Does Your New Hire Have Employment Resignation in Mind?

BY Kathy Crosett
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It’s not easy to find a great new hire these days. The last thing you want to hear is that your new team member has employment resignation in mind. How often does this happen? Is there anything you can do to make your new employee happy?

The Employment Resignation Trend

What’s a manager to do when around 30% of new hires leave a job before their first 90 days have expired? What drives employee dissatisfaction with their new job or their new company?

Changing job or companies can be a huge source of stress. Workers who were accustomed to a routine in their previous job must adjust. They’ll enjoy some aspects of their new position. But they’ll find other tasks challenging or frustrating. In addition, they may be learning a new commute or facing disruptions in their schedules and can no longer work out or get their kids to school on time. Managers who fail to pay attention to the signals new employees are sending could be missing a potential upcoming employment resignation situation.

How to Improve New Hire Contentment

Marcel Schwantes, in an Inc. column, reports that companies should extend their concept of onboarding. This should not be a “one-​and-​done” process. Taking a new hire out to lunch and then letting them flounder is a sure way to signal that they are not important to the organization.

Managers bear the responsibility for helping new employees fit into their positions and the company. Our research shows that up to 30% of employees have asked to switch positions in a company because they didn’t feel they were a good fit with their manager. You can head off these awkward situations by getting to know your employees and adjusting your style to help them succeed.

The results of the psychometric assessments your employees took during their hiring process contain all the data you need. Before your one-​on-​one meetings, review the psychometric assessment data to determine what motivates your employee. You should also know how they prefer to communicate and receive feedback.

Develop a Manager Action Plan to Head Off Employment Resignation

Schwantes suggests that managers routinely keep several questions in mind when they meet with new employees. Some of these questions might seem so obvious that you’d be tempted to skip them. For example, check in on whether your new hire has the tools they need to do the job well. They may have come to your company with access to specific services or datasets that you’ve never heard of. If they explain they can work more productively with a tool, and it makes financial sense to add it to what you’re paying for, consider granting their request. This change shows you’re open to suggestions and that you value their contributions.

Once your employee has taken their new responsibilities in stride, don’t forget to ask them about their professional development plans. Today’s employees are not interested in stagnating. Younger team members, in particular, like to see a career path. They want to understand what it will take for them to get promoted to the next level.

As Schwantes notes: “When employees don't get what they need to do their jobs well, they get to experience low morale for the first time. As a result, they stop caring and stop trying early in the game.”

Keeping Turnover Low

While news reports about layoffs in the tech sector abound, the unemployment rate overall remains at an historic low. You can’t afford to compete for talent and then allow your new hires to be left to find their own way. Remind managers that onboarding a new hire is as important as bringing on a new customer. Treat this task as a team effort.

Make sure the manager is engaging the new team member and encourage them to develop an onboarding plan that lasts for several months and includes multiple departments.

Photo by Nicola Barts on Pexels.


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