of the theft, it might make sense to talk to a lawyer or loss management specialist to decide on a strategy,” Guerin says.

As a general rule, direct, clear communication is the key to dealing with most employee problems, says Guerin. Once you discover a problem, it’s critical to take action instead of letting it fester and get worse.

One Trait that Makes a Great CEO-and Place to Work

What makes a great CEO? That question came to mind recently when I read the news that Chief Executive magazine had named Alan Mulally of Ford Motor Company its 2011 CEO of the Year. It’s easy to understand why Mulally was chosen. After all, he presided over one of the more remarkable corporate turnarounds in recent memory.

But a look at the magazine’s criteria gives some insight into what makes a great CEO truly great. Some of the criteria was typical: the honoree had to show evidence of looking ahead, driving value, focusing on people, fostering corporate citizenship and sustaining business results.

But one factor was unusual: the winner had to maintain a “stable, consistent ‘moral landscape.’”

Moral landscape?

Tom Saporito, CEO of RHR International, who helped develop the selection criteria, defined moral landscape as “courage, integrity, reputation and having a coherent and high purpose” embedded in the corporate culture, due in part to the CEO’s example.

From day one on the job in September 2006 when Mulally took the reins of a faltering Ford, he has pushed hard to drive purpose throughout the company. It was no easy feat; other CEOs had tried and failed, but Mulally made it clear through the development of One Ford that the company had to become leaner and more focused on developing products that were uniquely Ford.

Mulally himself preaches this but, and stuck his neck out on the line for, notably by taking out a $20 billion-plus line of credit to ensure the transformation. This line ensured that Ford would not need to take advantage of federal bailout funds, nor would it have to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying its creditors. Something that its Detroit competitors GM and Chrysler both did. I would call Ford’s behavior in this instance highly moral.

There is another side to sense of purpose that Mulally talks about extensively: you create greater levels of buy-in when people know what you stand for and are committed to doing. Ford’s pride of purpose took a beating in the early part of the decade when it suffered year after year of losses. But now that it’s firmly in the black and has paid all but $3 billion of the $23 billion it borrowed, the pride is back. Not because the books are balanced but because Ford is making and selling products that consumers in North America, Europe and South America want and will pay a premium for.

The drive for purpose emanates from the leadership team, but as I have discovered in research conducted for a forthcoming book, employees are hungry for it.  Purpose, as supported by my research, drives clarity because it enables people to see the big picture. Even better they see themselves painting part of that picture.

Savvy leaders trade on this quest for purpose as a means of giving the organization sharper focus. When people know what it expected of them, they can deliver more readily. And if they believe in the purpose they feel part of something greater than themselves.

The coda to RHR’s description of “moral landscape” is a leader who puts “the interest of the organization above personal gain.” That’s a foundation of servant leadership; leaders do what the organization needs doing. Easy to do when times are good, but hard when times are tough.

But it is this orientation toward others that drives organizational purpose. Employees want to follow their leader; they believe in what he or she stands for. If they sense the leadership team is only out for self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement the underpinning of purpose erodes.

None of this will come as a surprise to anyone who works for a living. They know instinctively if the boss has their back or they have the boss. If there is mutual support, people are engaged. If something is missing, no amount of preaching about purpose will do anything. Leaders need to walk the talk.

It’s old wisdom: surround yourself with people better than yourself. But how? How do you know that the people you’re putting around you are actually better, and not just richer/smarter/better looking?

Now that you know I can do this, here’s my methodology so you can do this, too:

• Let go of judgment. The first step in recognizing talent is recognizing talent! You can only do this if you are able to put aside your own issues and prejudices and see others for who they are. ie, if you’re starving, any chef is a 4 star chef. You’ve got to be able to compensate for your own “schtick” when assessing others.
• Let go of ignorance. Sifting through the self-promoters to get to what’s real requires that you have some education about the world around you.
• Let go of jealousy. If you’re jealous of what they’ve got, you’ll feel it, they’ll feel it, and badness will be inevitable.
• Let go of need. Needing others is only fractionally better than being jealous of them. Needing people leads you to make demands. Which amps up the awkward and ends painfully.
• Let go of labels. Strong people don’t need anyone to define a relationship with labels because they’re able to figure it out on their own. Trying to label a relationship can scare a strong person off. (Not comfortable with ambiguity? Keep that to yourself.)
• Let go of doubt. Great people want people around them who are even better then themselves. If you don’t believe you belong, you don’t belong.
• Let go of control. Great people will do things you don’t understand and can’t explain. Insisting on living in a world you fully understand will keep you from experiencing people who can open you up to new and bigger ideas. Great people approach their worlds with innocence, wonder, and curiosity.
• Let go of you. Help the people around you shine brighter. The strong ones’ll keep you around and start feeding your gift back to you. (The weak ones will show their true colors by trying to take advantage or assuming malintent on your part—easy to deal with once you’re prepared for it.)
• Let go of work/life distinctions. When the relationship comes first, it’s sometimes difficult to know if it’s going to grow into friendship, business, or both. Especially with great people who jump from idea to idea with ease, and make no distinction between a project that makes money and one done for fun. Be profersonal.
• Let go of self-esteem. The thing about surrounding yourself with awesome is, you are always being challenged. It’s with love and support, but they’re challenges nonetheless, and you must win, without help, without cheating, without rationalizing. And when you don’t win, you must bounce back quickly and confidently because you don’t want to fail twice in a row.
• Let go of ego. You love that local band? Accept that you’re just one small part of their success, and help them get big anyway. Make it your goal to enjoy next year’s conversation with that girl who claims she “discovered” the band on the radio “last month.”
• Let go of negative. Awesome people fix things or laugh about them. They see no third option.
• Let go of safe. Surrounding yourself with extraordinary people guarantees one thing: change. Scary, risky, life-altering change. No-more-comfort-zone change. For instance, if I were the worlds’ best matchmaker and we were hanging out, I could find you your true love. When I did, would you be ready? Great people requires us to abandon the safe harbor of our routines.

Did you get it yet? Greatness happens when you let go. It’s the ultimate “stone soup;” you bring only your true self and all the other ingredients you think you need actually are provided by others when the time comes. It takes an incredible amount of self-confidence and faith to play this game—but I never did say it was easy.

That’s my recipe. I hope you can make it work for you!

Time … is your friend, not your enemy!

By Kevin Kalstad, CPC  | Gecko Hospitality

In the past 4 weeks I have seen not one, but two great candidates walk away from two great job offers / opportunities. True Story!

Both situations were with different candidates and clients, but in essence it all boiled down to time. In my opinion, the candidate’s lack of patience for the client’s needs cost them these jobs. We tell our candidates that these searches take time! If the job you are interviewing has a larger title and area of responsibility, it will take even more time.

How long might these searches take? From the time we get your resume, to when you might get an offer, these are generally how long these searches might take.

Assistant Manager and or Sous Chef: Six to Eight weeks

Chef and or General Manager: Eight to Twelve weeks.

District or Area Manager: Twelve to Thirty Six weeks.

Bottom –Line?

We would urge you to be patient with the process. We want to place the right candidate, with the right client. More than ever, great companies are truly counting the total cost of each and every new hire they make. Hang in there with us, and we will get you a great job with and excellent company!

Send us your resume today to start the process. We never charge a fee to you, our candidates.

Will They Stay or Will They Go? (Your Employees, That Is)

June 8th, 2011 :: Rieva Lesonsky

Are your employees going to stay with your business as the economy improves and more job opportunities arise? This is a crucial consideration for small businesses, who can ill afford the time it takes to lose the knowledge of key employees, or to find and train new workers to replace them.

Recent findings from Deloitte’s Talent Edge 2020 survey series, which polled more than 350 employees at large companies worldwide, give some insights into employee attitudes toward the workforce. What interested me about this study is that it’s not just the state of the economy, but the generation of the worker, that is affecting their outlook about their jobs. In other words, employees in different age ranges have different frustrations and needs that will affect whether they stay with their current employers or attempt to leave.

Deloitte found that many companies are failing to address the critical needs and potential frustrations of their employees, and often do not have a realistic picture of how employees see them. Since this survey was targeted at big companies, this means opportunity for your business to address the issues that big firms are not.

The report found that employees aren’t waiting for things to improve—they are already actively testing the job market. Only 35% of employees surveyed expect to remain with their current employers, while nearly two out of three (65%) want to leave their current employers.

What are they looking for? Among employees surveyed who are actively or passively seeking out new employers, 53% say the prospect of job advancement or promotion would convince them to stay with their current employers. But there are some significant differences among generations when it comes to what triggers employees to stay or leave.

Baby Boomers expressed the greatest discontent with their employers. They were frustrated that their loyalty and hard work has been neither recognized nor rewarded. Nearly one-third (32%) of Baby Boomers also cited lack of trust in leadership as a key turnover trigger. In fact, this was their top-ranked reason to leave a job, and the highest percentage of any generation citing this issue.

While Boomers may be unhappy, Generation X employees are the most likely group to actually be considering exit from their current jobs. Only 28% of surveyed Gen Xers say they plan to stay with their current employers. What’s the biggest turnover trigger for them? Lack of career progress, cited by 65%. Generation X is at the time of life when they want to see forward movement.

Millennials’ idea of a good workplace differs sharply from the other generations. They are more likely to consider their employers’ commitment to “corporate responsibility/volunteerism” and a “fun work environment” important.

What do employees think of their workplace? Very few employees described their employers’ overall retention efforts as “world-class” or even “very good.” However, survey results show that employers who make an effort to keep their employees satisfied will be rewarded with employees who are far more likely to remain in their jobs.