Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Transform the Great Resignation—No Excuse

Q. Over the past few months, we have tried to retain our employees, but the revolving door is still too high. What do we need to change?

A. Too many executives are throwing up their hands and saying, employees are leaving because, “It’s the Great Resignation. It’s the way it is!” That’s a weak excuse in most situations. Great leaders don’t buy into it! Step back and ask, “Are we getting the results we want?” If the answer is “No,” then it is the job of the leaders to look at the whole system and assess what’s working and not working.

What’s happening in many organizations is that HR is assigned to decrease turnover and increase retention. HR focuses on improving one or two of the processes. Perhaps they improve where they recruit, or they streamline their hiring process, or they add buddies to their onboarding process. None of these are bad steps. But those changes don’t mean that the results will be different, significant, or what you need. Those changes are tinkering around the edges.

Instead, all of the processes working together (the system), must transform. All of the essential processes from recruiting to interviewing to hiring to compensating to onboarding to training to coaching and mentoring to communicating to investing in the employees to appreciating to creating a collaborative culture must be optimal. Understand how these processes are interdependent. If one or two fail, they all fail. And the Great Resignation continues in your company.

Here's an example to illustrate: Imagine that recruiting improves and many applicants are applying for your open positions. Multiple interviews are set up and applicants are interviewed by managers and teams over a two-week period. Is that efficient enough in your industry? Assume you choose a candidate and want to make an offer. The package is created and is sent out to the applicant two weeks after they’ve had their final interview. You’ve now spent four weeks looking for a candidate and not hired anyone yet. Has your preferred candidate already accepted another job offer. It’s very likely in today’s market.

Imagine you do hire your best candidate. Do you onboard them effectively, train, coach, and discuss their career path with them? Is there healthy, frequent communication flow between the manager and employee? Do you appreciate them and say thank you? There are so many opportunities to create a healthy workplace that costs nothing. The better leaders focus on creating a healthy total hiring flow, the fewer employees will flow out the door.