Fortune published an interesting article recently about how HR’s role has stepped up due to people-centric issues like COVID-19, the subsequent labor upheaval, and remote work. Their point is that HR now finally has that coveted “seat at the table” that top HR execs have longed for during the past decade or two. The question is what big challenges HR tackles using that seat.
Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo to employees outlining several cultural and operational changes including mandating a full return to the office at the start of 2025. For many future years we will read reports and say, “The pandemic caused that” and at top of the list is the work-from-home (WFH) phenomena that today has led to an increased level of tension between employees who have embraced it and employers, like Amazon, who are over it.
While exit surveys bring a concept that at first glance should be helpful to our overall retention quest, the combination of poor survey design, minimal truth-telling, and the absence of constructive follow-up all dilute their value. You should be asking “Why do you stay?” versus “Why are you leaving?” to get better employee retention data for your company.
Each week I present here the absolute best information and solutions to implement Stay Interviews and cut employee turnover. But today, I want to invite you to spend a few days in Florida learning it all such that you could return home to MAKE IT HAPPEN…to not only reduce turnover but also slash open jobs, make real employee engagement happen, and improve productivity across your company.
Most employees can immediately tell you why they might leave, but few have actually catalogued in their minds why they stay. Stay Interviews Question 3 is important as it causes employees to self-search. And once they announce to you why they stay they also announce it to themselves…and they tend to never forget it.
Recent surveys say these are the at-work values young workers hold most dear: Mobility, entrepreneurial freedom, and flexibility. Lock these key employee retention words into your brain, make them pop up on your computer screen first thing each morning because 53% of your Gen Z and millennials will consider leaving this year.
Young workers are much more willing to abandon relationships that feel insecure or unsafe, both at home and in their places of work…and are much more willing to welcome relationships where they feel safe to be their authentic selves.
I addressed the crowd at the SHRM24 Annual Conference in Chicago and HR professionals who associate us with Stay Interviews alone often miss out on what I described in the session’s title as “the best-ever employee retention solution”.
In the Harvard Business Review article, “Customer Surveys Are No Substitute for Actually Talking to Customers,” HBR now deems customer conversations as more effective for engagement than customer surveys. Shouldn’t this same principle be applied to employees as well?
Gallup’s CEO, Jim Clifton, very purposefully used the phrase, “team leaders” in a subtitle of one of his books. Why do I agree this specific role is crucial? Because team leaders are in their employees’ faces every day, providing instruction, feedback, and building relationships. Jim knows team leaders’ impact employee retention, and so do we. When it comes to cutting employee turnover - team leaders are the front line for building trust.