Employee Retention: Managers can make a difference Date:   Thursday , December 28, 2006 There are many reasons why managers spend sleepless nights. In a hot market situation for talent, one of the key issues that keep managers worried is increasing difficulty with retention of people. While HR is busy doing exit interviews and churning out creative analysis and reports, managers continue to battle the attrition menace and are often caught between increasing pressure to deliver on time and ensuring that the team remains intact. Now, the question is whether managers can do something about losing people and containing the loss or do they have to be merely a mute witness to the problem at hand. I strongly believe that managers can play a significant role in retaining people. Gallup studies have strongly indicated, “people join corporations, but leave managers!” “It is all about money, Honey” Managers: Heard of this proverb? “If the only tool you have is hammer, every problem will look like a nail.” Managers who belong to this type believe that doling out more money is the only solution to retaining people. True that people move jobs for higher compensation, but in most cases, the reason why people start to look out is often not money. Interestingly enough, just look around and you will notice that some of the companies that have very high attrition are also the companies that pay sky-high compensation. Employees from these companies have changed jobs for lesser salaries in reality. Three fundamental questions: I have these three questions to ask those managers who rush to HR with an SOS for raising someone’s salary by a handsome percentage. Their oft-repeated plea is that the employee under discussion is absolutely critical / key for success and if he or she leaves, the project will tumble and client will spit fire and shift business. If you are one of those managers, I have these three questions for you: * How come you suddenly ‘discovered’ that this employee is key as soon as he or she resigned? * How certain are you that even after giving a handsome ‘off cycle’ raise, he or she is going to stay with you for at least some time? But most importantly, I am concerned with the third question: · Who on earth is taking care of those employees that are too busy to even think of leaving and so, have not threatened to leave as yet? · There are no easy answers as all of us know. Therefore, the key is understanding a few fundamentals in employee retention and doing well on these basics. Retention is not the same as Damage Control: Acting on a resignation received is far from retention. In fact, it is damage control. And the chances of success, as experience has indicated, are less than 10 percent. An employee deciding to quit has thought up enough convincing reasons for doing so and has often used those reasons to convince oneself and one’s dear and near. Reversing this decision will again cause a psychological dissonance and make it difficult for the employee to do so. Reasons that prompt and provoke employees to quit: More often than not, some of the following reasons account for employees choosing to leave: * Not paying attention to people when they crave for it. Missed one-on-one meetings, perennially postponed skip-level meetings, not reaching out to appreciate good work or to send a ‘thank-you’ note. * Fill it, Shut it and Forget it approach to Performance Planning & Review process. No goal-setting, no feedback and a lousy hurried review session. * Scant regard for developmental needs & their fulfillment leading to no training or development * Making promises and not keeping track of them for fulfillment either in terms of salary corrections or promotions and the like * Everyone here is entitled to an opinion (and that is mine!) attitude leading to little attention being paid to what people may have to say about improving things. And of course, there are more reasons. All resignations ring warning signs, but they are often ignored: Rarely ever, any resignation happens without warning. Smart managers are good at picking up the symptoms of disengagement well in time. Sudden changes in employee behaviours (abrupt change in observing office timings), dress code (sudden shifts from formal to casual or vice versa), declining legitimate meeting or travel requests, and the like throw up enough and more clues to the setting in of disengagement that eventually leads to resignation. Obviously, addressing a potential attrition when symptoms of disengagement begin to set in is far easier than “boiling the ocean” to retain someone tendering a resignation. Now what do best people managers do? Interestingly, I have noticed that most of the best people managers with lowest attrition in their teams understand one simple truth. And that is: Employee retention is a 24 / 7 / 365 job; period! Simply translated, smart managers know that retention is an everyday investment. You care about your people and you show you care; and you do that every day. Retention of your people cannot be any simpler. We all can become one. Are we ready? The author is Sr.VP-HR with Symphony Services Corporation. He can be reached at mahalingam.c@symphonysv.com