SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 160,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each Tuesday in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How worried are you that, as the economy rebounds, your employees will seek better opportunities elsewhere?
- Not worried at all — they’re all very happy here: 19.16%
- A little worried — I might lose one or two: 39.06%
- Worried — we’re going to lose a few good ones: 30.16%
- Very worried — it’s going to be an exodus: 11.62%
The brain drain begins. While bad economies and job markets are great for retention (Face it: No one is seeking or finding opportunities with unemployment approaching double digits.), as hiring picks up, people start looking. If you haven’t been investing in your folks during the downturn, expect them to look for greener pastures as things improve. If you don’t train them now, you’ll lose them later. To stem your losses, ensure your people know they’re important to you. Increase their roles, give them that bonus, send them to that training course they’ve asked for, etc. If they don’t feel valued now, they’re definitely looking for an opportunity to feel valued elsewhere.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”
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"If you haven’t been investing in your folks during the downturn, expect them to look for greener pastures as things improve"….I completely agree with this, Mike. A manager can't just pick and choose when to invest in his/her staff – it should be a daily, weekly, ongoing effort. Letting employees know that they're important to you is one of the keys to retaining your staff as the economy picks up. I actually just wrote a blog post last week about retaining employees. If you're interested in reading it, here's the link: http://pastfive.typepad.com/pastfive/2012/03/four…