Colleagues Leaving? Here's How to Prevent (or Facilitate) Career Shifts
You don’t have to look far to see signs of people leaving jobs. The pandemic has shaken up lives, uprooted careers, and changed how companies work.
As the dust settles on partial reopenings, hybrid working, and a new school year, many people are rethinking their relationship with work.
Beyond navigating these questions about our own careers, leaders are tasked with attracting and retaining talent - the people at the heart of what their organizations do.
So, how do we retain our star employees, particularly when everyone’s stressed, things are uncertain, and the market for jobs is competitive?
There’s no quick fix, but there are tweaks and changes that make an appreciable difference to how individuals and teams experience work. And in many cases, it may simply be too late to stop someone from leaving - and that’s often for the best.
Here are some proven ways to motivate and retain team members:
Get to know your people
If you already have a good relationship with your employees, you have a distinct advantage. They are likely to tell you when they are considering a move (and why) and you have an inside track on what might motivate them to stay. If you don’t know your team well, it’s always a good idea to try.
Provide learning opportunities
Investing in good professional development doesn’t just raise people’s skill levels - it sends a clear message that they are a valuable (and valued) part of your team. Paraphrasing the old saying, “What if I invest in training and people leave?” - “But what if you don’t and they stay?”
While we are of course advocates of workshops, offsites, and coaching, professional development can include in-house interventions like work-shadowing, peer coaching, and robust feedback conversations. Speaking of which…
Make feedback conversations a habit
If you only talk about performance in performance reviews, you’re doing it wrong. And I know: talking about a person’s perceived shortcomings can be daunting. It’s why we sometimes default to speaking only about what they do well, hoping the other stuff will get better without intervention, or skipping the conversation altogether. But the more you openly discuss performance - the good, the bad, the mediocre - your own, other people’s… The more frequent, easy, and effective these conversations will become. (No one wants to hear about a mistake they made in February during their Thanksgiving-time performance review.)
Moreover, telling a person, specifically and meaningfully, what they do well is in itself a motivator and a retention tool. It’s also just a nice thing to do, and it will show the person that they are valued.
Offer continued remote work where possible
Like many things that took off during the pandemic, we have a love/hate relationship with remote work. But like a sourdough starter in a food shortage or a running habit when gyms are closed, remote work will continue to hold some appeal for many people when COVID’s threat subsides.
Remote work has also in some respects had a democratizing effect on the workplace. In that spirit, consider how you might be able to continue offering some form of remote or hybrid working to your team post reopening.
Bring people closer to your organization’s purpose
Which task would you be more motivated to complete?
Hey, can you organize our Dropbox when you have a chance? It’s a mess.
Being able to find what we need quickly helps us get more people access to our work in a timely way. Your attention to detail will be a huge help on this front! Can you help us get our file-sharing more organized?
Purpose and autonomy are to workplace motivation what vaccinations are to reopening (i.e., vital - and not embraced enough). Consider how you can make purpose a part of everything your team does.
Let them go
We all know that hiring people is costly in terms of time, resources, and risk. But if someone decides to leave, it’s often for the best. Even star performers. Star performer or otherwise, their departure might open the way for another colleague to step up and grow - or for a newcomer to provide some fresh perspective.
And when it’s time to train them, you know how to find us.
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Ellie Hearne is founder of Pencil or Ink – a leadership-communications practice in New York City. She works with leading organizations to enhance performance through culture and is currently studying Organisational Leadership at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. She publishes a monthly newsletter on worklife, culture, and leadership - available here.