51% of Employees are Looking for a New Job - what can you do about it?
Stay interviews.
We've heard about them; they are one the darlings of people strategies. In stay interviews, people leaders learn from their team why they stay, what may draw them away, and what they value or consider to be most important to them. I agree it's important to talk about an employee's experience as they're experiencing it, not once they've decided to leave and provide their resignation notice. But how often? Once a month? Once a quarter? Once a year?
With recent Gallup research saying that 51% of your employees are looking for a new job, I’d argue that once a year is not enough. Maybe I am being too idealistic, but I firmly believe conversations should happen organically as part of your weekly or bi-weekly one-to-one conversations with your employees.
We tend to implement programs and processes that, while well-intentioned, turn great concepts into a "to-do list" or compliance exercise and lose the purpose behind the activity. This is why I’d recommend talking with your employees about how they feel about their work, what they feel great about, what they're concerned about, what is frustrating them, what aspects of their job bring them the most joy or energize them, what aspects do the opposite and how you can help. One question that is a little "meaty" is asking them what a recruiter would have to say to get them to listen to a new opportunity. I am not saying you talk with them about each of these topics in every single one-on-one conversation you have, but I am saying you should be able to weave them into your conversations over a quarter.
Have intentionality in your conversations to learn more about your team, it can make a difference! After all, 70% of employee engagement is based solely on the manager (as per Gallup's extensive research).
Read more about what strategies you can employ to mitigate the risk of any of your employees being a part of the 51% here.
If you want to talk about how you can support employee engagement and retention, let's talk! Schedule a call with me at calendly.com/journeystrong