Employee Retention: Are You Hard to Leave?

Recent research by global consulting firm McKinsey & Company suggests that employers do not fully understand why employees are leaving. As their article Great Attrition or Great Attraction? The Choice is Yours notes:

Companies are struggling to address the problem, and many will continue to struggle for one simple reason: they don’t really understand why their employees are leaving in the first place. Rather than take the time to investigate the true causes of attrition, many companies are jumping to well-intentioned quick fixes that fall flat: for example, they’re bumping up pay or financial perks, like offering “thank you” bonuses without making any effort to strengthen the relational ties people have with their colleagues and their employers. The result? Rather than sensing appreciation, employees sense a transaction. This transactional relationship reminds them that their real needs aren’t being met.

We should understand that while rewards play an important role in retaining employees, our organizations are best served by attending to the overall employment experience of these individuals and by using a broad toolkit of retention methods.  While true across the board, this is particularly so for those we consider key contributors.

With that in mind, I want to call out a Classic strategy + business article Retaining Top Talent: Yes It Really Is About Them by Susan Cramm.  In it, she suggests five questions to help leaders get to know their top talent in a conversation that can pave the way for finding assignments and opportunities that will build their capabilities in alignment with their longer-term goals.  The questions are:

1. What are your proudest accomplishments and biggest disappointments? Why?
2. What activities energize you and drain you?
3. How would you force rank the following rewards: financial gain, power and influence, lifestyle, autonomy, affiliation, intellectual challenge, competence, recognition, other?
4. If you died tomorrow, what would you want your legacy to be?
5. What is your five-year career goal? If you don’t have one, what’s your “best guess”?

Cramm notes that over the past 15 years, she has yet to meet a leader who could answer these questions about one of their key employees.  She also shares the feedback she receives, time and time again, from the employees who have participated in these conversations.  They tell her that it is the first time any supervisor invested the time to get to know them and to actively sponsor their career development.

Are your leaders taking the steps - beyond putting additional dollars on the table - that will truly make it hard for your top talent to leave?  Are there steps you can take to encourage the connections and conversations that inspire the sense of shared identity and purpose that all of your employees are seeking in their work?

Creative Commons image "Leaving" by muha photos