A previous version of this article appeared in Media Post | Agency Daily.

People still want to work. Despite all the Great Resignation numbers, professionals aren’t saying they’d like to ditch their day jobs. They’re just saying they want to have a say in their working arrangements instead of handing over all control to their employers. And something they want to change more than anything else is the employee experience. 

As a FlexJobs 2022 survey shows, most of the reasons that employees have given for quitting their positions recently could be remedied through improved employer-driven engagement strategies. For instance, almost two-thirds of all respondents told FlexJobs they left because of cultural toxicity. Another 37% cited a lack of promotional opportunities and 21% said they had no stability. 

In other words, what these people needed was a sense of belonging. If they had had it, they would have stayed. So if you’re worried about losing people, you need to make sure that everyone on your team feels like an essential player. And that means doing a little old-fashioned “vision casting.” 

Vision Casting for Agencies: What It Is and How It Works 

Physical trainers tend to ask the same question of their clients, “If you were to become the best version of yourself, what would that version look like?” In business, vision casting follows the same principle. 

If you can define the best version of your company, you can start setting and achieving goals toward that vision. Once you reach those goals, you should celebrate and then set new goals to help your new vision come to fruition. 

Now, you may already have an aspirational vision statement like Ben & Jerry’s (“Making the best ice cream in the nicest possible way”) or TED (“Spread ideas”.) Vision statements do a great job of inspiring people to buy into your company. The downside comes when people can’t see their part in the vision. Even if they believe in the vision, they may not understand their role. Accordingly, they consider leaving. 

The workaround for this problem is by creating an organizational chart as part of your vision casting strategy. In other words, leverage your vision statement to construct the different roles needed to accomplish the vision. Even if you have a flat organization with no real hierarchy, you can show how and why you need your current team members. As a result of your org chart planning, everyone is able to clearly see their future opportunities, which should help with employee engagement and retention.

Step by Step: How to Vision Cast With an Org Chart

To begin with, envision what you want your agency business to look like three years in the future. Why three years? It’s not too soon to seem impossible to your employees, yet it’s far enough to allow you to dream big.

Think through all the services and products you want to offer your clients in three years. Next, chart out all the roles that you’re going to need to achieve your ambitious vision. Those roles should be specific, not nebulous. Then, add names to each role. The names will be the current people working at your agency.

Only have five people in your organization? Add those names to all the positions you’ve outlined in your organizational chart. Of course, when you realize your vision, you want each person to be assigned just one role. For now, though, it’s fine to double, triple, or quadruple up. The point is for your team members to see their future possibilities.

Once you have your vision-casted org chart planning complete, show the chart to everyone. Ask them to sign off in acknowledgement that they understand what they’re seeing. Be ready to answer questions if needed.

From this point, you can start tracking your progress by using your chart as a guideline. For instance, your organizational chart might imply that you’re adding a new service within three years. You would want to set up leading indicators to track progress toward this objective such as number of hours training for the new service or acquisitions needed to buy the service to bring in-house.

Of all the employee engagement and retention strategies available, vision casting can be done relatively quickly. If it helps your employees see how integral they are, both you and they will be better able to weather through anything the Great Resignation offers.