Drive Retention Amid the Great Resignation

While slowing slightly, the Great Resignation is still in full swing, with workers quitting their jobs at near-record levels in search of better and more compelling opportunities elsewhere. According to PwC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey, one in five workers globally plan to quit in 2022.

Pay is unsurprisingly the main factor cited in the PwC survey, with 71% saying it is a key reason they will change jobs. Yet money isn’t the only driver of resignation: other factors noted were job fulfillment and belonging.

The cost for employers to replace a lost employee is high—six to nine months of that employee’s salary on average, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. As leaders, how can you retain your valued team members and boost commitment to their jobs, team and organization?

1. Prioritize culture and connection – Invest time in team building and personal bonding

2. Elevate your purpose – Demonstrate how it shapes what you do

3. Embrace flexibility – Place, time, job description and career paths

4. Provide opportunities to grow – Clear the path and make it easy to identify opportunities (e.g., internal talent marketplace, rotation programs, etc.)

5. Listen and respond – Get direct input from employees in terms of what is working and what is not (e.g., surveys, suggestion boxes, one-on-ones, stay interviews, etc.)

Stay interviews, in particular, are a great tactic to identify individual retention risks.

What is a stay interview?

A periodic one-on-one structured, yet casual, retention conversation between a manager and valued team member to learn what drives them to stay (and stay engaged) and what might cause them to leave.​

What are the benefits?

· Creates a high-feedback environment

· Shows concern for team members

· Serves as one of the best defenses against employee disengagement and/or attrition

· Helps discover engagement themes within teams

Stay Interview Best Practices:

· Informal and conversational

· Open-ended questions

· ~30 minutes in length

· Encourage and accept open, honest feedback

· Don’t get defensive

· Take notes!

Stay Interview Question Examples:

· What about your job makes you excited to get up in the morning?

· What about your job makes you want to hit the snooze button?

· What were your career objectives upon joining the company? How have they changed? What progress do you feel you’ve made against them?

· Do you feel like the necessary training and development opportunities are at your disposal?

· Do you feel recognized for your accomplishments currently? How?

· What can I do to keep you engaged and motivated?

· What would entice you to leave?

Interested in learning more?

Contact Elsey Consulting Group to help you build a healthy, high performance organization where people feel compelled to stay.