Opt-in and Win

In the first article of this series, we pulled back the curtains and looked at all the ways that turnover costs you money. We used the analogy of suffering a severed femoral artery, and I promised you a comprehensive treatment plan to not just temporarily staunch the bleeding but to repair the damage with surgical accuracy and restore health to your staffing process.

​So let's begin with the most important step - the tourniquet. The purpose of a tourniquet is to slow the immediate and rapid loss of blood temporarily.
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Last June Fast Company magazine published a great quick read on why new employees leave within the first 90 days [link] in which they cited the following facts from  research by Jobvite:

Staggering when you add this 30% number to the cost calculation we covered in Part 1, right! Now add the additional multipliers of the currently low unemployment rate and the impact of employer review sites like Glassdoor where disappointed and grievous employees freely share their cautionary tales with other job seekers, and you can find yourself with a significant deficit in even attracting the caliber of talent you need.

​The reality is that in the current employment environment, for many positions and employees, the demand for talent is so great that there is no reason to stay in a job that doesn't feel like a great fit from the very start. Let's focus on how to have the most immediate impact on shutting down the new hire revolving door no matter the type or level of position in your company: Avoiding mismatched expectations & cultural fit. Step one, make sure that your  hiring process follows these simple guidelines...

• Be honest
• Be clear about the position (contrast technique works great for this)
• Listen more than you speak - ask candidates about their expectations and experiences to gauge alignment
• Include position peer in selection process 
• Encourage candidates to "interview" you
• Look at work history (treat frequent job changes as a strong warning sign)
• Use customized and targeted behavioral interviewing questions to assess cultural fit (ask for a quote)

Step two, find out why new hires are leaving! If you are not already doing so, start asking questions when people leave. Here are two reasons that according to human psychology, your instincts to ignore this step are likely to be triggered:

1. We are wired to protect our self-esteem and rejection (even in the form of quitting your company) is definitely perceived as a direct attack. Thus our minds will generate an internal dialogue in which we dismiss and diminish the person who leaves making anything they may have to say as irrelevant before it is even heard.
2. We like to be right; in fact, neurologically we are programmed to select data that reinforces our "right" thinking and ignore conflicting data. Ipso facto, the reason for departure is not about us but is a problem with them.

Don't fall victim to your instincts to protect and preserve - they are wrong! It is time to get curious and learn what is happening. Don't limit your questions to the people who leave. Broaden your scope to include others who were close observers and can share their direct insights into what happened. It can also be helpful to contrast this data with data about the people who were recently hired and stayed. You can't accurately target solutions if you don't have an accurate understanding of the problem you need to solve.
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Thanks for reading! Please leave your comments and questions below and check back for Part 3 of this series  where we will explore how to improve the retention of seasoned employees.