How To Lose Your Best Employees

http://www.fastcompany.com/3019050/leadership-now/10-ways-to-lose-your-best-employees

by 0cool • 13 years ago

87 75 13 years ago

fastcompany.com

stale3• 13 years ago

it's 10/10 for my current employer :)

jonathanjaeger• 13 years ago

Has your current employer lost some of the best employees on account of being 10/10?

stale3• 13 years ago

Yeah, quite a few.

alan_cx• 13 years ago

Um, errr, eeek...... you have implied you are not one of their best employees, since its 10/10 and you are still there....

Doh? ;)

levosmetalo• 13 years ago

Given the smiley at he end of the parent post, he probably won't be there for a long time.

krmmalik2• 13 years ago

The article is a little sparse, but great points. I put a Haiku Deck on something similar but from a Good Manager vs Bad Manager perspective in terms of what bad managers are doing that affects their ability to retain talent.

I can link it here if anyone is interested(?)

GFischer2• 13 years ago

I am, can you link to it? :)

I also want to find some research a professor once mentioned, about the traits that employees associated with good managers/bosses (I recall that almost all were personal, almost none technical).

krmmalik2• 13 years ago

Here's the deck: http://www.haikudeck.com/p/BdYQODxkxD/good-manager-bad-manag...

For the research you could try looking up the works of Patrick Lioncini, he also has a great book on the subject called "five dysfunctions of a team".

In my experience, poor talent management and execution always comes down to egos, so yes, you would be right in thinking that it's almost always a personal level issue. When egos are involved, that's what you'll get.

See an answer of mine on Quora also: http://qr.ae/I5brc

edw519• 13 years ago

11. Make decisions that affect workers for which they have valuable input, but don't seek that input.

12. Make decisions that affect workers for which they have valuable input, seek that input, but ignore it and do what you want anyway.

13. Say one thing and do another. (Mission Statement = A, What We Really Do = B)

14. Have no idea what it actually takes to get things done.

15. Have no idea who people are and what they do.

16. Believe that management is "over" workers. (Fail to understand that until a worker actually builds something, management has nothing to manage and ownership has nothing to count.)

17. Treat workers as unequals.

18. Act like children.

19. Pay late.

20. Drive the business into the toilet.

21. Make work so difficult or pointless that you drive your best workers to Hacker News.

atwebb• 13 years ago

Odd, I didn't realize we'd worked together.

skylan_q• 13 years ago

Present them an exclusivity contract that lasts 3 years

justindz• 13 years ago

Re: #16, my experience with and in management positions is that we no longer think of managers as people who specialize in management and whose function is to help a pool of natural talent stay coordinated, focused, challenged and rewarded. We instead think of them as people who do 40+ hours a week of their own specialized, non-management work but who also have to do performance reviews. I try to take a mentor/servant/counselor approach with my team, but it's difficult to do and my own experience suggests that it's a fairly uncommon mentality.

corresation• 13 years ago

12. is a tough one, and is the reason that businesses often choose 11.

The danger of soliciting input is that people often couple too much of their ego with their suggestions. You can't possibly go with every suggestion or incorporate all input (because let's face it - most of it is usually poorly thought out), so when you give everyone their say and then have to go a different direction from much of it, people get angry and resentful.

I worked with one chap who literally hung onto his discarded idea about a bit (seriously, a bit field in a database) for years, with it reappearing with a bitter sense of pride with every new database discussion.

Spoom• 13 years ago

I think if the team decides that an idea is not currently worth pursuing, rejecting it and explaining why to an employee is not the same as ignoring it. If the employee then continues trying that idea, they're clearly not following directions and that can be dealt with.

AutoCorrect• 13 years ago

22. Don't listen when your workers show you a better way. 23. Continue to use one technology "because we've always done it that way" 24. Waste your workers time with bureaucracy.

jonnathanson• 13 years ago

"13. Say one thing and do another. (Mission Statement = A, What We Really Do = B)"

This, a thousand times over.

Mission statements are uniquely infuriating when their values are in blatant contradiction to how the business is being operated. I'd rather a company not have a mission statement at all than have a hypocritically practiced one.

A hypocritical mission statement turns into a cruel joke, and it serves only to reinforce employees' disenchantment with the firm -- especially when it's being touted in the press, or waved in employees' faces.

mtrimpe3• 13 years ago

Judging from spending a year in a US high-school when I was 16 this is as a character trait that's woven deeply into the American psyche though.

6d0debc071• 13 years ago

Re 17:

It's nice to know where you are with people. If we're not really equals, please don't treat me as if we are. If the final decision is yours, and you only allow a certain measure of disagreement, please make that clear.

I'll be more likely to give feedback and ideas if I know where the lines are, and don't have to worry about offending someone who's half my friends and half my boss by stepping over something I've not been adequately warned about. ^_^

mrcactu5• 13 years ago

more bloggers should use creative rhetoric. instead of yet another soapbox "10 things you should do article" he plausibly argues the other side.

"training is costly, don't do it."

the irony here is like a cup of coffee.

netcan• 13 years ago

#0 Be in a time, place and industry where employees have options.

gesman2• 13 years ago

The only worse thing to training employees and losing them is NOT training them and keeping them.

--Zig Ziglar

nilkn• 13 years ago

Keep decision-making securely ensconced in the airless bunker of the executive wing. Avoid empowering mid-tier employees lest they suddenly become entrepreneurial and unpredictable.

Just my opinion, but I think (8) is the most insightful of these and perhaps the least obvious (though they are all obvious to an extent). (8) is also the hardest to do right. You don't want to drag a developer to five executive meetings a day so that he doesn't have time to do development; that could in itself drive him/her away. But you also don't want any of your developers to feel like they don't know what's going on with the business at a higher level, and if they have an insight there should be an easy and comfortable avenue for them to discuss it.

gesman2• 13 years ago

Paying MIN("DOE", "market rate", AVG('other employees')) to the best employees.

shuaib• 13 years ago

Lets be fair guys. Someone needs to articulate "10 ways to get fired by your best employer", now too.

antjanus• 13 years ago

Man, now I want to write that.

hiccup• 13 years ago

#0 Don't pay anything close to what the employee is worth. Underpay, furlough, slow-pay your best employees to really build that desire to see if the grass is greener elsewhere.

linker3000• 13 years ago

'n') Require Director-level approval to spend about £20 on 2 USB powered hubs AND have the director visit to inspect the two laptops that need the hubs just to make sure you're not being extravagant.

pekru• 13 years ago

A shortened list

#0. Force usage of shitty/hopeless tools/frameworks at work.

#1. Pay late

#2. Ask for TPS reports

#3. Recruit a bunch of abusive retards for middle/senior management

These four, for sure!

kadabra9• 13 years ago

This seems so obvious and straightforward, but it bears repeating:

If you value someone as an employee, show them.

Whether this is through salary increases, promotions, or even just pulling someone aside for five minutes and saying "Hey, you're doing a great job." ....show them. Especially on younger employees, its amazing how powerful a moment of unsolicited praise from a manager or senior level employee can be.

Obviously a bigger salary and promotions help as well, but companies often act surprised when someone they considered their "best employee" walks out, but how would this so called "best employee" even know they were highly valued in the first place when they cant get a raise that keeps up with inflation, or their manager can't even take five minutes every now and then to congratulate him/her on a job well done?

drzaiusapelord• 13 years ago

"Hey, you're doing a great job."

I never understood this advice. Not to sound arrogant, but I know I'm good. What I need from you is enough financial compensation so that my skillset/experience matches up with a competitive salary or I'm going to go elsewhere for that salary. I'm not a child. I don't need reassurance and tricks like "hey lets have casual Thursdays and a pingpong table" are NOT substitutes for the money I deserve.

hackinthebochs2• 13 years ago

Completely agreed. Praise from the company is basically worthless to me; I don't need to be told that I'm good, if I'm doing well I'll know it. If you truly value my services then the only meaningful way to show that is through increased salary. Anything less is simply an attempt at manipulation.

Recognition in front of peers is good for other reasons, but its not a replacement for financial reward.

k3n• 13 years ago

Is positive feedback (other than possibly yearly appraisals) not useful?

I don't think the point is to replace compensation with pats-on-the-back, but rather, get in the habit of personally recognizing the positives. Too often it's only the negatives that are recognized, and though most of it is probably on the technical side of things ("hey, we found a bug you wrote that crashed prod"), there's still very little in the way of positive encouragement or reinforcement coming from a human.

Of course, some will respond better to it than others, but I think it's a worthy practice. Too often, especially in stressful atmospheres, only the negatives are spotlighted, and this can hurt morale over time.

coryfklein• 13 years ago

I don't think there's anything wrong with the praise (in fact I would love if employers did this more), but when there is discontinuity between the verbal praise and the financial compensation - then you have a problem.

sergiosgc2• 13 years ago

Your position is a symptom of something else being wrong: You do not want to impress your management. This means that they do not inspire you, which is, frankly, a bad sign.

Top performing teams have great leaders. Great leaders inspire. Inspired workers value the praise.

I'm my own boss nowadays, but back when I was working for someone else, the teams I enjoyed the most had great leaders. Looking back, whenever I ended up being led by someone uninspired I jumped ship within months.

huntedsnark• 13 years ago

It's not about getting a pat on the back, that kind of praise is meaningless and awkward. What is good to hear is that you're still providing value to the company and that what you're working on aligns with their goals. Knowing that can be the difference between getting promoted or getting laid off.

codegeek• 13 years ago

I used to think like you. But it is not that simple. Of course, financial compensation is the best way to reward someone for being good. But you are missing the point made by GP. The idea that people acknowledge your value to a team is important. It encourages you to do a good job and be even better.

I get paid a lot more as a consultant right now that I made as a fulltime employee but there is something missing in my current gig. It is the appreciation (not patronizing) that me being there makes a difference.

namenotrequired• 13 years ago

It's not so much to let you know that you're good, but more to let you know that you're recognised as being good. Feeling unappreciated can and often does destroy morale and motivation.

eitland• 13 years ago

    I never understood this advice. Not to sound arrogant, but I know I'm good.

And everyone is exactly like you so this piece of advice is worth absolutely nothing :)

That said I agree with the rest: telling someone they're great but not worth paying a decent salary sounds insulting.

ollysb• 13 years ago

The lack of appreciation between people is probably a sympton of a deeper problem. Perhaps the environment is toxically competitive and forces people to play down other people's contributions. Maybe there's a lack of leadership which means that the different parts of the team aren't working together positively or maybe the people there just aren't very good. It's not about a pat on the back either, people that respect the people around them don't need to engage in empty gestures of gratitude, it comes through very naturally.

smackfu3• 13 years ago

I never understood this advice. Not to sound arrogant, but I know I'm good.

How many people have been led out the door protesting, "How can you fire me? Don't you know how much work I do around here?" Those people didn't have anyone in management saying, "Hey, you're doing a great job."

bpyne• 13 years ago

I think managers need to know what motivates each employee on his/her team. Pay raise may be incentive enough for one person, but (for example) working from home may motivate another person. I've been in the field 20+ years and make a comfortable salary: I can buy what I care to buy. Now I want to work in my shorts at my dining room table with 4 windows streaming sunlight in, my own freshly brewed coffee just footsteps away. Another person on my team I know would prefer salary or frequent compliments. It's personal.

corobo• 13 years ago

We used to get praise at my place every now and then for a job well done which kept the spirits up and the motivation high. Now that's stopped it is all about the pay. I ask for more money every 6 months or so (never had an unsolicited pay increase), if I get it I'll stick around otherwise I'm off to check the who's hiring posts.

So far I'm still here, but the last raise was a bit naff so the CV's getting polished up. Life's too short to be working a job you don't like anymore.

jared314• 13 years ago

You have a good point, but keep in mind that everyone has biases towards different forms of communication. Some value written commendations, money, or non-monetary gifts. A manager/team lead must straddle both communicating effectively with the person while communicating in a way that is uniform and predictable to the team. Give me a "great job" in front of everyone, so everyone knows what is going on, but understand that I don't believe a word you say until I see the bump in pay.

ttty• 13 years ago

Don't even say "thanks" when you save them 10000€, when nobody asked me to do anything...

ChikkaChiChi2• 13 years ago

My #1 - Treat your employees not as assets but as negative impacts to your bottom line. You'd do it better yourself if you had the time, but instead you had to hire me.

I have Stockholm Syndrome. My biggest problem is that I'm now being overworked so much (intentionally) that I collapse from exhaustion when I go home and don't have the energy to spend looking for a new job.

dcpdx• 13 years ago

Just quit. Then you'll have all the time in the world to look for a new job.

vonmoltke2• 13 years ago

Not everyone has the luxury to tolerate that risk. I considered doing that myself, but considering how long it took me to find a job while employed I would have been looking at multiple months of unemployment before landing something, which would have caused its own stresses, pressures, and exhaustion.

smackfu3• 13 years ago

Another very common one is chipping away at any and all costs until it's ridiculous. This is usually because cutting costs is an easy way for management to make their numbers if revenue is flat. At first it really is cutting the fat, but eventually you run out of fat and start making life difficult for employees.

It's especially bad when the size of the cuts is meaningless compared to the cost of a given employee. Making a $100k+ employee work with a 3-year-old $1000 laptop for an extra year shouldn't make any sense in a proper company, but it's incredibly common.

sogen• 13 years ago

johngalt3• 13 years ago

IT here. We have the hardware debate with the business guys relentlessly. Understand that the business guys just see it like this: If <replacement parts> + <Tech time> is less than the cost of a new machine, then repair the old one. Additionally 'why throw out something that works?' These two thought processes lead to some harmful decisions regarding hardware. I've seen 5-7 year old machines being used by people who bring in millions.

Nimi• 13 years ago

Sounds like you tried to confront them with the argument that "investing another 1000$ in this guy's machine will change your bottom line in the millions". What did they say in response?

protomyth• 13 years ago

There is a problem with the suggestion in #6 and it applies to management. Some companies believe they need to do this for management, and since the managers know they will be moving, they optimize for short term gain at the expense of long term sustainability.

A favorite tactic of managers is to fire Q&A and support staff. This is a short term win on the bottom line, but will kill things later. It makes them look good as they get to say they "optimized the workflow". Another excellent one is to put a freeze on equipment buying and let it rot.

If you become a big wig and are in a company inclined to move people around for experience, please, please, please add something to your evaluations that look at the position they left 1 year ago and judge them on the sustainability. If they don't help enforce a sustainable process, then they will be fired as they are just a selfish, game-player.

djscram• 13 years ago

Pretty sure the last place I worked did all ten of those. And it did lose anyone who was any good. The joke was that the only way to get respect was to leave and get re-hired.

vonmoltke2• 13 years ago

The defense industry has three paths to real advancement:

1) Become the rock star/golden child for a higher-up who pulls you along as they rise 2) Move from company to company every so often to get positions with higher salary grade and responsibility 3) Become the oracle of technical knowledge in some narrow but crucial specialty

johngalt3• 13 years ago

My #1: Act as if you only have to do what is legally required. Bonus points if you use this as an excuse to play hardball and avoid keeping promises.

I've had two employers change their employee benefits packages/bonus structures sharply negatively within <1 year of being hired. In both cases I went up the chain and asked what other compensation I could expect. I was very reasonable and offered them several alternatives. I'm empathetic to a tough situation, and am willing to be flexible.

In both cases it was like talking to a tape recording. 'benefits are not guaranteed, and legally we are within our rights to change at any time' and 'sorry it's policy hands are tied'. Yes I understand that you can do that, but you've effectively rescinded what we negotiated when I recently agreed to work here.

The most frustrating part of the whole thing is how quickly things change once a two week notice is given. As if the retention offer does anything but underscore their dishonesty.

How To Lose Your Best Employees

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