John Eades* says many organisations put too much emphasis on recruitment and not enough on keeping the people they have.
It used to be that employees just wanted a good job with a steady salary.
Many would sacrifice their passions and tolerate an average job.
However, thanks to a strong employment run and the rapid advancement of the gig economy, the veil of scarcity job thinking has turned into an employment abundance.
The power of employment is now in the hands of talented professionals, and the best organisations recognise it.
Whether you call it the Great Resignation or something else, there is no doubt this is the time period of the professional.
Research by McKinsey suggests that 40 per cent of employees are considering quitting their jobs in the next three to six months.
Most professionals who have left, or are thinking about it, aren’t walking away for a small pay raise.
Instead, they are focused on moving towards something better.
They move toward leaders and organisations who care about them and intersect with their passions and purpose.
Employees quit jobs for many different reasons.
Many people believe that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers.
While this isn’t always the case, one of the primary reasons people leave is because of a bad boss.
McKinsey’s research of why people quit highlights what I call The Big Three: Lack of career development/advancement; inadequate compensation; uncaring/uninspiring leaders.
None of these by themselves are shocking or insightful.
However, in my work coaching leaders and helping build organisational culture, people often leave when these three interact.
You can think of it this way; people are much more likely to quit when they have an uncaring/uninspiring leader and are inadequately compensated.
Or they lack career development/advancement and have an uncaring /uninspiring leader.
Employees leave when two or more reasons they would quit interact with each other.
While no organisation or leader is perfect, the best organisations know employee retention is a great business practice.
On average, employee turnover costs organisations between one and two years’ salary once the person leaving has been in the organisation for more than three years.
The cost of turnover is expensive, and retention is essential.
However, in the current talent market, retaining high performers and great team players deserves a dedicated strategy corporately, implemented by each manager.
The best leaders build systems as if their employees will stay forever, even though they know it isn’t true.
As a leadership coach and consultant, I have the privilege of sitting in the front row as organisations bare the truth about their recruiting and retention techniques and strategies.
More often than not, they focus more on recruiting rather than retention.
While recruiting talented people is an essential element of leadership, the best leaders focus more on retention than recruiting.
Fulfilled employees do a lot of recruiting because they are raving fans of the organisation.
The best retention strategies revolve around four key elements:
Purposeful Culture
Provide meaningful work and make people feel like they belong to something bigger than themselves.
Training and Development
Invest in managers’ development so they can lead more effectively.
Provide learning opportunities for all employees to create a learning culture.
Ample Compensation
Compensation that exceeds the average pay by industry average and exceeds personal needs.
Empowerment and Flexibility
Create an environment that allows employees to take ownership of their work, decision-making, and schedule.
I hope that instead of blaming, complaining, and acting as if people are disposable, you will do your part to make a difference in people right where you are.
Use the opportunities in front of you to ‘bloom where you are planted’ because that’s exactly what the best leaders do.
*John Eades is the Chief Executive of LearnLoft a leadership development company. He can be contacted at johneades.com.
This article first appeared at johneades.com.
