10/ 01/ 2002
by John McConnell
"My advice: Don't worry about yourself. Take care of those who work for you and you'll float to greatness on their achievements." --H.S.M. Burns
Why do some employers never seem to have problems retaining employees while others are constantly replacing employees who have left? The main reason is employment conditions.
A candidate who accepts a job offer generally wants the job and finds the described employment conditions acceptable. If the new employee discovers those factors live up to the employer's description, the employee tends to remain. Conversely, if employment conditions differ significantly from those described, employees tend to leave. (The exception occurs when the candidate accepts the job as a temporary one until a more desirable alternative turns up. In that situation, employment conditions are less significant.)
In the 1980s, a New England-based insurance firm decided it needed to recruit "bright, young, assertive, creative college graduates." Its theory was that as those people progressed through the organization, the company's culture would become more dynamic.
To fulfill this plan the company retained a consulting firm. The firm structured a recruiting program that would appeal to the type of candidates the company wanted. The consultants sent campus recruiters who were similar to the desired type and carefully planned the interviews at the corporate office. Questions were developed and assigned. Interviewers were selected to project the "correct" image. Even the company's choice of hotel to house the candidates fit the desired image.
The company hired a total of 12 candidates after the consulting firm assured the company that they all had met its requirements. It assigned each new employee to a different department and created a development schedule for each one.
Two years later, all 12 had quit, and all for the same reason--they felt they did not fit the company's culture or its environment. The company had hired the type of employee it wanted, but its environment did not support "bright, young, assertive, creative" employees. When the bright, young employees discovered this, they asserted themselves and left for companies in which they believed their styles would better fit.
The company, through its consulting firm, projected an inaccurate image that appealed to the candidates but did not truly reflect the company's culture.
The first recommendation for keeping employees is to make sure that the realities of the job support what you told the candidates in hiring them. Employees, in their first few months, have little compunction about leaving. They haven't yet made a full commitment to your company and may have interviewed with other companies that made them an offer even after they joined you.
You also need to create a working environment to retain all employees--not just those who you have recently hired. You must design that environment to meet your employees' needs and fulfill your company's mission simultaneously.
Most employees spend eight hours a day at their jobs, or about one-third of their normal day, in the work environment. Numerous studies have reported the following findings:
- The employee's perception of the work environment directly relates to job performance. A positively perceived environment produces positive performance, and a negatively perceived environment produces negative performance.
- Employees think better of their jobs and their employer when the environment is positive.
- Improvement of the environment generally improves employee performance.
- A positively perceived working environment contributes to employee retention, and a negatively perceived environment contributes to employee departure for other jobs.
John McConnell is president of McConnell, Simmons & Co., a New Jersey firm that specializes in consulting services and products for human resources professionals. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in educational psychology and is the author of several books in the human resources field.
