Beyond the Paycheck: The Real Reasons Talent Sticks Around

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (00:03):

Well, hi everyone. I am Lori Cole. I’m a brand ambassador and content creator here at iHire, and I am thrilled to welcome you to today’s webinar Beyond the Paycheck, the Real Reasons Why Talent Sticks Around. So before we get going, let me point out a few of the features of our webinar platform that will really help you make the most of today’s session. You can move and resize [00:00:30] the widgets on your screen to customize your layout and you can make it work for you. Set it up just the way that you want it. Be sure that you find that ask a question widget, and anytime during the presentation you can submit your questions. Only our producers will see them and we’ll answer as many as we can at the q and a session. Don’t worry if you miss anything today, we’re going to send you a recording of tomorrow [00:01:00] of the webinar so you can revisit the session anytime you like. And for those of you earning recertification credits today, you’ll earn one SHRM or one HRCI credit. So at the end of the session I’ll remind you to click that certificate button, but don’t worry, I’ll remind you about that. So thanks for joining us today and let’s get started.

(01:28):

I would like to introduce Brian [00:01:30] McAllister. He’s one of our presenters today and he is a senior hiring success strategist here at I Hire Brian loves helping our clients tackle their unique hiring challenges and he works closely with them to create personalized, seamless and rewarding experiences with I hire’s industry focused recruiting tools. Welcome Brian.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (01:55):

Thank you, Lori. I’m happy to be here. And hello to everybody who’s made some time [00:02:00] to join us today

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (02:02):

And then joining. Brian is Vickie Krolak. Vickie, is a senior HR business partner here at iHire. With over 20 years of experience in HR accounting and office administration, Vickie is passionate about all things that are employee engagement, recruiting, training and development. She’s also an active leader in the HR community serving as the president [00:02:30] elect for the SH RM mid chapter Florida mid chapter division. And then she is also a member of national SHRM. So welcome Vicki. Good to have you here.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (02:43):

Thank you Lori. Happy to be here.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (02:45):

We’re so excited that both of you are sharing your expertise with us today. So one of the things that the report that we’re going to talk about made clear is that we are saying goodbye. [00:03:00] Great resignation and hello, great stay. So for the last two years we’ve heard nonstop about the great resignation as people left their jobs in record numbers. But in 2024 something new is happening and it’s called the Great Stay. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US quit rate and that measures the percentage of workers leaving their jobs each month [00:03:30] hit a record high average of 2.8% in 2022. So you can see that on the chart below and then drop to 2.4% in 2023. Now this number has fallen even further since then and it just hit 1.9% in September of 2024. You can see how it trails off there at the end. [00:04:00] So what does this tell us? Well, we think it tells us that people are sticking with their employers longer instead of jumping around for greener pastures. We also were curious as to why this was happening. Many experts point to the cooling labor market, which has made people prioritize stability during uncertain economic times in the last couple of years have been kind of uncertain. So [00:04:30] what does our research say? Let’s get going and find out Vicki, tell us a little bit more about some of the insights that we gained from these trends.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (04:42):

Absolutely. So as Lori mentioned, we published our 2024 talent and retention report just at the right time for the six year in a row. I hires investigated employee turnover rates and why people are choosing to leave their job or stay and what employers are doing to increase retention and engagement. [00:05:00] This year over a 1500 job seekers and about 550 employers responded to the talent retention survey we sent out. This was sent out during the months of September and October. Respondents came from over our 57 different industries and across the us. But before we jump into that, let’s take a quick poll here, Lori, how much turnover do you expect to experience across the organization mid 2025? What do you guys think?

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (05:30):

[00:05:30] I feel like we’ve already seen an increase in candidates coming to the site, so I’m thinking that people might be feeling a little bit more confident in 2025 to make a move if they’ve chosen to stay with their employer when they thought the was a little rocky.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (06:00):

[00:06:00] Yeah, it’s definitely we’ve gotten away from that great resignation. People were jumping jobs pretty quickly in that 21, 22 timeframe. But I do agree with the report that it seems to have cooled off and settled down a bit, but there it could change in 25. We never know.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (06:20):

Alright, so I like those nuns and a little, that’s great. That’ll be great [00:06:30] for organizations if they can keep that up. So thank you to everybody that participated in the poll here. Brian, let’s look at what the research revealed about whether workers are actually staying put.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (06:45):

Yeah, so again, when we look at our survey, it is fairly consistent with the Bureau of Labor Statistics data. So the short answer is they are staying, that’s the answer to the question. For our candidates specifically, [00:07:00] they told us that we saw about an 11 point percent decrease in the voluntary quits in this past year as compared to 38% the year before. So that is a good decrease in numbers confirming what we’re talking about. And employers also shared their numbers were fairly consistent in the amount of who said they had turnover in 24, about 84 to 85% year over year, but 67% [00:07:30] of those employers said all or most of it was due to voluntary quits. And that’s actually an 8.2% decrease from 2023. So the numbers in our survey seem to confirm the idea that the great resignation is over and the great state trend is starting.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (07:51):

Vickie, I’m curious as to how these retention rates correlate with job satisfaction. What did the research show us?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (08:00):

[00:08:00] Yeah, so interesting facts here. You would expect that job satisfaction to jump if people are choosing to stay with their employer, but that’s not necessarily the case. We found that job satisfaction was fairly steady from 23 to 24. In fact, we noted that about 55% of the candidates I hire survey said they were either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their current position as compared to 2023 where there was about 56% of the workers set the same [00:08:30] satisfaction rates. So it’s only down about 1% year over year. While this is good news that only half the workers were satisfied with their job, employers shouldn’t sit back and relax. Those employees who aren’t entirely in love with their position may be ready to shop around. So we need to be proactive as employers to focus on that talent retention engagement and keeping employees satisfied that are on board with us. So let’s take a look at some actionable items from our survey findings to see [00:09:00] why employees leave and why they choose to stay.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (09:07):

Alright, I’ll roll with this one. So yeah, we did ask, asked all our respondents why did they choose to leave a job in the last year and these are the top results actually we go all the way down to the bottom of all the results we got. I think the most interesting thing here is that salary is not the top reason. In fact, it ranks down there [00:09:30] around number five. So the first reasons or the first reasons are the toxic work environment for company leadership. We’ve kind of bumped these into a different set of groups there. So poor life work balance, unsatisfactory pay comes in at number five. But really all this I think ties into a bigger conversation around the company culture that exists and we’ll talk a little bit [00:10:00] more about that. But I think again, the most interesting thing to me is that pay was kind of at the bottom. And there are lots of things that I think employers and candidates can offer each other or consider when employees are either leaving or to entice employees to come to their company.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (10:21):

I think it’s interesting that so many of those top items are about company culture, good company culture, [00:10:30] and I don’t want people to lose sight that good company culture not only helps you retain your people, but it also helps you attract new people. So that’s so important that you focus on that Vickie, our employees actually telling the truth about why they leave.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (10:51):

Yeah, this is really interesting Lori, when we asked employers who had experienced turnover in 2024 with a similar question, what reasons have your departing [00:11:00] employees given for leaving? We provided each group both employers and employees with the same list of reasons to help us understand and compare the two. We noted that the top reasons were a bit different between them, as you can see from the charts here, according to employers personal reasons such as health or family issues, receiving a better offer that aligned with their career goals and then unsatisfactory pay were at the top three reasons. [00:11:30] Now we noted that the main reasons employees said they were leaving jobs really went further down the list as compared to what the employers were saying. For example, about 15% of employers said that they lost staff due to toxic work environment, which was the most popular reason for leaving a job according to the employee respondents.

(11:51):

This may mean that employees aren’t comfortable sharing their real reasons for leaving with their current employer, especially during those exit interviews. And this could be due [00:12:00] to a lack of trust, a lack of transparency, or just overall communication issues. Without that transparency, employers won’t know what the root issues are of their company culture and how to address it. And we find this sometimes happens during X interviews. Employees that are leaving will say What’s going on? But it’s too late at that point. You can’t save that employee if they’ve left because they feel like their manager wasn’t being fair. And we’re going to talk a little bit more about company culture later [00:12:30] in this presentation, but I do find that exit interviews are good, but you have to make sure that you’re doing some other methods we’re going to talk about to get ahead of that.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (12:41):

It’s always fascinating to me that there’s such a disconnect between the perceived and the actual reasons people are leaving. They might tell their employers one thing, but it’s actually that toxic work environment and we [00:13:00] see that year after year that toxic work environment is always at the top of the list for the employees and it’s a lot further down for the employers when they make that list. So Brian, let’s flip this around a little bit and look at what makes employees want to stay.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (13:21):

I think this kind of follows in tandem with what we were just talking about a little bit. Obviously the top things are the traditional benefits that have always [00:13:30] been an important part of someone having their job. So the health insurance, the 401k, the mental health. But I think a lot has changed in the last few years maybe because of covid and maybe just because of the things we’re talking about, some big things that have really started rising are the flexibility that candidates or employers or employees want in their job. That can be flex time, a four day work week or a hybrid work environment. Obviously a lot of us are dealing with, [00:14:00] in fact, I’d be really curious, can we do another quick flash poll, Lori?

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (14:04):

Sure.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (14:05):

I’d just be curious and folks, you can just either share an emoji or put something in the chat there. I’m curious how many employers have considered or even installed a four day work week into their workplace. If you guys could share that while I’m chatting, we’ll just track that going. The other couple things that I think are sometimes underrated from an employer standpoint but very important to candidates [00:14:30] are career growth. The opportunity that employees have to access professional development in their organization. They have clear paths, keeps them motivated on how to get a promotion and how to stay with the company. Meaningful recognition is always important as well. And as we talk about toxic work environments, I think the counter to that is just your company culture and how having [00:15:00] a positive work environment. As you can see there is one of the top 83% important to employees, a commitment to the balance of work and life and just even having clear mission statements and vision and values with your organization. All companies have those. I think candidate or employees look to see if their companies are living their mission statements, they’re living their brand. I think that’s a big reason sometimes [00:15:30] employees leave. So if you’re living your brand and you’re living your vision statement, I think you have a really great chance of keeping employees as well.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (15:40):

Yeah, I love that you guys broke this down into four different buckets because that’s very helpful to see all of the items in the different buckets and I’m also very encouraged to see the emojis going for the four day work week. Would love to know more about that if you put it [00:16:00] into the attendee chat. How is that going for you? And I just saw something quickly that said not possible for us, but we know it’s not possible for everybody. But yeah, would love to know how that’s going, how that effort’s going. Vickie, how are employers responding to these employee preferences?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (16:24):

So the question is are employers delivering on the needs and wants of their talent to keep them around? [00:16:30] We asked employers to select which initiative they’ve implemented in the past year to improve their retention efforts and what we found here, as you’ll see in the chart is pay raises were at the top bonuses were number two, flexible schedules number three, and then the bottom half of that survey shows providing growth, professional development, giving promotions in the next year or so. I do find this with candidates when I’m doing my recruiting efforts that they [00:17:00] really are looking for that career growth, that career path. They want to know where they’re going to go and how they’re going to grow the organization. And if a flexible schedule is, again, that’s number three, I hear this quite often, especially when you post a job that may say hybrid.

(17:16):

The candidate wants to know what the exactly means. Is it one day in the office, two, three or more how many days they can work from home? Can they have flexible schedules that’s going to help them meet the needs of maybe their children? They got to get ‘em on the bus or [00:17:30] get ‘em off the bus, that kind of stuff. People got used to that flexibility during the covid era of working from home. Those that were able to and flex their schedules to get everything accomplished. They really want that work-life balance. And I hear that quite often still to this day that work-life balances can sometimes be a challenge. So addressing that with flexibility is a great option. You can see while giving pay raises was far the top result there at 62% about good portion of employers are allowing for more [00:18:00] flexibility and growth and professional development. We know that this matters. I can say that that flexibility again, like I mentioned for four years past covid and the days of working fully remote are kind of dwindling down, but it really depends on the industry and the role that person’s in. Many employers have moved towards those hybrid schedules and as I mentioned, they want to know what that exactly looks like. The pay raises is interesting to me though. Lori and Brian, I love your take on that because [00:18:30] I find that can sometimes only be a bandaid. What are your thoughts?

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (18:36):

Yeah, definitely. I mean if you have somebody who’s unhappy or they’re feeling like they’re overworked, more money isn’t going to solve that problem. You’ve got to get to the root of the problem and really help that employee. I think you have a much better chance of getting them to stay if you solve their problem instead of just throwing [00:19:00] more money at them.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (19:02):

And sometimes I think too, maybe some shorter term incentives, bonuses or even just nice little thank yous. I have one client I work with that does just some simple things like a Thanksgiving card, turkeys on us, which I thought that was a really creative idea. I’m like, that’s really nice. My daughter actually got that at her employer too, and I was like, wow, I like that idea. So yeah,

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (19:25):

I think the employee’s mind sometimes the idea of raise also, [00:19:30] oh, I’m making more money but now more is going to be expected of me. So I’m kind starting this spiral if I’m really unhappy already with my work effort and no balance that I’m a little nervous if a raise comes my way and I’m going to be working even more now. So I think it’s really important to acknowledge some of these other things we’re talking about for sure.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (19:49):

Yeah. Vickie, you said something about bonuses in a Turkey. So a very long time ago I worked for an employer who [00:20:00] would always give a really nice Christmas bonus and we would go to their house, they would give us this ham and they would give us a Christmas bonus. Well, we went one year and we just got the ham, we didn’t get the Christmas bonus, so we were all tearing our ham apart on the way home to see if maybe they had put it inside the ham. Oh no. We were all just counting on that and expecting it. So if you’ve traditionally given bonuses and you’re not giving them now, [00:20:30] I would say let people know that upfront because people do tend to count on that as part of their salary.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (20:40):

And I tell people too, if you offer bonuses at an employer, make sure the employee understands that it is a bonus. It’s not guaranteed. It’s a nice surprise and you can do it. It is.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (20:52):

It’s a lovely surprise. So we’ve seen why employees leave and what makes them stay. So let’s transition [00:21:00] to our top pieces of advice to help you retain talent in 2025. Brian, let’s start with compensation. We’ve talked a lot about that already. What did the research reveal about pay as a retention tool?

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (21:15):

Yeah, so I mean think it’s still the go-to move by most employers. I 62% of employers said they did do that in fact in this past year. But sadly [00:21:30] as we just said, those who gave those pay raises still struggled with retention. So when we really dug into the data, we found that over 90% of the employers who gave raises did experience turnover in 24 and a high number of those two thirds of those said it was due to voluntary resignation. So there was a disconnect there somewhere between the employer and the candidate. So I think we’re right on track there. It’s important to offer [00:22:00] competitive pay, it’s critical to retention and keeping employees, but there’s a lot of non-monetary perks that I think as we’ve been talking about and we can talk a little more about that need to be paid attention by the employer.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (22:22):

I mentioned Brian about the competitive pay. I mean this is an area that I hear from my clients quite often is they want to know if they’re paying competitively [00:22:30] enough if they’re keeping up with the market. When I do compensation studies for my clients, I do find sometimes that some employers are paying above market, which is great when you can do that. And then I have some that are kind of out of touch with where they should be and they come back a little bit surprised at what the true numbers look like for their area or their market and the role that they’re recruiting for. So this is something

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (22:56):

I see the same thing Vicki, and I think it’s important and now it’s a great [00:23:00] time of year to be considering that as you put your plans in place and you’re beginning for 2025, if you haven’t reviewed either the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we have a great research tool for salary on our site, but candidates are savvy. I mean candidates know there’s a lot of information they have where they can get what the expected salary is for a job. So you don’t want to underpay and I don’t think you want to necessarily overpay either. So I think it’s a good time of year to really get in line and figure [00:23:30] out are you being competitive in what you’re offering your employees, whether you’re hiring or just trying to maintain them.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (23:38):

And I think too with that company culture, I know we’re going to go into more details again, but people want to work for an organization they feel of to work for, they want to feel like they’re valued, they want those opportunities to connect with their peers and feel part of the team collaboration and even the idea of having a work best friend. I mean those are all really important aspects [00:24:00] of coming to work and enjoying where you work and enjoying what you do.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (24:06):

I love the work best friend part. I’m so fortunate, but I have so many people at work that I consider to be my very good friends and that just makes your day go fast and fun. So even working in a remote environment, it’s really great. So it looks like focusing on salary alone won’t get you there. Vickie, what does work-life [00:24:30] balance, what kind of a role does that play in retaining people?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (24:36):

Yeah, so as our survey demonstrated, employees value that strong work-life balance and flexibility. In fact, we found that 50% of workers would take a job at a lower salary if they were offered that better work-life balance. Next to that, about 44% said better work environment company culture and around 40% said more flexibility. Another reason, other [00:25:00] reasons that were included in there is better health insurance. This is something that’s been a challenge for a while, even for employers as healthcare continues to increase more PTO, I hear this question quite often from candidates and from employers, what’s the right balance and what should we be offering a better 401k, maybe that’s the match or what you’re offering there and then a hundred percent remote options. And lastly they mentioned a better commute. So [00:25:30] working remote, I don’t have much of a commute here, but I can appreciate that because working driving that I did in my early my career drove an hour to work each way and yeah, it was very taxing, especially in traffic.

(25:44):

So to retain your employees consider offering flex time hybrid work options or even testing out somewhat controversial four day work week, we mentioned that a little bit earlier. Explore options on generous PTO allow your associates and employees [00:26:00] to recharge so they don’t burn out. This is also an interesting topic. I often get questions about what is that right amount if I say it really depends on your workforce and your company culture. I’ve seen anywhere from having your employees start at two weeks. I had one client I worked with that only offered one week the first year for their hourly workforce and I was like, that’s not enough time. What happens if they get sick? But I think a good sweet spot [00:26:30] of their is probably about three weeks starting out and then you can kind of build from there based on how long your people have been with you. Again, also looking at your workforce and your company culture. There’s even that option of unlimited PTO, which has its own pluses and minuses. Another request that I see quite often these days is mental health benefits. And these can be things like meditation apps, access to counseling, or even a mental health day, a data recharge their battery if they’re struggling [00:27:00] mentally. These are greatly appreciated by employees. I’ve found

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (27:07):

During Covid and I know I appreciated, there were times when we were in the heat of the battle there with covid, then leadership team would say, Hey, you know what? We’re going to give everybody this Friday off. It’s a mental health day, catch your breath, regroup, have a great weekend, step away. Those meant a lot and I think they do mean a lot to the employee, especially if they’re kind of a [00:27:30] surprise or an unanticipated. It almost reinforces the idea of we need you to just take a day and step away and regroup.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (27:40):

Yeah, yeah, I loved it because I didn’t feel like I was getting behind and usually when you take a day off, you know that you’re going to come back to a full inbox and you’re going to have to catch up. And with everybody being off in the organization, there was no catch up. So [00:28:00] that was wonderful

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (28:01):

If that works for your organization. At the time when all that hit, I was working for a manufacturer that had 24 hours, seven days a week shift, and honestly I was burning at both ends and I did burn out. I ended up getting really, really sick and getting pneumonia, so I would’ve appreciated some time off to recharge my own battery. But my boss was actually very flexible with me once she found out I was not well,

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (28:25):

I think the shift is being creative. I mean, I had an employer who had a [00:28:30] hospital and to try to get the nurses engaged and hiring people and keeping people, they took a room on one of the top floors of the hospital and just turned it into a quiet room where the lights were low. They had a little water feature in there, there was general music, there were couches and it was just a place to step away and catch your breath and just like we say, mental health and just understand that you might not be able to take the day off, we need you here, but if you need to step away for a minute, here’s a nice place that we’re going to offer [00:29:00] to do it. And I think that stuff means a lot to people,

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (29:04):

Especially in a hospital environment. Gosh, bad things happen and I can imagine that if you’ve just had a really stressful time, it would be great to be able to step away and have that quiet time.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (29:18):

I find that and more health carriers are carrying that mental health option on their insurance plans. So if you do have that, if you’re not sure about that, look into it and make sure your employees have access to it because that [00:29:30] counseling can really help with those that are struggling.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (29:34):

And one of the things that we do is it is Headspace, correct that we give everybody a subscription to Headspace. And when we did that I thought, oh gosh, that’s such a great idea because you usually think of that app as something that you would just subscribe to on your own, but the fact that your employer is subscribing to it on your behalf, that [00:30:00] meant a lot too. So Brian, let’s talk about workplace culture and its impact on retention.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (30:09):

So this goes right into where we’ve been talking a little bit about and it’s just really fostering a positive work environment and culture. We talked a lot about the results showing that workplace toxicities one of the top reasons people are leaving. So in addition to all those things we just rattled through, I think there’s even more that you can do [00:30:30] to hone into just a supportive inclusive work environment, encouraging collaboration. I know that that word is thrown around a lot as a catch word in organizations, but collaboration can be a very broad topic. It’s not just between your team members or your manager. I think encouraging collaboration between the other teams in your organization with your leadership team, other departments is [00:31:00] really crucial. I think that helps build those relationships. Vicki, you mentioned work as your friend. I think that’s how we get into those relationships.

(31:08):

If we step out of our day-to-day role and can collaborate and participate with people we might not every day, I think that helps us feel good about our jobs. So don’t underrate collaboration recognition is still always a big one on our list. Employees want to be recognized, they all want to be recognized differently. So I think [00:31:30] you want to be aware of how that is given, but there’s a lot of creative ways to do that. Of course, celebrate diversity and team building activities and social events remain important as well. And I think those all have to be sincere and genuine. You see the joking meme sometimes on different social sites about, oh, the company bought us pizza today and it almost has the opposite impact. So making sure anytime there’s team building activities or social [00:32:00] events that they’re sincere, they’re meaningful, they have purpose, bring joy or again, allow people to step away. And we talked a little earlier too about really leaning into your company core values. It’s a good exercise. I know we just did it here. We reevaluated our core values and we just did that I think what five years ago. But I think that’s a good exercise to reevaluate who you are as a company and are you conveying that message to your employees [00:32:30] because I think employees do pay attention to it.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (32:33):

Yeah, you put some two good points there, Brian. The social recognition you could build around your core values to recognize when employees are demonstrating them and when they’re not. You meet expectations. You can build these into your interview questions. We do that typically here. We’ll have a list of our core values and ask the candidates which one resonates most with them and why. And then recognition. [00:33:00] I think it’s really important to understand your individual employees and how they like to recognize. Not everybody likes public recognition. Some prefer to be a little more private and some employees don’t know how to accept recognition. So understanding all those things that motivate them and drive them is really key.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (33:20):

I’ve been monitoring the attendee chat here and some of the comments that I’ve seen come up is we can’t afford to do all of these things. There’s [00:33:30] a limit to what we can do because of the way our people work or they’re out in the field or whatever. But I think that it’s important to know that we’re not suggesting that you do all of these things. We’re suggesting that you pick some things that will work for your environment and try to make the most of those. Would that be a fair and accurate statement, Vicki and Brian?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (33:57):

Oh yeah, I think so. I mean not everything has to be monetary. Brian [00:34:00] mentioned that earlier. I think there are creative ways, a simple thank you sometimes goes a long way depending on the person and how they receive that. What do you think, Brian?

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (34:11):

And sometimes just asking what does an employee need? What’s missing or what would make your life easier? You’d probably be surprised at some of the things that hadn’t occurred to you and you could say, well, of course we can do that. We’d be happy to do that even. So again, that’s some form of collaboration, but I think it’s okay to just [00:34:30] have those open and honest discussions with your employees. Every job is different and right, Lori, there are some jobs you can’t afford to do a lot. Some of these things are all of these things, but there are solutions out there and I think that’s by doing, just asking. I think you’re fostering the exact work environment we’re trying to get across.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (34:53):

So Vickie, let’s address leadership issues because I know that [00:35:00] the company culture starts at the top and it starts with your leadership. So what are some of the things that we found here?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (35:08):

Yeah, absolutely, Laurie, that’s one of the most important things to note is that it starts at the top. As you mentioned, people don’t just leave jobs, they leave their managers, they leave the leadership. Our study reinforced this notion with poor company leadership and unhappiness with their manager being the number two and number three reason why people left in 2024. So how do you address that? [00:35:30] You want to make sure that your leaders are setting the example, modeling the behaviors that they expect, demonstrating your core values. Be transparent, be compassionate, be fair, make employees feel valued, secure, and motivated to want to stay with you. Empathy is now known as one of the top leadership skills to have. And if this is something that you struggle with as a manager, I encourage you to seek some training to learn how to be more empathy. Empathy is different than sympathy.

(36:00):

[00:36:00] Active listening, Brian mentioned asking your employees what their needs are with what they’d like. Actively listen to them is another skill that’s so critical and there’s tones of training on that as well. Encourage one-on-one meetings between the managers and their teams. Open those lines of communication, build that trust, get to know your employees beyond just work learn. I know during the interview process you can’t ask questions about families, marriage, children, [00:36:30] stuff like that. But once they’re hired, you can open up those conversations and get to know their spouse’s name, their children, if they have hobbies, if they have pets, what they like to do in their free time. This will help them understand that you take a true interest in them and you care about them. And then if you have managers that are struggling in certain areas, provide training for them. This is important especially for your first time managers.

(36:56):

It can be a hard transition if they’ve never managed people and then also [00:37:00] those managers that may move from peer to manager. This is another part that can be another thing that can be really hard for not only the person going into the supervision role, but the peer himself. They’ve lost that connection of like, this is my buddy, now they’re my boss. How do I manage those feelings and emotions that may come with that the first time they have to address them and coach them maybe what necessary conversation, it could be a challenge for them, for both of them. So look at the training [00:37:30] for that and then maybe consider rearranging team structures if you need to. This could actually help facilitate better dynamics. And as we’ve been saying, collaboration,

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (37:43):

One of the comments here was the number one thing that you can do for your team is to train your managers to be effective leaders, not bosses. Absolutely. Oh my gosh, that is just perfect. Thank you so much for that comment.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (38:00):

[00:38:00] Yeah.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (38:03):

So let’s see. Brian’s got this next slide. What about career development opportunities?

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (38:11):

Yep. This goes back to one of the first slides we showed of what was really, really important to the employees. And if I recall it was number one, I think it’s a pretty underrated benefit that companies have, whether you are doing it internally or you’re even sharing it on your job ad or [00:38:30] when you’re recruiting, are you sharing these kinds of opportunities for growth and advancement? Over 50% said they’d be more likely to stay if these things were in place. So sharing professional development opportunities, giving employees clear advancement opportunities or paths to promotion are super important. We know when an employee feels stagnant, we talked a little earlier about that as well. That’s when they’re more likely [00:39:00] to leave. So I think you can raise your retention rates and prevent the stagnation by just enhancing motivation and interest of training. And again, back to everything we said earlier too, making sure it’s meaningful training, training that comes into what their jobs are, what they’re responsible for, what their troubles are, cross-training, upselling, re-skilling.

(39:23):

Those are all very important things that candidate or employees need when they struggle. You got [00:39:30] to be able to identify that and provide that solution to them. I think mentorships is a big thing in an organization. We talk about having that kind of work friend, but mentorship to me takes that to the next level. It puts somebody kind of as a trusted advisor that you can go to and you might not be able to talk to your manager about a frustration, but hopefully you can share that with your mentor and if you’ve got a good structured mentor program in place, those mentors can bring those kind of issues and things to light [00:40:00] either with the leadership team or other managers and directors into the team. So there’s a lot of ways you can get into this. We talk about sending employees to conferences and workshops.

(40:13):

I know that my first year in this organization I kind of volunteered to go do a trade event and I had a blast. It was a really neat way to understand who our company was, what our role was in the industry to see customers and potential [00:40:30] customers and not to mention go to a cool city for a few days and get out of town, but I think that those kind of opportunities can pay a lot of dividends coming back. You got to now an employee who’s motivated, who’s excited. So conferences and workshops I don’t think should be underrated and I think that can be open to any employer in your organization. It doesn’t just have to be the salesperson or the account executives open those opportunities up to their employees in [00:41:00] your organization. You can help employees with their professional memberships with continuing education credits and courses, engaging them in webinars, letting them be thought leaders and sharing their ideas and sharing their experiences. Those all lead to happy employees and hopefully employees that are going to stay.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (41:22):

Yeah, I love that idea, Brian, of the mentorship and even it’s something that your organization can’t offer. Many times there’s mentorship programs in [00:41:30] the community you live in. You just have to do a little research to find out. And even I have a mentor who I used to work with. I still reach out to her and ask questions and she’s fabulous. Absolutely. She’s retired now, so awesome for her, but she’s still an awesome resource to reach out and talk through things or just get a second opinion beyond working here, which is really nice. Another thing I would say internally if you’re able to this in your company is a buddy program. [00:42:00] This is something that we implemented here at I hire and I have many clients that do it as well. A buddy program is you match your new hire up with someone in organization that they can reach out to beyond their manager to help them get acclimated to the company, maybe answer questions if their manager’s not available and just understand and feel welcome to the organization.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (42:22):

Yeah, I like the buddy idea too, and I really like the buddy idea when it extends beyond the department, meaning I don’t want a team [00:42:30] member to be my buddy because I’m going to interact with them every day anyway to learn my job and how to do my job. I want my buddy to be in the IT department or in the marketing department, a department I don’t work in to just kind of have those open conversations and again, learn and grow and understand more about the organization.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (42:51):

So Vicki, we’ve talked a lot about all the different things that employers can do, but how can we really get a better understanding [00:43:00] of what the employees really want and what they need?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (43:05):

Yeah, absolutely. Brian mentioned this earlier, a little bit more candid conversation, but I’m going to recommend that you conduct stay interviews pretty regularly. A stay interview if you’re not familiar with that is a brief meeting with your current employee to understand why they choose to remain at your company and what would cause them to look for another opportunity outside of your company. Stay interviews allow you to be proactive and approach and gather feedback [00:43:30] from the employees before they consider moving on. And I find that sweet spot to be around two to three years of employment because this is typically when employees start to feel a little stagnant if they’re not growing and we’ll start to seek new challenges and new opportunities. However, we found in our survey that only about 17% of our employers surveyed said that they’re actually conducting these. I suggest that you do these annually.

(43:56):

This is going to help improve your retention rates and you [00:44:00] can include meetings individual one-on-one or you can do a focus group if that’s something that you’re interested in doing. You want to make sure you create a safe environment where people feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and allow for those candid conversations. Again, you have to build that trust first and that relationship with those individuals. Another option you can do is conduct monthly or quarterly anonymous poll surveys to get some quick feedback from your current staff. This is also [00:44:30] an excellent retention. We do this at I hire, we continuously obtain actionable items that are feedback items that we can act on. And then I would say also maybe a skip level interview. These can be really helpful. This is where the manager above their supervisor will interview that employee similar to the state interview, but get a deeper, deeper dive into how that employee’s feeling. Maybe they’re not comfortable sharing with their direct manager, but they’re willing to share with their manager above about what’s going [00:45:00] on, how they’re feeling, how it’s going with their manager. I think that’s another really good option you can explore. I’m really a big fan of state interviews. If this is something that you’re curious about, this is something we can help with. Doesn’t always have to be HR that conducts them. It could be somebody organization that’s trusted that can conduct these as long as they’re trained on what to ask and how to ask it.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (45:25):

Yeah, I like the skip level interview [00:45:30] and I wasn’t even aware it was really happening to me when it first happened. It was just another person, like you said, it wasn’t my manager, it was my manager’s manager had just asked me to lunch one day and it was just very casual and very warm, but it was exploratory and it was non-threatening and I really enjoyed it and now we try to do that at least once a quarter. So I think it’s a great idea.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (45:54):

Nice. You get ahead of those issues,

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (45:58):

Especially with so many [00:46:00] employees reporting that they leave because of a toxic work environment or manager, that skip level interview could really give you some great insights and show you where some of your problems might be. Absolutely

.

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (46:15):

I think it helps your management team too. I mean in the last year I hear people who tell me they have 12 or 15 or 20 direct reports, which is a lot of direct reports and it is hard to manage those numbers. So having that outlet [00:46:30] for your manager to be able to take some input and feedback is important too.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (46:36):

So Brian, let’s address a very timely topic. How does AI factor into retention?

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (46:45):

Lori, I know you love ai. Sue, I knew you were going to get this in here somehow. Yeah, so this is interesting and I’m glad we are talking about it. This is something new in our survey. Obviously a couple years ago, this wasn’t even part of the survey, [00:47:00] but in this last year we found that over 13% of employees had told us they were extremely or very concerned that AI could take their role in the next five years. So I do think it’s something that’s important to talk about and I think it’s just time to deal with that. AI is here, we’ve got to accept it, and we’ve got to figure out how we’re going to incorporate that into our workplaces. The first I think obviously [00:47:30] is just assuring your employees that AI is here to support them, not necessarily replace them. And I think you can do that by encouraging the use of AI and upskilling them and equipping them with AI tools that they can use effectively in their jobs. So I think ai, I think it’ll be fun to watch this question grow or change over the next couple years, [00:48:00] but I think the big message is ai letting your employees know that AI is there to support them and not replace them.

(48:10):

Vickie, you had some thoughts, Vickie on making sure there are AI policies and things in place in your organization.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (48:18):

Yeah, Lori was going to mention something. I’ll let her go first. Well, let’s

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (48:22):

Do this. I want to do another quick emoji poll. I knew you were, I want to know how many people are [00:48:30] actually using AI on a daily basis in their job. So you guys start shooting your emojis at us and Vickie and I will end this conversation here. Go

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (48:43):

Ahead. Yeah, so if you are an employer that’s willing to allow your employees to use ai, I do suggest putting some guardrails in place or policies in your handbook on what that looks like, what’s allowed, what’s not allowed, how they should be using it in their [00:49:00] job, just to kind of save you want to make sure they’re not putting anything confidential or company proprietary information out there. There’s also a feature I learned that’s in chat GPT where you can turn off turning the machine so it doesn’t constantly put information in there that you wouldn’t want to be shared by accident. Helping them understand what you can do and how they can use it and offer training. We did this recently here at I Hire, we did a lunch and learn and we had a couple different speakers across different departments [00:49:30] talk about how they’re utilizing AI in their job, how it works for them, how to be more productive. I personally love using chat chatt PT to help me with writing. If I know what I want to say and I’m not always sure how to say it or if I want to say it a little softer communication wise, I’ll pop my email or my message in there and kind of get a baseline and then tweak it a little bit to make it sound exactly like me.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (49:59):

I am watching [00:50:00] all of the comments come up. Somebody said, we are not on that train yet and I would suggest that you get on that train whether your company is on it or not, you can get on it personally. You can set up a chat GPT account, it’s free. Go in and start using it, ask it questions. You will just be amazed at what it can do for you and you’re going to have to learn how to use it. Brian said something about AI is not [00:50:30] going to take your job. That’s true. AI is not going to take your job, but somebody who knows how to use AI might take your job and if your company’s not on that train yet, maybe you are the early adopter that can get in there and say, Hey, I have used it in my off hours for this and I’m finding this to be a very helpful tool and just show your companies how to use it.

(50:59):

A lot of times if [00:51:00] you’ve got a management that’s very entrenched in, we’ve always done it this way, we don’t need ai, we’re not going to go down that road. I’ve seen people that I know in the last two years turnaround Chad GPT just had its second birthday. So in the last two years when it first came out it was like, oh no, we’ll never use that. Our company will never use that. And now I’m hearing the exact opposite [00:51:30] of, oh yeah, this has been great for us and we’re doing so many good things with it. So my advice is to get out there and learn how to use it,

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (51:40):

But understand too that not every job you can use it in depending on what your role is and what level of maybe security you’re in,

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (51:53):

Right? Everybody has a different use case for it, but [00:52:00] it is certainly a fascinating thing and you should be learning it, whether it’s on the job or if you’re just doing it in off hours to understand how it works and how to use it. So what’s next for the great stay? So Vickie, tell us about what we think we’re going to see here.

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (52:24):

Yeah, so as we closed out our survey, we asked employers what they foresee happening [00:52:30] in the turnover rate over the next three months. And what we found is about 73% of employers believe that turnover we either remain the same or decrease the next three months. While the great stay may continue into 2025, if economic conditions remain stable, employers are still going to need to make efforts to deliver on what their employees truly want. Remember, pay is not always the driver of retention. Positive work environments and culture, leadership, strong work-life balances, [00:53:00] flexibility, growth and advancement opportunities are very crucial as well as engagement, which leads to productivity, loyalty, and ultimately your company’s bottom line. We know that employees that are happy will be productive and your company will thrive.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (53:20):

Alright, so let’s get to just a few of the questions here. We’ll have to go fast because I want to let people go here in the next few minutes. So if [00:53:30] you have not seen our report, it’s in your download widget, make sure that you go to that additional resources widget that we have here and download the retention report, some fascinating data in there and don’t forget to hang tight until the webinar concludes to click that view certificate button so you can get your certification for HRCI and shrm. So let me get to the questions here. I should have had them [00:54:00] up. I apologize. Here we go. We had so many questions, we’re not going to get to all of them here. Okay. What are some surefire signs I should look for that an employee is about to quit?

Brian McAllister, Senior Hiring Success Manager (54:19):

Yeah, I can jump into that one a little bit. I mean I think obviously they’re just decreased engagement by the employee. They’re not interested in attending meetings or you notice [00:54:30] they’re skipping meetings or maybe even always late to meetings. Not participating in projects or team activities is always a good sign obviously too. If their performance has declined or they’re missing deadlines or they’re just not holding up their job as well, that’s a good sign. They’re not interacting as much with their teammates or with supervisors as a sign to me. Can you think of anyone else out there? Maybe?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (54:58):

Yeah, taking time [00:55:00] off, maybe updating their LinkedIn profile or just kind of avoiding commitments or projects that procrastination.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (55:10):

Yeah, all great signs to look for. What metrics should we be tracking to evaluate our retention success?

Vickie Krolak, Senior HR Business Partner (55:19):

Yeah, good question, Laurie. One of the main one is turnover rate, those voluntary turnovers and the reasons people are leaving what those percentages look like. And then [00:55:30] your retention rates, how long, what’s the average length of time people are staying with you over specific timeframes and then your new hire retention rate, how many employees are staying those first six to 12 months? And then as I mentioned earlier, those engagement scores, doing those pulse surveys and company satisfaction or employee satisfaction will show their commitment or not. And then internal mobility, how many of your people are being promoted or transferred into a different role? This is going to show you signs of [00:56:00] internal growth within your company.

Lori Cole, Brand Ambassador (56:04):

Alright, I’m going to just do one more little emoji widget survey here. We had so much feedback on this four day work week and it would be helpful to us if we knew that that was a topic that you all were interested in learning more about. We could do a future webinar on that. So if you’re interested in that topic, please start sending those emojis [00:56:30] up and I’m going to close things out here. Thank you again so much Vicki and Brian, you were wonderful presenters for us here today. If you have any other questions, you can always reach out to our customer success department at customer [email protected] and we’ll get you connected with the right person. Remember to click that view certificate button in the certification widget and download a certificate of completion [00:57:00] for your Sherman HRCI activity IDs. Keep an eye on your inbox tomorrow for an on-demand recording of this webinar. I’m so happy to see all of these emojis coming. I think that there is a four D Day work week webinar in our future here. Thank you all so much. We really appreciate your time and have a great rest of your day.