I was catching up on some reading yesterday and read a post from Morgan Hoogvelt, a talent acquisition strategist who works for NAS Recruitment Communications. The post was entitled, “The reality of retention,” and it has received attention from some respected bloggers in this space. Morgan offered a realist’s view of the employee/employer relationship. He described some of the differences he sees in the corporate America of today versus in years past. I responded to his blog post, but had some additional thoughts on the subject that I wanted to share here. The following are excerpted comments from my response to him, and a few added thoughts.
Morgan described workers as once being dedicated to a company, and companies at that time taking care of their employees by providing a retirement package including pay and benefits. Was this just a coincidence? Employees were loyal and dedicated, and (or is it because?) companies took care of their people. Many of us are probably reading this and asking, “Retirement what? Companies actually did this?” Today, many companies do little, if anything to look out for their employees while on the job, let alone after retirement. Some top execs will happily collect their outrageous salaries, even if they achieved their performance targets by shutting down facilities and eliminating jobs to move production to a third world country.
Still, even in the current anxious job market, we run into some job seekers and employers alike who genuinely want to find the right fit for them. Maybe that is just something they put on a resume, in job description, or that they say to each other during an interview, but I like to think that there is still integrity, loyalty, and authenticity in the workplace.
Morgan had referred to a retention initiative at Google whereby they raised salaries across the board in an effort to defend against the loss of employees, but some of their talent left anyway. It is not always about the money.
The reality is, if the company direction, values, and/or culture are not a good fit for the employee, then the employee should walk. If the job seeker does not believe in the leadership or direction of the company, espouse the values of the company, and does not have the attitude or loyalty to work with his/her peers to push the company to achieve its aspirations, then the company should ask the employee to walk. It is not good for either if the company or employee cannot believe in the other.
So what are best practices? Pay better than fair. Lead democratically as much as possible. Recognize employee contributions always. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Create a culture of belonging and trust. Reward those who accomplish their goals and still give the extra effort to push the company to achieve more. And, take care of the ones who stay with you and contribute positively to the company’s culture and success.
Anyone who doesn’t believe in what they are doing or the company for which they work will walk anyway. So, respectfully show them the door, and then promptly fill their position with a candidate from your talent community who does believe in you and shares your company values.
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