Want To Retain Your Top Talent? Try Using Retention Interviews

These days companies are looking for creative ways to keep their best and brightest talent, despite dwindling budgets. While benefits, perks, and other programs help attract, retain, and engage employees, some human resources professionals are turning to the retention interview – a more intangible, but arguably more effective, long-term strategy.

Unlike an exit interview, which occurs when an employee already has decided to leave a company, the retention interview is part of an ongoing dialogue between an employee and a manager.

It's a practice that Joan Moore, president and founder of The Arbor Consulting Group, a Northville-based human resources consulting firm, has tried to push to the forefront of corporate HR agendas for two decades. Moore says too many make the mistake of waiting until an employee is ready to walk out the door before giving any serious thought to retaining that person.

The problem with exit interviews is that by the time they happen, an employee “has pretty much written off the relationship with the organization,” and because of that, there's generally not an incentive for them to be truthful, said Bruce Tulgan, chairman and founder of RainmakerThinking, a New Haven, Conn.-based management training firm.

Don't eliminate exit interviews, Tulgan said. Use them in conjunction with retention interviews. To successfully retain employees, you have to develop an ongoing dialogue with them. “There's no shortcut,” he said, “that’s what works.”

Here's a few tips on how to establish a successful ongoing dialogue with your employees:

• Educate your supervisors: Immediate supervisors play a critical role in employee retention, Moore said. It's a well-known fact that employees tend to leave individual managers, not companies. So part of a company's strategy needs to include equipping managers with effective employee retention skills and strategies. Managers who don't have employee retention problems generally are those who help their employees achieve success, Tulgan said. And if you have a manager who clears up problems for workers, you probably have a group of employees who won't want to leave your organization.
• Set a schedule: Generally speaking, it makes sense to have the first retention interview about six months after the employee orientation, Moore said. This allows the employee to talk about how their experience with the company is matching up with their initial expectations, as well as what's working and what isn't from their perspective. It also allows the employer to better manage an employee's expectations, and to discuss what is and isn't working from the company's standpoint. After this initial conversation, having retention interviews at each year mark makes sense.
• Create a two-way conversation: Here's what every manager wants: more work, done better and faster, every day, Tulgan said. And employees want money, benefits, learning opportunities, as well as more control over schedules, work relationships, tasks, and work location. But there is a way to have an effective employer-employee conversation that satisfies needs on both sides. The basic conversation goes something like this: “Here's what we need from you. Now tell me what you need from us,” Tulgan said.
• Watch for trends. Retention interviews and exit interviews can reveal important patterns and trends in your workplace, Moore said. If you're consistently hearing complaints about a specific supervisor or you're noticing that employees typically are leaving the company within a certain timeframe, these might point to some needed improvements in your overall retention strategy. And after problems are identified, it's always a good idea to follow up to ensure that changes have made a difference in resolving the issues.
• Build a culture that supports diversity. Employers sometimes are bewildered when workers walk out the door despite great efforts to create a diverse workforce, Moore said. But companies often fail to step back and evaluate whether their work environment is “welcoming to people of other cultures.” There is a place where retention and diversity come together, and that is inclusion, said Mim Munzel, senior consultant with The Arbor Consulting Group, and diversity director for the Michigan Council of the Society for Human Resource Management. Successfully creating a diverse workforce also means that you are working to make employees feel included despite different cultural backgrounds and communication styles.

Next week, read about how HR professionals at Detroit Medical Center and Southfield-based R.L. Polk & Co. are working to retain their employees.

Written by Jenny Cromie, certified human resources specialist (CHRS)