Co-authored by Gary Markle of Catalytic Coaching
& Josh McAfee of Humans Doing
When you lose good employees, you’re suffering strategic setbacks, wrecking team morale, and watching your productivity and profits flounder. As the resignations add up, it gets exponentially worse. The job market morphed into a dangerous game of Finders Keepers last year that has had companies scrambling ever since.
You see it everywhere. From the cover of HR magazines to any business blog out there, The Great Resignation is upon us. Only the extremely lucky few have managed to avoid the negative impact from it. For too many companies, the losses are adding up fast.
The true cost isn’t something as simple as it taking X% of an employee’s salary to replace them. It’s exponentially more than that. You’ll be out not just the time and money for recruitment and training, but also the loss of productivity, morale, and often additional attrition within your valuable team. That trickles on to the customer, who will lose trust in your brand when they can’t get their product or service as they’ve come to expect.
What is driving this phenomenon? While most sources agree that a bad boss will drive your good employees off faster than anything, that’s not the only factor right now. If it was, it would be as simple as replacing that one sub-par manager.
These days, we’re seeing record numbers of people from the bottom to the top of any organization that are JUST WALKING AWAY. Simply leaving after they ask themselves ‘Does my contribution matter here?’ ‘Is this what I want to do with the rest of my life?’ ‘Could I get a better deal somewhere else?’ It’s insidious, happening enmasse, and worse yet, doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.
Top talent knows the ball is in their court and they know you’re eager to play. In fact, there’s several other companies eager to play too. Potential employees are carefully examining job descriptions, options for flexibility, the organization’s reputation, compensation packages, and how your current and past employees feel about their work environment. Some hiring agents find themselves in a bidding war to find the right people.
And the game doesn’t stop there. Just because you found the talent, doesn’t mean you’re going to keep it.
Beyond the ones that are saying ‘I’m done with this’ and moving on, your best and brightest are being courted. It’s gone beyond just being a candidate driven market. Whether they’re looking for jobs or not, good talent everywhere is being actively pursued by companies and recruiters.
They come waving compelling offers of highly compensated opportunities. It doesn’t matter if it’s smoke and mirrors. The perception is there that candidates have a plethora of amazing options that aren’t constrained to their local market, but nationally and sometimes internationally.
When those key contributors leave, they create a stress point. Let’s say you have a team of five developers. You lose one of them and now those other four are having to pick up 25% more work. In this market, there are no quick replacements available at a price point you are comfortable with. The longer that position remains open, the closer to jumping ship those other developers become. The moment a recruiter or competing company comes along and offers them something even a little bit better, they’re gone.
How do YOU win the game of Finders Keepers?
Engage your employees. Your workers will have fears and doubts, even in the best of times. With all the uncertainty and opportunity right now, it’s magnified that anxiety. Actively and openly discuss what’s going on with the organization with your teams. Earn their trust. Invite them to communicate with you. That relationship is probably the most valuable thing you’ll have with your teams.
Align Expectations. Leadership teams, managers, and hiring agents should all be playing for the same team. Everyone should have a complete understanding of what positions need to be filled, what those job descriptions are, and what kind of person should fill each role.
Build Resilience and Talent. Developing the skills of your people is vital to the overall growth and stability of your company. Refining proficiencies, learning new abilities or expertise, and cross training will all strengthen what your employees can contribute and increase how valued they feel. It also means losing a key player won’t mean losing key skills too.
Get an Expert. Too many companies are heaping hiring duties onto already overburdened employees, not creating clear and attractive job descriptions, don’t know what a competitive offer looks like in today’s market, aren’t skilled in asking the right questions to find the right people, or all of the above.
Once the talent has been hired, they get tossed into the scramble and run the risk of not becoming invested in the company. They’ll become just as disenchanted with their new job as they did the old one, which will leave them open to recruiters again.
Leveraging the right experts will not only strengthen your recruiting efforts, but create a resilient and highly productive workforce.
Learn more about winning the game of Finders Keepers on Thursday, February 24th from 3:00 - 3:45pm EST. We’ll be co-hosting a Recruiting and Retention During Ongoing Turmoil session.
You’ll get in depth insight into what the job market is doing, how to navigate it, and how to keep the talent you need once you find it. Sign up now for free!
Gary Markle is the creator of Catalytic Coaching and brings real world experience from 17 years in HR leadership in major corporations coupled with over 20 years of teaching small and mid-sized organizations how to cultivate their leadership, retain employees, develop their talent, and increase profitability through coaching.
Josh McAfee has an extensive background in investing in and helping high growth tech companies hire and keep great people. He’s also well known for helping tech talent make great career decisions.
