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I recently reflected with a friend about our employment experiences, and one of the situations we agreed we didn’t like was, upon delivering a resignation notice, being asked, “What would it take to make you stay?” The question sounds good on its surface, but, as an employee, I can remember thinking, “Where has this level of interest in keeping me been up to now?” The public reason for my leaving revolved around family circumstances, but, if the position and environment had more to offer, I know I would have tried longer to work my situation out and stay with the organization.

Of course, there are many factors contributing employee dissatisfaction or even deciding to leave a position. Some of those reasons are out of an employer’s control, but, sometimes, an employee leaves for reasons that could have been addressed or avoided with a boss’s proactive mindset. Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick offer ways employers can make powerful, positive impacts on their employees in their article, “How to Get Disengaged Employees to Re-engage.”

Believe in the employee’s capabilities, and invest in them. You might have an employee who is performing just fine, but is “just fine” the standard? And, does “just fine” inspire the employee? Is there an area of underperformance that no one seems to notice? Has that underperformance translated into boredom for the employee? Or, is someone in a slump but has no idea whom to turn to in the organization for guidance or even knows what questions to ask? A strong leader notices and nurtures someone’s potential which includes encouraging and fostering growth when that potential is not being reached. Caring that your employees are performing at their highest levels greatly benefits both the organization and the employees. And, it may be just what keeps that employee in place longer.

Learn the aspirations of the employee, then create experiences to support them. All positions have duties that must be performed to maintain the organization’s basic function. But, within the organization as a whole, there could be many different duties or opportunities appealing to someone on the other side of the building. Perhaps you have an outreach program you want to take into a classroom. It could be that no one on the program development side is excited about going into a school, but you know of someone else in the organization who aspires to be a teacher or work within a school system. Invite that person to be a part of your program endeavor! Or, maybe no one ever thought about taking the project into a classroom, but you know of the person in the organization who aspires to teach. Maybe there are other opportunities within the organization to take advantage of, but do the employees know where to look or that inquiring and pursuing them would be welcome? By connecting the dots between aspirations and opportunities and then allowing the connection to happen, the employee is invigorated and more invested while the organization benefits from thriving employees. A leader who is paying attention to his or her people knows more about the employees than what can be read from their job descriptions.

Make a concerted effort to cheer your team. This one is a really easy fix; it just all too often gets overlooked. In short, praise matters. Once that idea is embraced, it’s time to take some sort of action for your employees. The recognition doesn’t even have to be elaborate, ceremonious nor tangible. While any of those ways to recognize your employees can be nice, simply saying thank you for specific effort or outcome (specificity makes it even better) not only goes a very long way for morale, but, it also reinforces efforts and behaviors supportive of the organization’s purpose.

Is this work easy for the employer? In a word: No. It will take time and effort and, often, will take place outside of the boss’s comfort zone. But, the result of an invested, happy employee is most certainly worth the tradeoff. Perhaps the reactive “What would it take to make you stay?” question should be turned around into, “What can we do to keep this person with us?”

Elton, Chester, and Adrian Gostick. “How to Get Disengaged Employees to Re-engage.” Inc. Mansueto Ventures. 2016. Web. (27 Jan. 2016)

Nancy Stoker is a Senior Client Services Representative and Research Associate with ExecSearches.com.

Last updated on February 4th, 2016 at 03:37 pm

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