The old “retention playbook” just isn’t relevant anymore.
It has become increasingly difficult to hang on to high performers and high potentials beyond 3 years. How can we refine those who may be self-confident but not quite ready for the next role and empower others who lack self-confidence to step into what they were clearly born for and poised to do?
How To Engage Your Workforce & Reduce Employee Attrition
Each of us wants to know we are valued and bring value. In a world filled with turmoil and rampant change, we find hope and stability when our employer—to whom we commit one third of our time—says, “You have a fulfilling future here. Let’s make it happen.”
Consider these practical strategies that will both engage your workforce and reduce your attrition.
Stay Interviews
The place to start is a stay interview most often led by the employee’s manager or the manager’s manager. It could be with someone in Talent Development or Recruiting. It could even be with a leader from another department whom you recognize could find this employee of great current or future value for their piece of the company’s mission.
A stay interview is a unique conversation dedicated to the employee unveiling their potential and dreams in as little as 30 minutes. It has the potential to be what moves a regressing worker from disgruntled and impeding to validated and trailblazing. An open-minded interviewer can both harness potential and deploy expertise with one conversation followed with a commitment to action steps.
Questions To Ask During A Stay Interview
Here are some questions you might ask an employee who is wondering why they should stay and what is available for them:
- What do you see as possible next steps and roles for you here? What new tasks, skills and responsibilities do you believe would challenge and grow your strengths toward that goal?
- What are you most proud of accomplishing or creating in the past 6 months that could possibly be leveraged in other departments for even greater impact and value?
- What expertise would you enjoy sharing with colleagues? Are there conferences, training/certifications, publications or presentation opportunities you would like the opportunity to explore?
- If there was one senior leader you could meet with once a month for the next 6 months, who would it be? What would you hope to learn from them? How might you also impact them?
Of course, this is just a starter list, and some questions could be worded as, “On a scale of 1-5 …” to vary the format or enable less-verbal employees to give succinct and accurate answers.
Additional Strategies To Leverage Inward Mobility
In addition, here are six more ways you can empower employees and realize organizational growth through inward mobility:
- Offer that they attend a higher-level meeting with their manager as an observer—this will inform their “bigger picture,” provide sightlines into the ramifications of decisions at the next level and equip them to anticipate needs to generate more effective solutions
- Organize SMEs to cross-train colleagues for tasks and skills that would benefit the learner, their team and their department—this will increase competencies and expand experience for both upward and lateral movement
- Encourage leaders to delegate appropriate next-level tasks—this promotes deliberate in-the-flow-of-work training for immanent responsibility or promotion and can facilitate seamless coverage for “vacations and vacatings” (PTO as well as resignations and retirements)
- Set up “Temporary Duty Assignments” (TDAs) where a person is loaned to a related department for a brief season. This can be to shadow someone for a week or two, or be trained to do a “stretch” job for 3-6 months. For example, a salesperson assigned to Business Development, Product Development working in Marketing or a Risk Management or Research & Development employee working in the Innovation Lab
- Present a current high-stakes business challenge sponsored and presented by a senior executive that has a rigorous timeline and possible resources to a team of three to four aspiring employees. The group develops a strategic business plan to tackle or solve the challenge and formally presents it to relevant stakeholders. Ideally, some or all of the group are invited to continue in some measure with the approved implementation
- Mentoring involves matching them with seasoned veterans and executive leaders. Begin the effort with a group kickoff session to ensure that relevant goals, expectations and outcomes are clear. Mentees should submit quarterly one-page summaries of what they are learning, progress toward goals and how the mentorship is impacting current performance and deliverables. Celebrate at the end with a luncheon where they share their stories with the next cohort of mentees and mentors
You have heard the saying attributed to Peter Drucker, “What if we train them and they leave? What if we don’t and they stay?” Where outside programs require great expense, these solutions for inward mobility leverage internal assets, expertise and resources that most organizational leadership can’t turn down.
Application Questions
- With whom do you need to share this list? How will you leverage their influence and advocacy?
- If you already use Situational Leadership® practices, how could these opportunities continue moving your people from potential to performance?
