In the first part of the article on how not to be surprised by the sudden departure of employees, we learned that managers often overlook important warning signals. We introduced the first five practical recommendations by John Sullivan, including watching the Internet, job history, and positions with the highest levels of fluctuation. Now let's have a look at the remaining five recommendations plus several bonus tips.
1. Pay attention if someone close to the key employee leaves
Once a colleague or friend of a key employee leaves the team, you should be cautious. The necessity of learning how to work with a new colleague or supervisor may be a relevant reason to leave.
2. Beware of unpleasant career events
A number of people leave because of boring work or a bad manager. However, even if you offer interesting work, and your leadership is great, your key people may leave. The reasons for leaving may include unpleasant events in their career such as abolition of key projects, mass lay-offs, reorganizations, and not getting promotions.
3. Watch for career stages
Most employees go through certain stages of their careers, and they may change jobs at the end of a stage. An example can be when an employee has long been engaged in a role with no prospects for advancement, but a change can also be a consequence of events in his private life (marriage, divorce, birth of a child, health problems, and reaching a certain age). The manager should be aware of what his people are experiencing outside of work.
4. Notice who has been waiting for something for a long time
Waiting for something for a long time always involves frustration. The frustration may be related to a promotion or salary increase, but also to apparent trivialities, such as upgrades in various tools, training, new opportunities and challenges. Do not wait until your people stop waiting.
5. Notice if your key people feel underutilized
Feeling underutilized is of one of the strongest reasons for the best talented and high-performing people to leave. These people expect constant challenges and opportunities to contribute. There is nothing easier then to ask your people and possibly assign them to a new and interesting task.
Bonus tips
- Watch what people in your team are talking to each other about.
- Pay attention to who has started to write a blog, shoot video tutorials or speak at conferences.
- Pay attention to frequent absences, especially Fridays and half-days.
- Remind yourself that most employees leave because of poor managers.
John Sullivan notes that during the course of his career, he has never met a manager whose job description involved preventing departures of key employees, and he thinks this should be changed. What do you think?
-kk-