Trust

Even those of us who love hard data must acknowledge the truth that most people don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses. I have mentioned my belief that what matters most regarding employee retention and engagement is what employees talk about over dinner and bosses are often what they talk about over dinner.

It seems too intangible or simple to say that supervisors who build trust will improve retention, even more than traditional solutions like pay, benefits, onboarding, training, and everything else. But it’s true that the the lens through which your people see their relationship with their manager is how they see your company.

Why is Q2 “What are you learning here? And what do you want to learn?” Because Q2 is the low-hanging-fruit way for supervisors to identify how they can add one additional brick to the foundation of building trust with each member of their teams.

It seems trite to say that supervisors who build trust will improve retention…more than the traditionally-considered solutions like pay, benefits, onboarding, training, time off, work from home, and everything else. It sounds too simple, too intangible, but it’s true.

Believing hiring a Chief Happiness Officer will improve turnover, or relying on any of the other seven most-used programs noted here, ignores the science that says the #1 reason employees stay or leave is how much they trust their supervisor.