Having difficulty with retention? Use MAGIC in the workplace

Retention by inspiring and connecting your employees? Try MAGIC: Meaning, Autonomy, Growth, Impact and Community. What is it? And how do you use it?

In 2022, turnover on the job market increased by an additional 20% on average (source: Academy for Labor Market Communication). Never before have so many employees changed jobs as during the past year. And the labor market remains tight. Consequently, it pays to invest in employership, as employees will then want to stay, and the organization will also become more attractive on the job market.

But where do you start? And what actions can you take as an organization? The book, Engagement Magic (Maylett, 2019), summarizes the five keys to employee engagement as MAGIC: meaning (meaningful work), autonomy, growth, impact and community. What does this magic look like in the workplace?

Meaning – meaningful work

People look for meaning in their lives, and preferably also in their work. Meaningful work is what really gets the pulse racing: a higher goal, greater than your own personal responsibilities, and making meaningful contributions to creating a better world. And it also aligns with your own ideals. Employees want to be proud of their organization and see the good that comes from its activities; moreover, they feel good if they can contribute to that endeavor. How to increase meaning? Examples include:

• Frequently communicating the organization’s purpose (the meaning or reason for the company’s existence), both internally and externally, by sharing stories, symbols, customer relations and photos. Depict the organization’s history and/or products in appealing ways.
• Are you proud of your products and happy with your customers? Incorporate them into your decor. Give meeting rooms meaningful names that refer to your products, services, icons or milestones. And adorn lockers, doors and elevators with meaningful references.
• Take the sense of purpose a step further, such as a hotel chain that in addition to training employees in hostmanship, also trains them to recognize signs of human trafficking.
• Create a compliment wall exhibiting customer compliments.
• Offers employees coaching or training that gives them the opportunity to explore their own sense of purpose.
• Organize collective voluntary work or provide opportunities for this on an individual basis. Participate in charitable fundraising campaigns supported by the employees themselves. Or support the purpose behind how employees handle their own money, such as those companies that, in addition to the salaries they pay their part-time student employees, also help pay off student debts.

Autonomy – give employees space

Employees need space for arranging their own work in ways that allows them to perform to the best of their abilities. As far as possible, determine where, how and with whom they do their work. This includes trust and flexibility. Don’t be a micromanager looking over peoples’ shoulders, but rather a coaching leader. Autonomy requires clear objectives and preconditions. How do you provide space for autonomy? Examples include:

• Jointly comprise a team manifesto for how you (hybrid) work collaboratively; this will also clarify on which matters the employees themselves make decisions.
• Allow employees to hire their own team members or to have a decisive voice in the process.
• Allow employees to influence the strategic objectives. Employees can then set their own (annual/quarterly) goals within the strategic objectives.
• Provide more space for decision-making and budgeting, such as for example in handling complaints or approving quotations.
• Allow employees to make their own schedules and change shifts.

Growth – employee development

Employees want to be able to deliver good work and improve their skills. This includes development, whereby they learn from new experiences, learn from others, and follow educational courses and trainings. Growth is certainly not only possible horizontally through promotion, but also vertically. In addition to personal growth, growth is also about making  progress in the work delivered: innovating and improving, reaching milestones and achieving results. How do you provide more space for growth? Examples include:

• Offer employees opportunities to also develop outside their own fields, roles and responsibilities. Periodically discuss the developmental objectives and look for opportunities for development. As for vacancies, give priority to internal promotion. On occasion, issue a ‘wild card’.
• Periodically make inventories of which technologies and tools employees need to do their jobs well and to develop themselves.
• Actively engage in job crafting within the team, which allows one another’s strengths to be utilized and professionalism to flourish.
• Challenge each other in enjoyable ways and engage each other in work sprints.
• Celebrate achievements and milestones.
• Provide each other with 360 degrees of insight and feedback about on another’s strengths and collectively consider how they can be utilized to an even greater degree.
• Make learning fun via on-demand learning, videos, gamification and VR. Give employees their own budgets for trainings and encourage them to make maximum use of them.

Impact – employees want to matter

Employees want to be regarded as people, and for their work to show what they do for the organization, their colleagues and customers. They want to be able to voice their opinions and have an impact. They want to share their ideas for innovation and improvements. They want to be appreciated and recognized for their efforts. How do you devote more attention to impact? Examples include:

• Actively involving employees in innovation; for example, via brainstorming sessions, hackathons and review sessions.
• Conducting periodic check-in and stay interviews.
• Increasing psychological security in the workplace.
• Asking employees for their opinions: offer a ‘listening strategy’ that involves both quantitative and qualitative research, work with the subsequent findings and communicate progress.
• Showing appreciation and giving compliments: make this part of the culture, rituals and communication.
• Use consultation to ensure all participants have an equal say, that the opinions of the minority are also heard, and that everyone feels they’re acknowledged in a ‘deep democracy’ way.
• Routinely allow upper management to visit and work on the shop floor, so that they’ll get a better sense of their employees’ practical realities.

Connection – belonging

People are social animals and want to feel that they belong. They want to feel accepted, and feel they’re collaborating with a group of friendly colleagues who give them the sense that they share more than simply working together; they want to work in a place where there’s space for informal conversations, where they have good relationships with managers, and where they have fun with the team. They also want to support each other outside the workplace. How do you increase this feeling of connection? Examples include:

• Increasing opportunities for getting to know each other better as people, for giving each other personal attention and for having in-depth conversations.
• Celebrating life events such as birthdays, marriages and anniversaries. Extend/exchange Christian holidays with non-Christian holidays.
• Setting up community activities for employees.
• Organizing fun activities and connections, ranging from April 1st jokes, drinks and parties to group challenges.
• Set up cozy coffee corners for informal conversations, and communal tables in the company restaurant for those who eat alone.
• Assist employees with private matters, like divorce, volunteer care and high costs of living.

Before getting started: check to see how extensive the MAGIC feeling is among employees. Let them indicate in which areas the organization can grow, and compile their ideas. This will then give you the best chance to have a captivating impact on employee retention.