In 2022, Gartner predicts that voluntary turnover will jump nearly 20 percent, with 37.4 million employees quitting this year, compared to the pre-pandemic average of 31.9 million.
During this prolonged period of national turnover, employers should find themselves constantly asking two specific questions: How can we create a better employee experience to attract and retain new employees, and how can we retain the employees they already have?
At ScreenCloud, Vice President of People Ginni Lisk has some thoughts.
“Because of the pandemic, furlough schemes and other reasons, people didn’t leave jobs that they would have in different circumstances,” Lisk said.
For employees in such a position, Lisk suggests HR take on a greater role in proactively communicating with them to positively impact their “psychological contract” with their employer.
Plus, she said, “most instances of HR in a business are not delivered directly by an HR function, and they shouldn’t be.” They’re delivered by managers, who need the appropriate resources from HR to make sure they are delivered effectively.
Improving HR functions within the actual HR department and among managers improves the employee experience –– which Daniel Rosen, CEO of Credit Repair Cloud, said could have rippling effects.
“You don’t want one departure to become a mass exodus,” Rosen said. “It’s not easy to build an inclusive ‘come as you are’ culture where your benefits reflect your values and open communication is encouraged. But if you do, it will be easier to recruit talent and convince top performers to stay.”
Built In Los Angeles spoke to Lisk and Rosen to find out how they are creating a “come as you are” culture that provides flexibility and autonomy and prioritizes employee well-being.
ScreenCloud is a cloud-based SaaS company that helps businesses drive sales, productivity and engagement with digital signage.
What is the greatest lesson you have learned from the Great Resignation?
The lesson every company should be taking from the Great Resignation is that businesses have to prioritize their employee experience at the strategy-setting level. Leadership teams must reframe their traditional view of HR functions and enable the long-overdue shift from HR acting as a reactionary service center to being a proactive, core driver of overall company success.
HR needs to up its communications game. All HR roadmaps for 2022 and beyond must prioritize connecting with employees via a carefully curated communication landscape. Gaps create uncertainty, and people assume in gaps. So let’s close those gaps.
How are you applying that lesson to ScreenCloud’s own retention efforts? What do people need from their employer to stay?
At ScreenCloud, it’s being exemplary in practicing what we preach. We ensure our own internal communication strategy is the best it can be. I’m strengthening my people team with more experienced hires and enhanced tools and systems to better leverage insight. I, like every other people person, need to truly understand the nature and nuance of ScreenCloud’s employee engagement and what has the greatest statistical significance correlates to retention. On that basis I can iterate, optimize and continuously improve.
Employees need to know where they stand at work. They need flexibility and autonomy and trust. To me, this means a reduction in noisy information, managing expectations honestly and with compassion, and a dramatically shortened feedback loop between their effort and their recognition. HR needs to embrace tech and digital transformation. I am lucky to be in a people role at a SaaS company that is building a product that has potential to redefine employee communication and bring effective employee communications to every worker.
Gaps create uncertainty, and people assume in gaps. So let’s close those gaps.”
What advice do you have for a manager who is faced with a top performer who is considering leaving?
Individualized career conversations should be the goal, and conversation is the key word; it should be an ongoing exchange. A top-down annual performance appraisal with an allocated rating that is arbitrarily used to inform high-performance and possibly concerning flight risks is no longer good enough. Employees expect a more individualized and personalized experience.
Managers need to understand the degree to which their direct reports are thriving at work. They should be aiming to preempt a resignation and intervene. HR functions need to recognize the crucial importance of the management layer and invest in it.
Managers are doing a crucial and oftentimes very difficult job. Give them the power and autonomy — and training — to bake an appropriate level of HR skill into their day jobs. That should include access to connected, curated and thoughtfully-designed internal communications. If you’re a manager who is lacking that support, ask for it.
Credit Repair Cloud is a B2B SaaS platform that makes it easy for people to launch, run and grow credit repair businesses to help consumers clean their credit.
What is the greatest lesson you have learned from the Great Resignation?
There are countless reasons why employees leave companies. The person may not be happy with their title, their role, their pay or their benefits. They may not align with the company’s values or mission. But sometimes, the person is just not happy with their career. The Great Resignation came on the heels of the pandemic, a once-in-a-lifetime experience when everyone was forced to stay home and think. And that introspection brought change. We all know people who quit their jobs. Some of them left because they were unhappy with their employer, and others left because they wanted something different out of life. I’m glad some of my friends and family participated in the Great Resignation.
If you lose a valuable employee because they want to start their own business, go back to school, pivot careers or something else entirely, it’s sad, but it’s not a problem. You should wish them well! But, if they left because they’re unhappy with aspects of their job, it’s your responsibility to learn why and improve conditions so you don’t lose anyone else. You don’t want one departure to become a mass exodus.
How are you applying that lesson to Credit Repair Cloud’s own retention efforts?
I believe in hiring talented people and getting out of their way. That includes empowering a wonderful people operations team to guide our recruitment process, monitor employee happiness and be proactive in our retention efforts.
Leadership needs a large-scale vision, but that means they don’t always see the small interactions and relationships that ultimately drive a company forward. A talented people operations team can fill the gaps, point out blind spots and advise how to improve.
We’ve invested heavily in team wellness programs and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging training, and we’ve hosted experts to guide meaningful social issue discussions. We’ve emphasized recruiting from diversity and inclusion job boards, and we’ve developed a benefits package that reflects our values. As a global remote-first company, we are proud to offer health benefits, profit-sharing bonuses, a 401(k) match plan, unlimited PTO, gender-inclusive paid parental leave, compassionate leave, free credit monitoring and many other perks.
Our goal is a safe and creative workplace where everyone feels like they can learn, grow and be their authentic selves together.
I believe in hiring talented people and getting out of their way.”
What advice do you have for a manager who is faced with a top performer who is considering leaving?
Honestly, I’ve been humbled by the fact that our year-to-date turnover rate is zero percent. The fact that the Great Resignation didn’t significantly impact our company showed me that we may have been slightly ahead of the curve regarding some of these issues, even if we still have plenty of room for improvement.
Stay calm, remain open, actively listen and be prepared to self-reflect. Ask your top performer why they’re considering leaving. Ask yourself why they’re considering leaving. Be receptive to feedback. If they’re off to bigger and better things than your company can offer, or they’ve made a life-altering decision to move to Brazil and save the rainforest, wish them well on their journey! But if they’re leaving because you didn’t listen to their concerns, notice their unhappiness or provide enough benefits, then you have some work to do because that top performer might not be the only person who plans to leave.
