Signs your start employee might be a turnover threat
By Andy Medici – Senior Reporter, The Playbook,
Feb 1, 2022 Updated Feb 2, 2022, 10:46am EST
Employees are quitting in droves. Here's how to tell if an employee might be eyeing the exits.
Photo by Peter Cade
Managers already struggling with retention and recruitment during "The Great Resignation” will need to watch employees for warning signs they are going to quit — and step in before it’s too late.
Failure to do so could be extremely costly at a time when salaries are on the rise and employers are having significant trouble finding talent.
“Top performers should not be let go that easily because there is a very high cost to replace them. And there is a lot at stake,” said Anita Kanti, a workplace culture and talent acquisition specialist. “If you really understand the cost of replacing an employee and the cost of recruiting you want to really want to be careful about what it will cost the business as far as financial metrics.”
Fortunately, there are some red flags to watch for:
An employee regularly coming in late or having “Zoom fatigue.”
A lack of motivation or uninterested in long-term goals or commitments.
A noticeable decline in productivity.
The ongoing pandemic has pushed many workers to the brink, Kanti said, and dissatisfied employees are looking around at their options. Burnout also contributes to employees eyeing the exits.
“There are still employees who are not happy with how employers handled the pandemic,” Kanti said, “I think there has been contemplation around the timing of making a career change.”
So what should managers do to keep their teams intact?
Invest more in employee engagement. Managers should talk to their employees often, not just about their work, but their goals and aspirations. Creating this dialogue helps employers anticipate problems and be proactive about dissatisfied employees before they start looking for new jobs.
Recognize hard work and reward employees. It could be with money but it could also simply be recognition from management or peers. Or customized perks such as money for gym memberships or food delivery.
Solicit feedback and give employees new training opportunities and tools. Make employees feel heard about their problems and work actively to fix them.
“Many times, it could be a particular issue where an employee doesn’t want to quit but they feel like they have to quit,” Kanti said.
Managers should not be afraid to enter into negotiations with an employee that said they got a better offer elsewhere, Kanti said. Employers can offer more money, but if that’s not an option, new projects or opportunities within the company could help give an employee what they are searching for in their career.
“If it’s a strong performer, definitely resist the urge to just let them go,” Kanti said.
Instead, call a meeting, try to understand why they are leaving, and what those reasons are. Even if managers cannot stop that one employee, that feedback could be helpful to prevent more employees from jumping ship.
“Employees are not always going to be completely transparent but if you already have a solid relationship with your team, then chances are you have already given them a platform for transparency,” Kanti said. "It's like nurturing any relationship like we do in our personal lives, and it's so important to do it in our professional lives as well."
Kanti stressed now is also the time to get creative, such as offering gym memberships or other perks.
The focus on retention comes as the number of Americans quitting their jobs in November rose to 3% — matching the all-time record first hit in September 2021.
That means 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which, along with September, is the highest since the BLS began tracking that data decades ago.
Meanwhile, companies continue to grapple with how to best approach their return to the office — a decision made more difficult by variants like Omicron — but it appears hybrid models are the top choice for now.
Employers are also grappling with the new reality that competition for talent is no longer limited to businesses in the same metro area.
The number of high-paying remote jobs continues to skyrocket, according to research by jobs site Ladders. Ladders tracked remote-work data from North America’s largest 50,000 employers for jobs that pay more than $80,000 per year. Prior to the pandemic, only about 4% of those jobs were remote, but that jumped to 9% by the end of 2020. By the end of 2021, the figure doubled again to 18%. Ladders previously predicted that more than a quarter of high paying jobs will be remote by the end of 2022 — a prediction it repeated in its most recent report.
