No matter how close to perfection a company has come in its hiring and retention programs--competitive salaries, solid benefits package, stimulating working conditions, respect for each individual employee, fair and equitable promotion policies, ongoing training, everything to provide a productive, satisfying job environment--there will be employees who will resign. In many cases, it will come as a surprise to the employer. In others, employees will have exhibited telltale signs that all is not well and that they're poised to leave. Picking up on these signals early enables an employer to take steps to head off a resignation, depending, of course, on why the employee has decided to leave and whether making such an attempt is in the employer's best interest.
Recognize When an Employee is Dissatisfied
Some of the more obvious signs of employee restlessness are:
- A noticeable change in attitude, particularly when it shifts from active and involved to passive and uncaring. Employees seriously looking for another job tend to pull back in their level of involvement, especially with long-range projects and planning.
- Less communication with management: Individuals engaged in a job search usually try to minimize contact with their bosses to avoid awkward conversations. In a sense, they attempt to become "invisible," which, of course, only increases their visibility to an astute manager.
- Longer lunch hours: This, like many signs of pending departure, becomes more obvious if patterns are broken. Employees whose jobs routinely allow for long lunches won't be as noticed as those who generally grab a quick sandwich and spend the rest of lunch reading, or those who bring lunch to work with them.
- An abrupt increase in absences, sick days, and time off during the workday for medical appointments. (Bear in mind that there could be a need to visit doctors and dentists more frequently for legitimate reasons.)
- A change in vacation plans. Employees who want to devote full-time to a job search often ask that their vacations be rescheduled. Others, already hired and ready to announce their departure, might wish to get in a vacation before starting new jobs.
- A marked increase in the number of personal phone calls made and received. Most prospective employers will not call a candidate at his or her current place of employment, but some will, using false names and reasons for calling. Often, spouses are the conduit through which dates and times of interviews are transmitted.
- A noticeable change in grooming and dress.
- A neater desk, particularly when personal mementos begin to vanish. On the other hand, if the desk has always been neat but is now piled with papers, it could mean the employee is getting ready to leave and is no longer concerned about neatness.
- When an employee known to take work home each evening stops doing it. The individual no longer seeks the benefits that working at home produces.
- Resumes inadvertently left in a copy or fax machine and discovered by a supervisor. There's also word-of-mouth. Members of an employer's professional network of colleagues are often aware that a valuable employee has been looking for a new job. Keeping eyes and ears open for such "evidence" can be helpful, provided it doesn't become a paranoid obsession.
There are as many answers to this question as there are people, ranging from purely personal needs to career opportunities, from personality conflicts to better salaries and loftier titles.
Robert Half International commissioned a nationwide survey of leading corporations in years ago to better understand why employees pick up and leave, and I believe the results are still applicable today. This question was asked of employers: Why did they think good and valuable employees leave their jobs? (Responses were based, to some extent, on exit interviews.) The majority (seven of ten) felt it was because employees either did not believe they'd received enough recognition for their good work, or perceived their opportunities for advancement as too limited.
Here's how the responses broke down:
- Limited opportunities for advancement: 47 percent.
- Lack of recognition: 26 percent.
- Unhappiness with management: 15 percent.
- Inadequate salary or benefits: six percent.
- Bored with the job: six percent.
An employer gets crucially important time to react if he knows ahead of time that a valued employee is thinking of looking elsewhere or has already begun the process. Once an individual has accepted another job and resigns, the current employer's hands are tied. Yes, a counteroffer can be made in an attempt to change the employee's mind, but this seldom works. Even when it does, it doesn't work for very long. Employees who decide to stay because the pot has been sweetened are usually gone within a year anyway.
Once an employer decides that an employee intends to leave, it's best to confront that person directly: "Are you planning on leaving us?" Most people, when asked such a question, will find it difficult to lie. If they do, the lie is generally transparent.
It's important for a number of reasons to ascertain whether an employee is job hunting:
- Most employees will give adequate notice, but some won't. The more lead time an employer has to consider restaffing, the better.
- Having the opportunity to discuss why an employee wishes to leave can provide insight into what problems exist within a department. This can also be accomplished during a formal exit interview, but the earlier such conversations take place, the more time is available for corrective action.
- If the employee is especially valuable to the department and company, the chances of retaining that person are enhanced if the attempt is made before he or she has accepted another position. As mentioned earlier, extending a counteroffer after the fact is generally a wasted exercise, since that person, in all likelihood, will be gone within a year. In addition, word of the counteroffer may get around to other employees and tempt them to threaten leaving in the hope of receiving a raise as inducement to stay.
- If, on the other hand, the employer is not sorry to see the employee resign, the opportunity exists to ask the individual to depart immediately (with separation payment according to company practice). Employees who conduct a job search on company time do that company little good. Colleagues usually end up having to assume extra work while the employee looks for a new job. Also, because word that the employee is looking will undoubtedly sneak into the grapevine, morale can suffer.
Although topping a financial offer made by another employer seldom results in long-term retention, there are things that can be considered in lieu of money that could serve to keep a good employee from leaving, depending on the reasons that person is looking elsewhere.
As the survey cited earlier most employees leave in search of opportunity for advancement and greater recognition. If one of these problems exists, look for ways to place the individual in charge of special projects or a newly formed task force or committee designed to attack a pervasive problem.
Be creative. Tap into those employee hot-buttons. If continuing education emerges from conversations as especially important, find the funds to pay for it. You'll end up with a better informed and trained worker. To increase recognition, reassign offices so that the employee ends up with a nicer one. To improve the variety of assignments and provide a stimulus, send the individual on trips to satellite operations.
Taking steps such as these accomplishes something worthwhile, whether or not they succeed in keeping the person. If the employee decides to stay, the mission has been accomplished. If the employee still decides to leave, the employer has established a reputation as caring and sensitive. As a result, the departing employee not only will have good things to say about the former employer to new colleagues, but also might be more inclined to return at some future date. Always leave the door open for good people to get back in touch. Things may not work out with the new job, and if they do, former employees can become excellent sources of referrals.
A few words about formal exit interviews: First, a caveat, never conduct exit interviews with employees who were fired. They're usually angry, and their comments are likely to be warped and unreliable.
Second, if communication between departing employee and superiors has been good over the course of employment, chances are that more valuable information already will have been obtained than an exit interview will uncover, but conduct one anyway, preferably with the highest level manager who had contact with the employee. Encourage candor. Give the employee a sense that his or her thoughts and suggestions are still valuable.
Every employer is unhappy when a top-notch employee leaves. If motivational and retention programs have been in place and carried out, fewer people will resign. However, some will, no matter what. When that happens, celebrate the years of solid and productive work provided by the employee, part on a positive note, and keep in touch.
