Sticking to your core values as a leader is vital for retention of engaged, high performing employees. Rather than get philosophical, let’s look at the facts.

1. According to Gallup’s 2015 study, “The State of the American Manager,” 77% of employees who strongly agree that they know what their company stands for and what makes it different from competitors also strongly agree that they plan to be with the company for at least one year. Yet only 41% of employees strongly agree that they know what their company stands for and “what makes it different from competitors”.
2. In the same Gallup study, they found an unforgiving reality: 50% of Americans have left a job to “get away from their manager at some point in their career.”
3. Since 75% of employees in the U.S. do not stay at their jobs for more than five years (iHire, 2019), getting them to stay at least one year is a start.

How can you better engage and retain staff? Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do your employees really know what the company values are?
2. Are you hiring, recognizing, and promoting employees according to these values?

• Are you terminating employees and managers for violating these values?

1. Has revenue and profit become the top goal?

If you answered yes to the last point, you are in luck. Engaged, satisfied and productive employees who align with the core values of a company tend to speak up when there are mistakes or issues (rather than covering them up). Additionally, they stay at the company longer. Since it takes approximately one fifth of an employee’s salary to replace them (Center for American Progress, 2012), that is a costly number that can affect your bottom line.