Why You Should Encourage Your Best Employees to Consider Outside Offers

It's a trend that can be seen across workers of all ages and all wage-brackets, including those who earn six-figures: Americans are quitting at the highest rate since 2001. More than 3 million workers voluntarily leave their jobs each month.

In fact, according to a new report from Ladders, most workers making more than $100,000 are planning to quit their jobs within a year. A new survey from Deloitte - The 2018 Millennial Survey - says that 43% of Millennials plan to quit their current job within two years.

Many of you may be wondering why I recommend to my clients that they help their best employees consider outside offers, when finding and keeping talent is so challenging these days. Here’s why:

You won’t be blindsided when a key employee departs. Everyone eventually leaves their employer. That’s a fact. At some point, people will be poached, others will pursue more meaningful work, some will be fired, and others will retire. When and how they exit is influenced by their relationship with their manager.

Those who feel a strong connection to their leader, are less likely to jump ship for a small bump in pay than those working for bad bosses. A good boss puts their people’s best interest in front of their own, which is what great leaders do when they encourage team members to pursue opportunities that are better than what they can offer them.

Knowing an employee is actively looking at other opportunities gives you time to plan for his or her departure and provides you with time to train a backup. That’s a heck of a lot better position to be in than walking into the office on Monday and finding out your best employee will soon be departing.

Your employment brand will organically expand. Nothing builds an employment brand (the market’s perception of what it’s like to work for an organization) faster than former employees touting how great it is to work for a past employer. These employees encourage friends and members of their social network to consider working for their former boss and an organization that really has the best interest of their employees in mind.

Employees who feel they’ve been treated well by their employers are powerful brand ambassadors. They won’t hesitate to tell everyone they know why your organization is the place to work.

Employees may return. Sometimes an employee has to go elsewhere to realize how good they really had it. Leaders, who have open lines of communication with their people, are frequently contacted by former employees wishing to return. I tell my clients to welcome them back with open arms. Here’s why.

You get the benefit of having an employee who is trained and can be fully productive on day one. These people will be sure to let others in the organization know that the grass is not really greener on the other side, which will help to prevent additional unwanted employee turnover.

Open communication gives you time to fix what may be wrong. How many times have you said, “If I had only known, I could have fixed things?” My guess is a lot! If an employee comes to you and feels comfortable telling you what you need to hear and not just what you want to hear, you’ll be in a much stronger position to make the necessary changes to keep that person in your employ.

Now compare this to the more common scenario where you find out after it’s too late, that an employee, whom you thought was happy, really isn’t. Which situation would you rather be in? If it were me, I’d choose the first.

An opportunity to let fresh air in. We’ve become so obsessed with hanging onto talent at all cost that we forget that there is a price to pay when no one leaves. If no one ever departs, then you are breathing your own exhaust. Attrition can be healthy for an organization. When you bring new people into the organization, you allow fresh air in. Fresh ideas begin to percolate, and workers are re-energized.

Think about this the next time you are tempted to convince an employee that leaving is not in their best interest—especially when you know deep down inside that you are telling them this because their departure is not in your best interest. Then do the right thing. Encourage them to consider all their options.

? Matuson Consulting, 2018.

This is the second article in my new weekly series, The Talent Maximizer?. If you like what you’re reading, please consider sharing and subscribing to the series. As always, feel free to share your opinion in the comment section.

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