Creating a Culture that Promotes and Rewards Employee Engagement – Part I of II

The issue of turnover in the provision of behavioral services.

Did you know that turnover rates for front-line staff in ABA services may average 48% annually (BHCOE, 2018)? That is an extraordinary number – it means that half of an organization's team leaves every year. It means that half of an organization's investment in their clinicians' development walks out the door, resulting in little to no return on investment. And it means that organizations must focus time, energy, money, and other resources on recruiting and hiring simply to maintain baseline staffing needs, deferring these resources from enhancing other areas of the organization such as quality of care or growth. The bottom line is high turnover rates directly impact an organization's ability to provide sustained high-quality care.

Data suggest the problem of turnover is pervasive in our industry.  You are likely to have endured its effects in your organization. Researchers have noticed too, and begun to investigate factors contributing to high turnover rates. Novack and Dixon (2019) reviewed factors that predict staff burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover. Among the organizational factors correlated with intent to turnover, the most influential appear to be job satisfaction and supervisor support. These correlate with lower levels of employee burnout and decreased intention to leave their current position. The data correspond with similar findings from Plativeau, Dounavi, and Virues-Ortega (2018), who investigated factors contributing to burnout for early-career behavior analysts. And while research specific to ABA service providers is lean, the findings align with our observations and experience. So, the question becomes, how does an organization arrange for improved job satisfaction and supervisory support?

Where to begin?
In running our organizations and consulting with others, we have found that the highest performing organizations with the lowest staff turnover rates tend to foster a performance-based culture with high employee engagement. Engagement refers to "the extent to which employees commit to something or someone in their organization, how hard they work, and how long they stay as a result of that commitment" (Corporate Leadership Council, 2004). In our experience, an engaged employee is also a supported and satisfied employee.

To establish a performance-based culture, organization leaders must first understand where responsibility for performance lies. In the Performance Thinking^® Coach Program, we encourage leaders to think systemically about human performance because it is not the responsibility of just one person or level. The employee, manager, and organization are all responsible for performance. It is a collaborative process. In this two-part series, we share features of organizations that have established a performance-based culture, promote employee engagement, and reap the benefits of high rates of employee retention. As a leader, you are in a unique position to plan and arrange performance improvement initiatives to reduce burnout and subsequent turnover. By borrowing from or replicating these organizations' features, you can drive continuous performance improvement and optimize employee engagement. Today, in part one, we turn our attention to four key factors that affect the organizational-level of performance.

1. They Have a Roadmap.
High-performing organizations have a clear purpose, which often begins with a well-defined mission, vision, and values statements. An effective mission statement should, at a minimum, express three crucial facts about the organization: (1) its purpose or societal needs or opportunities the company addresses; (2) the methods and practices the company employs to address those needs or opportunities; and (3) the company's philosophy, values (briefly), and beliefs. A mission statement should direct employees' decisions and changes, steer employee performance goals, and guide employees' daily activities. Influential leaders and supervisors use these to help unite people around a common purpose. A vision statement describes what the organization looks like as it successfully implements its strategies, achieves its desired outcomes, and delivers value to its customers. Values are a set of preferences and judgments of what is important to groups and individuals in the organization (Bryson, 2018). When these three organizational components are in place, characteristic of the company, and well-articulated, they can have a powerful effect on employee performance and engagement. They serve as a roadmap for leaders to follow when establishing goals and objectives, developing and executing strategies, and evaluating overall company performance.

2. Their Leaders Are People-Focused.
Leaders in successful organizations focus on developing an organizational culture of internal communication, flexibility, innovation, opportunity, and a reputation of integrity. They are open to new ideas, deeply care about their employees, and prioritize performance development (Corporate Leadership Council, 2004). Leaders are proficient in setting clear goals & clarifying performance expectations, connecting employees' work to organizational strategy by linking their daily activities to accomplishments (what we call work outputs) and desired business results. They utilize the science of human performance to help arrange conditions to support optimal performance in their people. We have also observed effectual, caring, and empowering leaders do the following: