A Trick to Reduce Turnover

Turnover. The dreaded subject no one wants to spend their precious time on. There’s been a lot made of this topic in the past couple years, what with the Great Resignation and all. Even if resignations might be slowing a bit, no one in leadership wants to deal with having to replace valuable lost employees. In a new piece by Maurice Schweitzer, Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and Professor of Management at Wharton, he shares one intervention management and leadership can take to help reduce turnover rates.

If leadership wants to retain employees, simply reorder their assigned tasks. In the largest field study of it's kind, Schweitzer and his colleagues found that employees are far more likely to quit when given many difficult tasks consecutively. When they are given a more balanced workflow of difficult tasks followed by less challenging tasks, morale remains higher and employees are far more likely to stay. Seeing as there is always difficult work to be done, this can be a bit of a challenge in and of itself, but maintaining a balanced workflow can be one of the most powerful tools in retaining and motivating workers.

This study explains how employees associate their satisfaction with their job with the “Peak-End” rule. Most of us follow this rule for any experience. We tend to remember the “peak”, meaning the best, worst, or most extreme moment, and the “end”, the most recent moment associated with the event. Therefore; if an employee is constantly having to deal with extremes in their workload, they will associate more negative feelings with their job in general. The original paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, connects the behavioral psychology of the findings with practical steps management can take to make sure employees maintain this balance. Give it a quick read and see if the practical tools can help leadership with employee retention at your company.

The Ill Effects of Job Insecurity

All companies have ups and downs, it’s part of running a business in a capitalist economy. No one expects things to be good all the time. As such, sometimes companies go through periods in which cutbacks are a reality, and employees must be let go. Sad, but true. In an effort to get more from their employees, some business owners or managers may use job insecurity as a motivating factor to get employees to work harder, work longer hours, or to try and outperform colleagues. But does this threat of the lay-off actually work? A few of the brains over at HBR (Mindy Shoss, Shiyang Su, Ann Schlotzhauer, and Nicole Carusone) have published the results of a 3-month long study of how job insecurity affected employees.

According to a recent Gallup poll 15% of workers do not feel that their jobs are secure, despite unemployment being at record low levels. This new study surveyed over 600 participants and how they felt over a months-long process. One very interesting aspect of the study is that in the short term, these threats or scare tactics seem to work well to motivate workers. People will try to work harder to make themselves an indispensable part of the team, to impeccably follow the rules, and to make higher-ups aware of their achievements even if those achievements added no real value to the company. Over the long-term, however, the burnout becomes very real. Many participants described the heightened anxiety around job security as negatively impacting their job performance. Eventually, most people felt so distracted, tired, or worried that they began failing at their core tasks. Yes, they may have been working longer hours, but productivity, reliability, and creativeness suffered overall.

While some companies freely admit to using this strategy, others may do it unknowingly. Discussions of scarcity, austerity, or potential cutbacks can be overheard or mentioned in passing, and still have a negative impact on employees. Check out the full article here and get access to the full range of studies on the subject. See if your company and your employees are caught in this cycle of negativity.

Not to Worry About Quiet Quitting

By now most everyone has heard the new trendy term “quiet quitting”. This in fact, has nothing at all to do with quitting, it simply indicates when employees choose to do the bare minimum that their job requires. Never going above and beyond, never putting in unpaid extra hours, never responding to emails past COB. Some may see this as employees setting healthy boundaries in the quest for work/life balance, while some see it as laziness and a detriment to the company. Over the last month the term gained a lot of traction thanks to one TikToker, whose video on the subject quickly went viral, garnering over 8 million views in just a few weeks. But does this new concern have staying power? Is it actually something that businesses and leadership need to be concerned with? The brains over at Wharton give a resounding ‘no’.

Matthew Bidwell, a management professor at Wharton, has a new quick read (and quick listen on Wharton Business Daily) about what the real issues are that management needs to be worried about. While leadership is of course always interested in getting the highest performance out of their employees, the much bigger issue these days is keeping employees, period. Let’s go beyond the “no one wants to work anymore” mentality here. There has always been those who do not want to be defined by their labor and seek more freedom in their chosen lifestyles. In August, however, 4.3 million workers voluntarily left their jobs, setting a new record. So who has time to worry about quiet quitting when actual quitting is so much more detrimental to a company? Take a few minutes to give Professor Bidwell’s article a quick read, and listen to his discussion on the wider labor market, and where this trend may be going.

Meet Your Newest KPI

As we wrap up the first quarter of 2022, it’s clear that the “brave new world” the pandemic has thrust us into isn’t going quietly into the night. There’s no doubt that after the last several years, all of us could use more compassion in our lives. Compassion for others, compassion for ourselves, compassion at home, compassion in our social circles, and even compassion at work. So it’s a pleasure to introduce you to your newest KPI, and you can probably guess what it is.

While traditional KPIs will measure more quantifiable things (revenue growth, client retention, etc.), incorporating the less tangible things should be - and largely is - a priority in modern office culture. In these days of the great resignation, employees have the upper hand in choosing a workplace culture that aligns with their personal values. Potential employees will often seek out a workplace in which kindness and respect is demonstrated toward everyone. Check out Chief Executive Magazine’s new article on how this metric is just as telling as any other. Once it’s on your radar, see just how much better your company operates.

How Inclusivity Can End the Great Resignation

Several weeks back I shared an article from Knowledge@Wharton about how inclusivity in the workplace, and making sure employees’ personal stories are represented can be the turning point in talent retention. Recently, the pros at Wharton published a follow up article in which they share the keys to avoiding the Great Resignation. Spoiler alert: it’s all in the management.

Their research shows that at every level of management, from supervisors all the way to C-suite executives, fair practices matter. It’s not simply a matter of managing well, either. Managers work tirelessly to create an environment where everyone feels valued, represented, and heard. If management can achieve this, talent will be less inclined to seek other employment options. In fact, as they state in the article: “Companies that earn a reputation for being a place where everyone is seen, heard and valued may not have to worry about the Great Resignation.” Give it a read to see how your company can benefit.

Operation: Talent Retention

The so-called “Great Resignation” has been a major topic of conversation in the latter half of 2021, and with good reason. There are major changes occuring in the labor market, with one study showing that there were over 10 million open positions at the end of July. So what is a company to do in the face of so much uncertainty?

HBR’s new article lays out some sound advice on how to retain your company’s talent. Ron Carucci spoke to HR departments in many companies who are not experiencing employee attrition and laid out some steps anyone can take to maintain a close business environment. These employers and HR leaders can attest to exactly what it takes to keep your top talent and build a sense of company community. Give it a read and see what you can inspire in your company.