There are questions that compel an answer. For instance, you will get a unamious Yes from the participants if you ask: “Does retention of the talents matter to your organisation?” “Does it matter to your organisation to get away from high employee turnover?”
I read the following article with anticipation and curiosity:
However, I lost the interest soon. Why? Because the article talks about what seems to be techniques to retain employees rather than the principle around retention. Besides, it is written assuming that there is no problem or issue with the line managers. But who has confirmed that the line managers have nothing to do with employee turnover? Actually, the turnover has very much to do with the line managers.
We all agree that employees leave their organisation usually for more than one reason. Occasionally, employees leave their organisation 100% due to their family reason (the employee’s father passed away and the employee has to take over the family business). In this case, there is only one reason the employee leaves the organisation. But this is rather rare and usually people have a few reasons to leave the organisation.
I have always thought that the following model can apply: there are three factors affecting the decision to leave or not unless force majeure (the case above is included in the force majeure):
- Job or assignment
- Compensation
- People
Job or assignment
If you find the current job or assignment interesting or exciting, or if you learn a lot from the current job, this serves as retention. On the other hand, if you are bored by the current job, this forms one of the good reasons to leave the organization.
Compensation
If you are satisfied with the current compensation, this serves as retention. You do not have to be well paid, but you have to feel that you are paid in a fair manner. But if you feel that you are not paid enough for what you do, or if you discover that your pay is significantly below the market standard, this forms one of the good reasons to leave the organization.
People
If you can respect some of the people you work with, or if you learn a lot from the people you work with, this serves as retention. But if the workplace is full of people you cannot respect, or if the people you work with are far from role model and actually an anti these, you do not want to stay with the organization.
The beauty of the above model is that the three factors can function as a barometre. If you are unhappy with all the three factors, there is no reason for you to stay with the organisation. But if you are happy with all the three factors, you are embracing your professional life. Here is how the barometre works:
- Green: None of the three factors show concern. There is no reason for the employee to consider leaving the organization.
- Amber: One or two of the three factors show concern. I am assuming that many people have one of the three factors show concern.
- Red: All the three factors show concern. Under this state, there is no reason to stay with the organization.
Let me add a final touch to the above model. I think that the most influencing factor is people. Working is a human interaction. If you have to work with disgusting people, you are highly likely to consider leaving the organization; job or assignment can change and the compensation can increase or can be compromised. But it is difficult to compromise the people you work with.
Even if the onboarding process is excellent, and your colleagues are friendly, you will eventually consider leaving the organization if your boss is utterly disgusting. If we want to discuss retention, we need to discuss the leadership quality and management capabilities. More specifically, we should ask if our managers are people that deserve trust.
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