Are your employees easy targets for recruiting?
As the economy continues to come back with as much gusto as it is, our customer's continue to be challenged by retention. We don't ever solicit our own customer's employees, of course, but when we are recruiting from elsewhere, we certainly know what makes someone easier to pull away from their current employer. As mentioned in an earlier post, we are seeing counter offers (rarely, if ever, successful), multiple offers and employees being referred in to new companies after their former teammates have joined the new firm as well.
Lots of things can lead to managers getting "comfortable" with the thought that their employees won't leave them. Here are just a handful of things to think about when it comes to retaining the best on your team.
- The work has to be challenging, not easy, boring or done in 4 hours of an 8 hour work day. Most of the people you want to keep, but who are the hardest to retain are those who are always asking for more to do. Find more for them to do or they will.
- Don’t start believing that there aren't enough options out there and get comfortable with the thought that even if an employee starts looking, their chances of finding something are slim. Not the case! There are lots of tech jobs for highly qualified people - the ones for the people you don't want to lose.
- The thought process of, “We made it through the worst economy ever, how could they leave now?” is not your best bet. If your current employees experienced any layoffs, pay adjustments or bonus rollbacks during the “worst economy” that have yet to be reinstated or explained, you risk losing people because they have yet to be made whole. Their loyalty to you will be dictated by yours to them (and others).
- Offering a “hands-off” management style isn’t always what employees want. Not every employee is built the same. Many employees want to have a more hands-on approach to feel they are wanted and to know they are delivering on the expectations of their manager.
At the end of the day the best approach that anyone can suggest is to ask your employees what will keep them there. When you can establish the communication with your employees that gives them a say in their current role and the future of not only their role, but that of the company, it should go a long way toward retaining them.