Picture this. John, a 10-year employee at Company XYZ, just gave his two-week notice. His boss didn’t see it coming.
What happened? John’s a star employee. How could his manager not know he wanted to leave?
While a 2014 CareerBuilder survey showed 59% of workers were satisfied on the job, just over one-fifth (21%) said they planned to change jobs in 2014 or 2015. And, of the 18% who said they were generally dissatisfied with their jobs, more than half (58%) planned to make a move that year. The reasons? Sixty-six percent were unhappy with their salaries and 65% said they didn’t feel valued.
For whatever reason, there will always be someone who’s eyeing the door. But that’s not always a bad thing.
“It’s good to have a little bit of turnover,” says Kelly Allder, vicepresident of HR programs at Ceridian. “You always want to welcome new employees and have fresh ideas, and there might be people who aren’t performing adequately or people who are ready to retire.”
However, if that turnover includes your top performers, that’s a bad thing.
Employees Behaving Badly
So how do you recognize an impending egress? Watch for these behaviours.
The first, most obvious indication is a change in attitude toward the job, says David King, Canadian director of Robert Half, a talent recruiter. For example, “an employee who has been traditionally positive and participative in meetings is now withdrawn, indifferent or possibly negative.”
Second, attendance becomes an issue. An employee who’s normally punctual and has not taken much time off now arrives late to work and takes more unplanned time off. “People who have a number of sick days in a row or a number of external appointments all of a sudden,” says Allder, “might give me the impression they’re going on interviews.”
And these two behavioural changes lead to a third, says King: a decline in the quality of work. “An employee who typically submitted excellent, well-thought-out work now misses deadlines,” he says, “and the work is unsatisfactory or just adequate.”
Communication is Key
So the signs are there: attitude shift, absenteeism, and a decline in work. How can you block the exit?
Allder says companies need to know what their employees want, what makes them tick and what matters to them. “You want to speak to the employee and address any concerns they have ahead of time,” she says. “You want to get them before they’re on their interview.”
Though some employees will have already made up their minds to leave, employers will still want to prevent these behaviours in the first place. “It’s preferable not to sit back and wait for the inevitable,” says King. A manager needs to be proactive and speak to the employee, ask how they’re doing and provide feedback on some of the behaviours the manager has noticed (e.g., lateness or absenteeism) to determine if, in fact, the employee is looking to leave.
Allder agrees. It’s management by walking around, she says. “It doesn’t have to be an interrogation but certainly a checking-in—‘How are you today? I’ve noticed you’ve been away a couple of times. I hope everything is okay. Is there anything at work that’s bothering you or that you want to talk about?’”
“What’s healthy is that immediate supervisors would have very frequent check-ins with staff,” agrees King, “and I would encourage that they’re not just the drive-by variety, where you walk by a pod and say good morning and ask how the weekend was.”
These are meaningful, genuine discussions, maybe about 15 to 20 minutes, somewhat unstructured and unscripted. “If it’s overstructured,” King explains, “it potentially creates less value because it’s so scripted that you never get into the meaningful part of what the conversation should uncover.”
Of course, you’re not going to keep all your employees from leaving.
“If someone is not happy in your organization, maybe a best fit is for them to leave,” admits Allder. “We hope it’s not one of the ones we want to keep, but that happens sometimes.”
Her firm, Ceridian, does both annual surveys and periodic pulse surveys (conducted every six months) to see what’s going on for employees.
Town halls also let employees ask questions of the CEO, president and various executives. “We host open-ended town halls, where we remind employees about the good things and recognize employees and then give them an opportunity to speak,” she says.
But aside from asking what they want, Ceridian also reminds employees of what they have—which is just as important. A weekly newsletter, called Great News, profiles some of Ceridian’s fun employee events: bake sales, potluck dinners, a costume contest, charity drives.
Not to be left out, the HR department has its own weekly newsletter (HR Weekly), which reminds employees about specific programs—like tuition reimbursement, wellness initiatives, performance review cycles.
Allder says recruiting never really stops. Ceridian’s weekly newsletters and town hall meetings reinforce the good points about working at the company.
She adds it’s crucial to be aware of market conditions. For example, if certain roles within an organization haven’t been benchmarked for salary in a few years, Allder says that’s a big trigger. “You need to make sure you’re market competitive, whether it’s salary or other programs that companies are offering,” she says. “See what’s going on out there so you can ensure you’re offering something similar to your employees.
“Not every organization needs to offer foosball or a kitchen stocked with doughnuts, but maybe flex time or a car pooling opportunity would appeal more.
“You want to keep the bulk of your stars,” Allder continues. “And once you get them in place, you want to understand what makes them tick.”
Brooke Smith is managing editor of Benefits Canada. brooke.smith@rci.rogers.com
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