Ep. 47
Increasing Employee Engagement through Communication w/ Tamara Jones
In episode 47, we talked with Tamara Jones about the rising tide of employee turnover and what small businesses can do to improve retention.
Tamara Jones
Senior Human Resources Generalist
Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center
In this episode, we sat down with Tamara Jones, Senior Human Resources Generalist at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, to talk about the rising tide of employee turnover and what small businesses can do to improve retention.
During our discussion, we talked about:
- The impact of the pandemic and other factors on employee engagement and the balance between work and home
- What employees actually matters to employees versus what business owners often think employee’s prioritize
- Why policies and not just perks stand out to prospective employees
- What small businesses can do to retain their current employees and bring in talent that stays
- The role communication and dialogue play at every step of the process when developing policies and practices
- What steps to take to stay ahead of employee satisfaction and applicant attraction trends
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You have to find out what motivates your employees and what they want. That ties into the biggest factor of retention: including our employees in the decisions that affect them. From the top down and from the bottom up, and I think it’s almost more important to go from the bottom up because when employees have ownership and buy-in about the decisions being made, that gives them agency, loyalty, and the feeling of inclusion.”
Tamara Jones
When you’re thinking about policies and building trusts, it’s easy to come up with a bright idea but if you don’t think it through or talk to the people that it affects, the policy will not be effective.”
Tamara Jones
You should think about [decisions] from an equity lens, are there unintentional consequences to your most vulnerable employees? Do you want to include them in the conversation because they are going to bring something to the table that you didn’t think about.”
Tamara Jones
Equity doesn’t mean equal but as equitable as we can make it.”
Tamara Jones
Keeping your grass greener is really about talking to you current staff about what’s important to them and why they are staying, what can be improved upon, and then just staying ahead of trends and educating yourself.”
Tamara Jones
Don’t get so bogged down in the bureaucracy of it. If it makes sense, just do it.”
Tamara Jones