How to Recruit & Retain People in the Current Economy

I’m always fas­ci­nat­ed to be in con­ver­sa­tions with CEOs and exec­u­tives who are con­cerned about their abil­i­ty to retain key talent.

And I’m intrigued by how quick­ly the con­ver­sa­tion goes to com­pen­sa­tion, bonus­es, STIPs and LTIPs (short- and long-term incen­tive plans). After lis­ten­ing to their thoughts and views, I ask a sim­ple question:

Have you ever done any research on the root dri­vers of reten­tion of high performers?

After the room goes qui­et, most peo­ple respond with, ​“I think…”, ​“I believe…”, ​“I feel…”

Then, I point them to a body of research we found more than a decade ago, in the recent­ly updat­ed book The Sev­en Hid­den Rea­sons Employ­ees Leave by Leigh Bran­ham. The book sum­ma­rizes research from 20,000 exit inter­views to extract the real rea­sons why peo­ple leave.

While man­agers said that mon­ey was the rea­son peo­ple left 90% of the time, the research shows that mon­ey was a major fac­tor clos­er to 10% of the time.

Not About the Money

Since read­ing this book, I’ve been pres­sure-test­ing the data by ask­ing keen, new-to-a-com­pa­ny exec­u­tives why they left their old job. I have nev­er heard some­one cite com­pen­sa­tion. Nev­er. In a few hun­dred con­ver­sa­tions, they’ve always point­ed back to one of the rea­sons in the book.

On the flip side, I have also asked the same ques­tion to key exec­u­tives when they tell me sto­ries of get­ting offered 30%, 50% and 100% more mon­ey to go some­where else. When I ask them why they stay, they almost always cite one of the rea­sons in the book.

Rea­son 1: The job or work­place was not as expected.

An expec­ta­tion wasn’t met. Peo­ple were mis­led or over­sold dur­ing the inter­views, usu­al­ly because the hir­ing process was too rushed to give can­di­dates a real­is­tic view of the job or the company.

Rea­son 2: There is a mis­match between job and person.

This is about get­ting the right peo­ple in the right seat – to make sure they are capa­ble and a good fit for com­pa­ny cul­ture and values.

Rea­son 3: There is too lit­tle coach­ing and feedback.

Many man­agers are not trained how to give ongo­ing, con­struc­tive and can­did coach­ing and feed­back – nor do they pro­vide devel­op­ment pro­grams to help employ­ees grow and improve.

Rea­son 4: There are too few growth and advance­ment opportunities.

Employ­ees who want to advance in their careers need to see that there is a sup­port­ive and for­mal path to do so.

Rea­son 5: Work­ers feel deval­ued and unrecognized.

Lack of acknowl­edge­ment, respect, pay equi­ty, and the right and enough resources for peo­ple to do their jobs well, includ­ing a safe and pleas­ant work environment.

Rea­son 6: Work­ers suf­fer from stress due to over­work and work-life imbalance.

No man­age­ment sup­port for a healthy work-life bal­ance means more stress, burnout, turnover and absen­teeism vs loy­al­ty, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, health and men­tal well-being.

Rea­son 7: There is a loss of trust and con­fi­dence in senior leaders.

Many employ­ees see an inequity in how CEOs/​executives and oth­ers are treat­ed with pay, perks and advance­ment opportunities.

Of course, peo­ple tell you it’s about mon­ey because it’s the most social­ly accept­able rea­son. They don’t want to tell us we are incom­pe­tent or jerks or untrust­wor­thy or have behaved bad­ly. They want a good ref­er­ence check and future oppor­tu­ni­ties in their indus­try, and don’t want to burn any bridges.

Of course, peo­ple can be per­suad­ed or inter­est­ed in more mon­ey when they change jobs – who wouldn’t be? – but only once a whole bunch of oth­er cri­te­ria have been met.

What about STIPs and LTIPS?

As an aside, when it comes to short- and long-term incen­tive plans, I think they are a great way to share the finan­cial suc­cess with a team that helps make it hap­pen. Just don’t kid your­self that they are a dri­ver of reten­tion. If you think that ​‘brib­ing’ peo­ple to stay engaged is an incen­tive plan, you may have big­ger problems.

The Reten­tion Solution

If you real­ly want to focus on retain­ing your high per­form­ers, make a list of all their names across the top of a page, and the sev­en rea­sons why peo­ple leave, down the side. Then make sure all sev­en rea­sons are han­dled for each of your key people.

The Chal­lenge

• Take the sev­en rea­sons peo­ple leave and make it your check­list for ensur­ing that peo­ple stay.
• Pick which of the sev­en rea­sons you believe has the biggest impact on help­ing to retain your best people.

Addi­tion­al podcasts

• How to Iden­ti­fy A Play­ers Dur­ing an Interview
• Onboard­ing: What is It and Why Does it Matter?
• How to Encour­age More Peo­ple to Apply for Job Vacancies

Addi­tion­al blogs

• Proac­tive Recruit­ment Strategies
• Top­grad­ing: Hire & Keep the Best Talent
• What it Takes to Retain Your Top Talent

Lawrence & Co’s work focus­es on sus­tain­able and enhanced growth for you and your busi­ness. Our diverse and expe­ri­enced group of advi­sors can help your lead­ers and exec­u­tive teams stay com­pet­i­tive through the use of var­i­ous learn­ing tools includ­ing work­shops, webi­na­rs, exec­u­tive retreats, or one-to-one coaching.

We help high-achiev­ing lead­ers to have it all – a great busi­ness and a reward­ing life. Con­tact us for sim­ple and impact­ful advice. No BS. No fluff.