Why Do Companies Lose Their Best Employees?
Refer to this “S” image. 🡆
If you think of the bottom curve of that S as when someone enters your company and then starts to move up to the center of that curve, that is someone new to the company who's developing skills and technical knowledge and institutional knowledge, making relationships with others and really immersing themselves in the organization.
The center part of the S is the employee who has hit their stride, they can do their work unconsciously: I'm good at what I do. I don't even think about it anymore. It's hard for me to even explain how I know how to do this. It's just part of who I am. Those people are a real asset to your organization because they hum along constantly being productive, while new people are coming in behind them, starting at the bottom of the S.
The middle of the curve is also the spot where you are most likely to lose your best employees.
The top of the curve is somewhere in the future - where they might become a manager, a director or vice president. The reason companies lose their best employees in the middle part of this curve is because the employee doesn't know there is a future. They don't know that you have plans for them three or five years down the road. And so when they've hit their stride and they're doing their work so unconsciously, they actually can get bored: I've learned it all. I've accomplished it all. I've seen it all before. And I don't see that I'm going anywhere else in this organization.
You, as an employer, are saying: “Hallelujah! This person is at peak productivity”, and the employee is saying, “I’m bored. What’s next?” This attitude is also what makes them the best employees. They're the people who want to keep learning and challenging themselves. They are fabulous employees and they are the ones you want to keep. And yet, too often organizations are unconsciously hurting themselves by not paying attention to the middle part of the S; they’re not giving those folks the stimulation and the engagement that they need.
Solution Time!
When employees have hit this middle part of their career and they're not learning anything new, it's time to move them around in the organization.
Institute lateral moves where they can take their knowledge and skills to a different part of the organization and apply them in a different way that will challenge them.
Give them special projects in their own area where they will utilize their advanced skills but in a very different way; such as running a project from start to finish.
You can ask them What else would you like to learn? or What would you like to contribute to the organization? so that they are engaged and stimulated?
Here are some examples:
Years ago, I worked with an engineer who spent one day a week working in the training department conducting new hire orientation. He absolutely loved meeting new, young employees and telling them about the work they were about to embark on. He didn’t necessarily want to do it full-time, but he also would not have stayed in his regular job if he didn't have this ancillary stimulus. One day a week was just the special sauce that he needed to keep him engaged.
A small business owner with nine “consultants” on staff decided to ask them what special projects they were interested in, that would also benefit the company in some way. She did this in place of performance appraisals. Rather than telling them how they could improve their performance, she asked them how they could contribute to the organization. Seven projects were completed and two were adopted as standard operating procedures for all consultants.
So, before you lose your best employees, step back for a minute.
How many of your employees have been with the company for five years, eight years,or ten years? They're stellar. They're humming along. You would suffer a real setback if you were to lose them. What else can you do for them? How can you keep them engaged and stimulated and staying a strong contributor in your organization?
This article was originally posted on LinkedIn