Retention in a time of resignation

We continue to hear daily about the great resignation.?We also see it daily - With our coworkers, our friends and on Linkedin. The number of people moving roles continues to set records and shows few signs of slowing as companies continue to adjust what return to office means in practical terms.?Resignations come from more than just lack of clarity on office polices, they stem from staff members that lack career opportunities or a personal connection with their manager to have conversations about longer term career goals.?

Many organizations work hard to ensure salary and benefits are competitive, that staff have career ladders available and flexibility is available to work from alternative locations. These are now table-stakes. The organizations that will slow down resignations and enable recruiting teams to refocus on growth are those that get creative with meeting employees' larger needs for impactful work, new opportunities and personal & authentic connections with leadership.

Retention is a never ending focus for organizational leaders. It begins at the moment you begin recruiting a new team member and continues as that individual grows and moves in the organization.

• Set?expectations - The recruiting process is the best time to begin setting expectations with future employees about working style of the company, career opportunities, the companies commitment to individuals and the organizations vision and social impact. These are all key components to hiring individuals that will be a net-add member of the team, as well as ensuring clarity on what is and is not possible in the organization.
• Live up to commitments - Ensure that company processes are built to live up to all commitments made during recruiting and hiring.?All benefits should be tracked, reported on and employees reminded of the benefits they have to utilize. Employees may not always use all benefits available to them, but they appreciate knowing they are available and the company puts in the effort to provide reminders on how to use specialized benefits.
• Continue discussions about the employees goals (they might change) - Most interviews have a discussion about an employees longer term goals.?This should be the start of ongoing discussions with the individuals?immediate?manager and other organizational leaders.?Employees' goals will often change as they are exposed to new opportunities, work with a variety of teams or observe changes in the industry.?The ongoing conversation ensures managers have insight to employee preferences so that opportunities and roles can be created.
• Get people excited - Hiring?missionaries?always provides better long term stability than mercenaries. Making sure people are excited about the company mission, long term goals and impact to society creates deep bonds with employees.

To be effective, first line managers play a key role in engagement with their team and advocating for their needs.

• Authentic relationships - Strong managers will developer authentic relationships with their team. They will use opportunities to understand stresses the team member is?experiencing?outside of work and balance workloads to ensure the employee does not feel overwhelmed. High functioning teams are effective at using various forums for work organization and prioritization, so that managers one-on-ones can be focused on the individual and providing added context & support for their role.
• Partner with support teams - Every organization has supporting organizations; often including finance,?facilities, the program management office and other shared corporate functions. These can often be abstract to individual employees and lead to friction in business processes. Effective managers work with these teams to make processes simpler, take on the work of alignment between teams and give employees room to focus the core functions of their role, limiting the process overhead to finish and publish their work.
• Talk about what's coming & get people excited - Many employees only opportunity to hear about the wider organization is at all-hands events. These can be very high level and move by quickly. Effective managers will use team meetings and one-on-ones to pass on added context about other exciting work going on across the company, as well as new products and initiatives that are on the horizon. This builds a deeper connection with employees through?awareness?and gives staff opportunities to think about internal moves to other projects that grow their own toolbox and career.
• Avoid fear & rumors - Building on the above sharing of insight into company direction and initiatives, managers should also move to stop rumors and other false information from floating in teams. Rumors and other inaccurate information leads to employee fear and increased turnover. For managers that have established authentic relationships with their team, the trust is already present to quickly address rumors and other false information.
• Use the 9-box - The 9-box is a powerful tool to identify high performers and high potential team members and focus development activities to realize the full potential of these employees. The real value of the 9-box is the regular discussion between managers about their teams and the ability to create opportunities for employees and avoid waiting for them to ask for new roles or responsibilities.

In addition to authentic leadership some great ideas were shared about specific techniques and programs companies use to keep team members engaged and excited.?

• Hackathon - Many organizations will organize hackathons, giving?employees?the opportunity to self organize into teams and focus two or three days on building impactful solutions to challenges in the organization. The most impactful hackathons have a judging component to create a fun, competitive environment and engaging executive leaders as the judges to create visibility for the team members and their creativity.
• Flexibility beyond the JD - Managers can move beyond rigid job descriptions and create opportunities for team members to explore new roles outside that boundary by putting them on new project teams or shifting?responsibilities?for periods of absence by peers. This shows employees they have additional opportunities and explore if desires of new roles are real and feasible.
• Pre-approved counter offers - While we did not get into the more?difficult?conversation about if you should counter, a great suggestion was thrown out about manager being prepared with pre-approved counter offers.?The idea is that for identified top-performers, HR and the manager will partner to ensure that approvals are ready to make rapid counter offers should an employee give their notice. The simplest form is a raise, but could also take the form of flexibility on location, title or role change to keep the top-performer.
• Internal mobility - Internal mobility is always a great way to keep an employee at the company, while giving them new opportunities. Often times employees are not looking to change companies, just gain new experiences. Strong managers will also advocate and proactively look for internal?opportunities?for their team to ensure the company can maintain their experience, even if with a different department.
• Virtual ice cream party - Of all the ideas shared in the discussion, this was my personal?favorite. A virtual event making ice cream floats - A fun chance to forget about the day, have some fun and a sweet treat.?While a small gesture, when done regularly it gives employees a fun way to stay connected and have stories to share.
• Training funds - While the idea of employee training funds is not new, many organizations are moving the responsibility of managing the money from managers to individual employees. The idea is that employees feel more empowered when they have clear objectives for the organization, coaching on their career path and a pool of funds they can apply to training, certifications and conferences to advance their goals. In addition to employees controlling their training funds, the idea is that managers don't have to account for it in their department budgets or risking it changing quarter to quarter and limiting opportunities.

As one member of the panel said, we must “remember our team is human” - That must drive what we do as leaders and how we engage. Humans evolve, humans learn and adjust their thinking - This impacts career goals, objectives and approaches to work and we must empower them to feel control of their career and create opportunities. Thank you to everyone that?participated?in Data Leaders of Austin this week, our conversation on retention was impactful and actionable. I look forward to hearing how you have applied these and other ideas with your own teams.?