Would Your Employees Choose Your Business Again?

Here’s a question I think is worth asking.

If every person in your business was offered their current job today, knowing everything they now know about the role, their manager and the business... would they still take it?

We spend a lot of time thinking about what attracts someone when we recruit them. Salary, benefits, flexibility, culture, progression and the opportunity itself.

But once someone joins, things change.

The job they joined might not be the job they’re doing today

Roles evolve. Responsibilities get added. Managers change. Teams grow. Workloads increase and businesses move in different directions.

Sometimes that’s positive. Someone may have developed new skills, been given more responsibility or discovered opportunities they didn’t expect.

But sometimes the opposite happens. The flexibility they valued has changed. Their workload has grown. The progression they expected hasn’t happened. Or perhaps the role simply isn’t what they thought it would be.

None of that necessarily means they’re about to leave. But wouldn’t you rather know?

Don’t wait for the exit interview

There’s something slightly strange about waiting until someone resigns before asking, ‘What could we have done differently?’

By then, it may be too late.

Instead, why not ask while they’re still part of the business?

I’d make this a separate conversation from the formal performance review, so the focus is on their experience of working for the business rather than how their performance is being assessed.

And it doesn’t need to become another complicated HR process.

Five questions worth asking

Try sitting down with your employees and asking:

·       If you were offered your current job today, knowing everything you know now, would you take it again?

·       What do you enjoy most about working here?

·       What has changed about your job since you joined?

·       If you could change one thing about your role or working here, what would it be?

·       What would make you want to stay here for the next few years?

Then listen. Don’t immediately explain, defend or try to solve everything.

You might hear things you can change easily. You might hear things you can’t change at all. Both are useful to know.

Look for the patterns

One person’s feedback may relate specifically to their own experience. If several people independently raise the same issue, it could point to something more widespread within the business.

Maybe it’s communication. Perhaps it’s workload, flexibility or lack of development. Or you might discover that people really value something you hadn’t ealized was important to them.

We often assume we know why people stay with us. It might be salary, but it could equally be their manager, colleagues, flexibility, autonomy, location, the work itself or simply feeling trusted and valued.

If you know what your people value, you have a much better chance of protecting it.

And do something with what you hear

Asking doesn’t mean agreeing to every request. There will always be things a business can’t change.

But if you ask for honest feedback, acknowledge what you’ve heard and explain what you can or can’t do about it. Otherwise, asking the question can become worse than not asking it at all.

Would they say yes?

It’s very easy to focus on attracting the next person into the business. Perhaps we should spend a little more time understanding the people who have already chosen us.

So, at your next management meeting, ask yourselves:

If we offered everyone in our business their current job again tomorrow, how many would say yes?

And then, rather than guessing...

Ask them.

You might be pleasantly surprised by what you hear. And if you’re not, at least you’ve found out while there’s still an opportunity to do something about it.