Comments on: Attention Researchers: What Questions Are We Missing?

By: Brent White

Brent White — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 14:22:35 +0000

A number of years ago, I attended a seminar focusing on employee retention. The seminar leader said in order for people to remain at a company, they must feel (1) secure (2) accepted and (3) important. If one of more of these are not met, then you stand a very good chance of them leaving.

When I have talked to employees who are considering another opportunity or have decided to leave, I can generally tie their reason(s) back to one of the above. They make feel secure in their job and accepted by management and peers but simply don’t feel important or appreciated or recognized.

You can’t and don’t want to keep everyone forever. However, if you keep these 3 things in mind and do your best to make your most talented people feel secure, accepted and important then you will keep them longer! So remember “SAI” when it comes to your staff.

By: Susan Hayes

Susan Hayes — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:01:57 +0000

Former employees are often queried by potential employees about their experiences.

My question would be, “what would you tell a close colleague who is considering working here?” This question may elicit both constructive description about the organization, and how the exiting employee’s goals and style fit with the organization.

By: Jennifer Stocks

Jennifer Stocks — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:09:01 +0000

I’m new at MARC, so you may already be doing this…but why not do an employee satisfaction survey? It could be anonymous and you might be able to identify and deal with problems before losing an employee.

By: Y.R.

Y.R. — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:54:40 +0000

In my experience, honest answers are hard to come by. Most exiting employees do not want to burn any bridges and thus will not give you a completely honest assessment of all the reasons they are leaving. Then you have the employees that give you brutally honest answers but you think maybe they just have an axe to grind. The answer is somewhere in the middle as to the state of your company. Good luck finding the truth.