Why do new survey findings reveal that nearly half of U.S. companies' high performers are actively looking for other jobs?
The simple answer is that most employers are not spending enough time and money to retain their management talent. Here are some tips that might keep your company from making the same mistakes.
According to a recent survey of 16,237 U.S. workers by Marietta, GA based consultancy Leadership IQ, 47 percent of high performers are actively looking for new jobs, by posting and submitting their resumes and even going to interviews. "High performers keep companies in business," says Mark Murphy, Leadership IQ's CEO. "So every company is at risk if these people leave. ...when your best people quit, revenue drops, quality suffers and snafus increase. Even large companies can take a big hit with the departure of just a few key employees."
Is the Leadership of Your Organization Attracting and Retaining High Performers?
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Mark Mehler, of Kendall Park, NJ based CareerXroads, a staffing strategy consultancy says his company's research found internal movement and employee referrals are the most popular and effective ways for companies to fill positions. "If I owned a company," he says, "I would put tremendous effort into the career development of my employees and make them feel like part of the family....so that it's not just a 9-to-5 job with just a paycheck. It's got to be more today. Today's generation, if you don't onboard them properly, they'll quit in 24 hours."
Executive search firms, leadership coaches, and consultants are building specialized "executive onboarding" services to add to their client offerings. Onboarding, as the name implies, helps new managers get a running start through coaching that assists them with detecting cultural nuances, accelerating strategic plans, and navigating the personality mine fields of their new teams. The term is also now used to describe orienting new hires.
Four out of ten newly promoted managers and executives fail within 18 months of starting new jobs, according to research by Manchester, Inc, a leadership development firm in Bala Cynwyd, PA. "Failing" includes being terminated for performance, performing significantly below expectations or voluntarily resigning from the new position.
Leaders often fail for a few common reasons: due to unclear or outsized expectations, a failure to build partnerships with key stakeholders, a failure to learn the company, industry or the job itself fast enough, a failure to determine the process for gaining commitments from direct reports and a failure to recognize and manage the impact of change on people.
Executive onboarding coaching of the newly hired or promoted manager can turnaround this high rate of failure.
Source: Human Resource Executive, July 2008