I loved this article called Give Your People C.R.A.P. if You Want Great Employee Retention by Jeff Korles. The acronym C.R.A.P. stands for Caring, Respect, Appreciation and Praise. He took one word that would normally by seen as negative or derogatory and turned it into a great acronym that you will always remember. I love the simplicity of it. It is easy to remember and now you just need to be intentional about doing it consistently.
Focusing on these things is important, but even more so when it comes to employee retention. Remember people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. When you lose a person on a team it impacts morale productivity, takes away your focus to begin interviewing candidates, increases costs to get the new person on-boarded and then they have to be trained.
This quote from Jeff says it all: “This is simple stuff, but it is not easy to do for some reason. It takes time and hard work on the part of a leader to give people C.R.A.P. But, if you do it, your people will be loyal, follow you anywhere and want to stay working for you. Giving your people C.R.A.P. will also give you a feeling of accomplishment and the impact of the organization will be something that goes beyond the bottom line. Remember C.R.A.P. works!”
I have seen the difference in managers who do this vs those who don’t. The managers who don’t focus on these areas have teams that aren’t as strong, are not engaged, and have no reason to stay with the company, other than their paycheck. If they could get that same paycheck somewhere else with a manager who cares about them, wants to develop them and appreciates what they do, you know they would absolutely go there instead. Take the time to build trust, loyalty and develop your people. That is your job as a leader and if you don’t give them C.R.A.P. then no one else will.