HRM Week 6 PDF

Week 6 – Employee Relationship Lecture: Employee relationships are related to legal and psychological bonds that tie employee and employer together If it's positive it benefits both parties. Learning objectives Describe the nature of the employment relationship and the theoretical...

Week 6 – Employee Relationship Lecture: Employee relationships are related to legal and psychological bonds that tie employee and employer together If it's positive it benefits both parties. Learning objectives Describe the nature of the employment relationship and the theoretical perspectives which underpin it. Critically evaluate the extent to which people management practices create mutual gains or conflicting outcomes for employees and organizations. Design basic evidence-based approaches or policies to address employee discipline and retention. Examine the implications of digitization for employee voice in organizations. 3 Structure of this topic 1. What is the employment relationship? 2. When and how can we create synergy between employee wellbeing and organizational performance? 3. How can we keep employees from doing things that they really shouldn’t? And, if they do this anyways, how do we respond? 4. How can we make sure we retain a healthy portion of our best employees for the company?  5. What is employee voice and how do employees use their ‘voice’ in the digital age? Part 2: Key concepts in Employee Relationship! Customers are also likely to influence the expectations of the organization towards employees related to service delievery and product development Employee relationship is influenced by multiple parties which are influenced by multiple factors. Perspectives on the ER: 1. Unitarist view: Employer and employee share the same goals Keeping employees happy benefits all Conflict is not due to real issues, but just personality clashes and communication issues. 2. Pluralist view Conflict is inevitable as parties have differing interests Management’s role is to balance conflicting interests. Trade unions seen as necessary and valuable 3. Marxist view (Not so used!) Conflict is necessary for workers to further their interests Methods of reducing conflict are only out to benefit management The unitarist and pluralist views are important because it shapes how we view the nature of the employment relationship, the role of trade unions, and the role of managers and HR practices. Takeaways The employment relationship at its heart involves two parties – the employee and employer, but of course it is far more complex  There has been a general shift from a more pluralist to more unitarist perspective of employment relationships which is represented in many areas of management practice (aiming to create synergy and more productive working environment). Part 3: Employee Wellbeing Mutual gains vs conflicting outcomes Unitarist view: Mutual gains: Whether employees feel good and are physically healthy they are better able to contribute to organizational success. Pluralist view: conflicting outcome: HR tools are practices to manage performance, but not well-being. The happy productive worker: Quite simply: Happier workers are more productive workers Job satisfaction is positively related to job performance  And vice-versa – high levels of emotional exhaustion are negatively related to organisational performance. HR practices are positively related to affective commitment and innovative behaviours, BUT they also found HR practices are positive also to higher demands and therefore high levels of stress. So when is happy also productive? Mutual gains are more likely when: HR practices are perceived to create a positive employment relations climate When they are more focused on encouraging employee commitment than controlling behaviour. And when are they not? “The law of diminishing returns” Too much investment in HR systems can have negative relationship with some wellbeing indicators and costs more money so is also detrimental to organisational performance. Takeaways Hr practices dont always create positive mutual gains for employees and the organization. In fact, they can often create conflicting outcomes by creating more stress It depends on how they are used and perceived by employees. Part 4: Disciplining Employee disciplining  Actions imposed by an organization on its employees for failure to follow the organization’s rules, standards, or policies. Seek to prevent undesirable behavior before it happens, and if it happens prevent as soon as possible. 5 Goals of employee discipline: Disciplinary policies Hot Stove Rule: 1. Provide ample warning. 2. Make consequences immediate. 3. Enforce consistently and without bias. Use a progressive disciplinary approach 1. Be specific 2. Focus on behavior 3. Create awareness of misconduct 4. Create understanding what needs to change Termination/Dismissal 1. Who: Direct manager should tell me employee (possibly w third person) - to make the employee feel respected. 2. When: Pick a day that is followed by at least one consecutive workday 3. Where: Neutral place that you can exit afterwards (eg quiet conference room) 4. How: Face-to-face and short (max 15 mins to inform, explain and advise) Takeaways: An effective approach to employee discipline is preventive and corrective. Employee discipline is important for legal reasons, for performance, and for workplace harmony. The hot stove principle, progressive disciplining and deliberate communication help with an effective approach to disciplining Termination should not be delegated. It should be early in the week, in a neutral place and face-to-face. When terminating someone’s employment, you keep the meeting under 15 minutes and you inform, explain, and then advise. Part 5: Retention Some turnover is inevitable but too much volunary turnover can be very costly. Expertly adressing retention/turnover 1. Identify who is at risk of leaving (and why) 2. Determine whether the turnover is/would be harmful to the organization and can be addressed. 3. Implement preventative and/or reactive measures. The unfolding model of turnover: Takeaways: The unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover (/retention) specifies five different paths to turnover. The unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover (retention) outlines five distinct paths to turnover. These paths differentiate the routes employees take by considering whether they had a history of dissatisfaction, and if they had alternative job opportunities. Part 6 – Voice Mechanisms Employee voice: How employees raise concerns, express their interests, solve problems and contribute to and participate in workplace decision making. Voice mechanisms 1. Direct voice: Involvement in day-to-day decisions (eg; job design, problem-solving) 2. Indirect voice: Tend to focus on more strategic issues (e.g tech change, organisation restructuring, corporate strategy) Decline in trade unions has seen shift towards direct voice. Pros and Cons of voice: Voice can promote self-expression, visibility, and increase transparency of workplace practices. However, it can also lead to disillusion, frustration and dissatisfaction if not managed properly. Both are important because they impact organizational outcomes, including: 1. Commitment 2. Performance 3. Employee turnover Voice in the digital age. Employee surveys (online) as a form of voice (pulse surveys) Using corporate social media channels Enables employees to give feedback anonymously on specific issues. Opportunities with digital voice: Enabling employees to voice their concerns publicly (but anonymously) so increases visibility, which: o Helps employees to feel heard o Enhances collective direct voice o Forces management action on issues Enables collaborative problem solving between workers, not only relying on top- down responses. But also there is the drawbacks: Digital platforms can limit voice They often focus only on narrow predefined issues They can restrict two-way dialogue Voices are easier to silence or ignore The choice of digital platforms matters! Takeaways: With the decline of trade unions there has been a shift from indirect to direct voice The rise in digital forms of voice creates opportunities but also potentially limits the employee voice. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Book: chapter 9 – Disciplining employees and ending their employment: it’s the line manager’s responsibility to initiate disciplinary action or tell employees their employment is being terminated. The way you manage these situations, and communicate your decisions, can have a huge impact on how you feel about yourself as a manager, how employees feel about the treatment they receive, and how coworkers feel about the organization. This chapter will help you to approach these hard calls with greater confidence. Disciplining Employees: But when coaching fails to deliver results, you may need to put your Judge hat firmly on your head and take disciplinary action.2 That action will be more effective, and be perceived as fairer, when you follow some general principles. So let’s start by identifying the key principles that underlie disciplinary action in organizations. Disciplinary Principles; 1. Hot stove rule: a. First, disciplinary action should always be preceded by a warning. b. Second, disciplinary action should immediately follow the wrongdoing. c. And finally, discipline should be enforced consistently, in an impersonal and unbiased way. Disciplinary Procedures: Disciplined employees – and their coworkers – react more positively to disciplinary action when there is prior notice and consistent application In a progressive discipline approach, the organization develops a series of disciplinary “steps.” The first offense committed by an employee may evoke a relatively mild disciplinary reaction from the organization, but as employee offenses accumulate, the disciplinary response of the organization becomes progressively more severe  When termination happens within the organization’s standard disciplinary procedures, an employee is dismissed for just cause.6 That means the employee has been dismissed because they failed to meet the company’s performance standards or failed to follow company rules. Starting with a verbal warning is clearly appropriate when the organization is addressing employee absenteeism or performance problems. The employee is given an opportunity to improve their behavior and consequences become more serious only if there is no progress. However, it would be irresponsible if the organization responded to more serious offenses with a verbal warning. Behavior that violates company policies or codes of conduct (e.g., bullying) might launch a discipline procedure with a written warning. And if the behavior is sufficiently egregious (e.g., embezzlement, violence), it might be treated as a summary offense justifying immediate dismissal. Disciplinary Communication: Disciplinary discussions should take place as soon as possible after the infraction occurs. It’s much better to clarify (and resolve) the problem before it gets completely out of hand. Don’t assume that the employee is already aware of the misconduct. Shawn may have chosen to ignore the organization’s safety policy – but it’s also possible that he is unaware of the policy or misinterpreting it During this first discussion, you should set an appropriate deadline for corrective action and be clear about what correction means. Emphasize that it’s the employee’s responsibility to correct the problem, but you can still express your willingness to help. Make sure that Shawn understands the company disciplinary policy – and what will happen if the behavior continues. Also, don’t be surprised if Shawn becomes emotional or defensive during this conversation. Even when your goal of improving behavior is completely well-intentioned, being disciplined can be uncomfortable and unpleasant for the employee. You should keep a record of the discussion you had with Shawn, including the date and time it took place.13 Then do a few follow ups to ensure that Shawn is wearing his hard hat at the work site. If handled well, that initial discussion may put an end to the issue. However, if the problematic behavior does continue, you’ll need to demonstrate that the earlier steps in a progressive sequence have been followed according to your company’s discipline policy. Don’t skip any steps. If Shawn  commits future safety offenses, you’ll want to remind him of the previous times you’ve addressed this issue. Gray Areas: there are many gray areas, and one of the challenges you face as a manager is deciding what is a disciplinable offense. o three of those gray areas: substance use, cyberactivity, and employee activism. Each gray area has unique challenges, but you’ll see that employers can nonetheless approach all three in some similar ways. 1. Substance Use: Even if the employee only uses the substance outside the workplace, on their personal time, there can be lingering consequences that impact the employer. Some companies administer drug tests that screen for substances in a urine, saliva, or hair sample. But drug testing is imperfect: Different kinds of tests identify different kinds of substances,19 and all of them can deliver false positive results. Further, the tests tell employers who is using what, but they do not directly measure impairment At the start of each shift, Vforge employees log on to a computer-based test (it looks like a video game) and spend a minute or two classifying shapes and identifying patterns. Employees who perform lower than their usual baseline – whether it’s due to substance use, medical problems, or fatigue – aren’t permitted to operate heavy machinery that day. 2. Cyberactivity Cyberactivity includes shopping, blogging, gaming, using social media, gambling, and watching videos – really, anything you can do with an Internet connection. These activities are usually legal, and often a source of fun entertainment. When these activities occur during work time, they are called cyberloafing. A little cyberloafing here and there isn’t a bad thing. But when employees cyberloaf extensively on the job, they generate productivity losses and create security risks.24 As a result, many employers are keen to monitor  employees’ Internet use, especially when employees are working remotely.25 In fact, there’s been such a dramatic increase in employer monitoring of employees working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists have described it as a “megatrend.” But monitoring employees’ Internet behavior carries its own risks. Internet surveillance sends a strong message to employees that they are not trusted, and that can trigger psychological reactance – visible in counterproductive behavior like extra-long breaks or productivity slowdowns. As a result, employers are adopting a wide range of less invasive strategies to reduce cyberloafing: asking employees to put aside their mobile phones during meetings,28 arranging short work breaks when employees can engage in personal Internet use,29 blocking sites that are most problematic (e.g., pornography sites), and training employees about the cybersecurity risks of their Internet behavior.30 3. Employee Activism The tricky bit comes when employers believe that employee activism will negatively affect the business These brief examples probably raised a lot of new questions in your mind. Does it matter that the crane operator’s protest was an unlawful assembly (violating local government restrictions)? Yes, it does. Did Whole Foods have a policy about political expression? Yes, they did In this case, the employees were exposing the environmental impact (specifically, air pollution) that Amazon’s operations were having in US communities of color.37 A labor board’s review concluded that Amazon’s actions constituted illegal retaliation against the employees who spoke out.38 What You Can Do: there are several proactive steps you can take – and it’s best to take those steps early, before these issues surface in your workplace. When it comes to disciplinary gray areas, an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure. 1. Know the Law 2. Consult (or Develop) the Policy  That makes it especially important to ensure that your employees know what your organization’s approach is going to be. encourage your company to develop policies that describe acceptable and unacceptable employee behavior in relation to each of those gray areas. 3. Communicate the Policy making sure that employees are familiar with the policy, understand the policy, and know how to work within the policy is even more important!4 Cyberactivity missteps are often due to a lack of employee awareness rather than malice 4. Explain the Logic Be sure to explain the company’s reason for its policy and disciplinary procedures. Employees will be more accepting of procedures that are clearly linked to performance, safety, and other employer concerns. For example, you may be most concerned about the staffing challenges that arise when employees suddenly leave work to participate in political protests or rallies for social causes.50 But that concern would be better addressed by an absenteeism policy than a policy focusing only on absences associated with employee activism Aligning with the Hot Stove Rule, the key is consistency.51 You can’t discipline employees for skipping work to attend a climate change rally, while excusing employees who play hooky to march for affordable housing. 5. Read the Room Sometimes, even if an employee has technically violated a company policy, there might be good reasons to stop and think before taking a disciplinary step. Policies are created at a specific time to serve a specific purpose, and sometimes employee violations signal that the policy needs to be reviewed and updated. The Special Case of Downsizing: Companies sometimes experience financial difficulties that result in downsizing and staff reductions. The downsizing trend may be slowing, but there’s still a very good chance that you’ll be involved in a downsizing situation at least once during your managerial career. However, downsizing is a very risky business. Mass exits are incredibly disruptive to an organization and it can be years before an organization sees economic benefit from a downsizing effort. The Better.com story is a classic, because it shows how downsizing actions can snowball to affect downsized employees, their coworkers, and the company’s long-term reputation as an employer. Unlike disciplinary terminations, downsized employees are not being dismissed for just cause. Their companies are ending employment relationships in order to reduce salary costs and restructure. The way managers handle these terminations influences the employees who are asked to leave, but it has an even bigger impact on the employees who stay (the downsizing “survivors”). It’s important that survivors feel that the downsizing was managed fairly, because the company’s future success depends on survivors’ motivation and good will. When the downsizing is handled poorly, the employees that you would like to keep are more likely to exit62 – leaving the company poorly prepared for the future. Terminations made in the context of an organizational downsizing differ from disciplinary terminations in two important ways: the criteria for termination, and the amount of support the organization offers to terminated employees. And both of these have implications for the perceived fairness of your downsizing initiative. Downsizing Criteria: Downsizing organizations usually have considerable flexibility in selecting downsizing criteria, as long as the criteria do not have disparate impact on members of legally protected groups  Downsizing is usually accompanied by a major restructuring of the remaining work, so the critical question is whether employees possess the skills needed to perform the new jobs. Employee Support: In a downsizing initiative, three types of support might be particularly important: advance notice, severance benefits, and outplacement services. An early warning that layoffs are coming may create some short-run anxiety and productivity losses, but it gives employees time to prepare themselves emotionally and financially. Advance notice has an important impact on people’s perceptions of whether a downsizing is conducted fairly. Severance pay is a continuation of the employee’s pay beyond the termination date. Severance packages allow employees to look for employment and perhaps the financial ability to retool and retrain. When severance pay is not legally mandated, companies often revert to a formula that offers nonmanagerial employees 1 week’s salary for every year of service – 2 weeks’ salary per year is typical for managerial employees. Downsizing organizations that voluntarily provide severance pay are perceived to be fairer than organizations that do not,76 and organizations that provide more generous severance pay are perceived to be fairer than organizations that provide less The employees terminated during a downsizing may have worked for their employer for many years. If they haven’t updated their resumes recently, or tested the employment waters, they may need considerable coaching and retooling to be competitive in the current labor market. Outplacement services might include workshops on successful interviewing, resume preparation advice, and job leads. These services remind employees that their employer cares what happens to them, even when the employer can no longer afford to keep them.78 Telling Employees It’s Over: The quality of treatment an employee receives at the very end of the employment relationship is the single most important factor determining whether that employee considers filing a wrongful discharge lawsuit against their employer – nearly twice  as important as any other factor, including the quality of treatment the employee received during their entire organizational tenure It is possible (though never easy) to give employees the bad news in compassionate ways and some basic principles apply equally to just cause and downsizing terminations. You know we are fans of the Q&A format (Chapter 7, Managing Employee Performance), so let’s have a look at the Who, When, Where, and How of terminations. Who Tells Employees? The answer here is (hopefully) obvious. Terminating employees is part of your job as the supervising manager. delegating notice of termination to an external consultant can be interpreted as a lack of respect and evoke strong negative reactions from employees. If the employee is being terminated for just cause, you have the necessary information about previous problems that led to this step. If the employee’s termination is part of a downsize or restructure, you should explain the situation to the employee. You may want to have a third party (e.g., an HR representative) present, but it’s your responsibility to communicate the news.81 When Should Employees Be Told?: Now consider an alternative scenario: You get fired on Monday at 8:30 AM. None of your family and friends are free until the evening. That gives you a few hours to reflect. You’re still angry and upset, but you might also recognize that your former job was never a great fit. You start to develop a plan to look for work in a different industry. You make a list of the online job boards and employment agencies you can investigate the next day. By the time you have to explain the situation to family and friends, you’ve got an action plan ready to go. You may never be happy about being fired, but at least you are better positioned to cope. Where Should Employees Be Told? An alternative solution is to have the discussion in a neutral place – a private conference room, for example, or a vacant office.83 Have a box of tissues available – just in case. After delivering the bad news, you can leave the room – giving the  employee a few precious moments of privacy to get their act together before facing coworkers. How Should Employees Be Told? In general, terminations should be communicated face-to-face, one-onone. Giving it face-to-face and one-on-one demonstrates that you appreciate the gravity of the situation and respect the employee enough to commit your personal time to ensuring that the message is accurately communicated. The group meeting can – and should – be followed by a series of more personalized one-on-ones. o The termination meeting should be quite short – 15 minutes or less.85 There are only three things you need to do in that meeting: (1) present the fact that the employee no longer has a job, (2) explain why (Is it a disciplinary decision? A downsizing situation?), and (3) advise on the next step.86 That sequence sounds straightforward, but it’s harder to deliver than you might expect. ▪ The employee should leave the termination meeting with a “next step” clearly in mind.89 This might be meeting with outplacement to plan a job search or contacting HR to arrange for delivery of a final paycheck. This “next step” provides a clear point of contact with the organization so the employee can ask any questions that haven’t yet been addressed. And unless there is a security or legal issue, give the employee the option of clearing out their desk right after the meeting or coming in at an arranged time during nonbusiness hours.90 Alternative Dispute Resolution Procedures: an employee may believe that the disciplinary action was undeserved Many organizations now offer alternative dispute resolution (ADR) options that give employees the opportunity to contest organizational decisions (including disciplinary actions) that they think are unfair. An ADR option gives employees confidence that management has good intentions and is trying to do the right thing.95 Having an ADR in place helps to develop employee commitment and a sense of trust.  As a general rule, the more voice employees experience in an ADR procedure, the more fairly treated they feel, and the greater the likelihood that the dispute will be resolved successfully.96 ADR Table: Some ADR systems (like mediation) are designed to help the employer and employee resolve the conflict themselves (with the help of the third party). These systems often surface more creative solutions, and they can repair some of the damage done to the employment relationship.98 Other ADR systems (like arbitration) give the third party the responsibility of weighing the employer’s and employee’s arguments and making a formal final ruling.99 As a result, arbitration is less successful than other ADR systems in making people feel fairly treated and retaining employees after the dispute. Employment relationships don’t last forever. In this chapter, we focused on one kind of ending: when the employer decides that the relationship needs to end. In the  next chapter, we’ll focus on the flip side: when it’s the employee’s decision to leave. And we’ll also talk about some strategies for retaining the employees who you’d like to keep. Chapter 10: RETAINING EMPLOYEES: In Chapter 9 (Disciplining Employees and Ending Their Employment), we focused on involuntary turnover. Involuntary turnover is initiated by the organization. In contrast, this chapter focuses on voluntary turnover, in which an employee makes a personal choice to leave the organization. Our main concern in this chapter is on what you can do to retain (the right) employees. But you need some background on voluntary turnover first. Voluntary turnover can be disruptive and expensive. The cost of hiring and training a replacement is generally around 1.5 times the departing employee’s salary.2 But if the departing employee was a star performer, replacement costs shoot up to 2 or 3 times their salary3 – yikes! And that’s just the beginning. There are also intangible costs associated with the company-specific knowledge that the organization loses along with the employee But here’s an important thing to keep in mind: Voluntary turnover isn’t all bad. If you retained all your employees, you’d never have any promotion opportunities for emerging talent. You’d never be able to update your organization with innovative ideas from the outside. Some turnover is a good thing Your managerial goal shouldn’t be to eliminate voluntary turnover entirely, but to manage it effectively. Employee turnover and retention are two sides of the same coin, so it’s useful to reflect on the reasons why employees leave an organization and on the reasons why they stay Why Employees Leave: If you’re thinking that employees leave organizations because they don’t like their jobs, you are partly – but not completely – right. Historically, academic researchers emphasized job dissatisfaction as the primary cause of employee turnover.11 When an employee became sufficiently unhappy, they would search for other alternatives. And if a better alternative was identified, the employee would leave  their current employer to join the new one. Nice and simple! But there are other reasons (besides dissatisfaction) why employees leave their organizations. Researchers have identified five distinct paths to turnover,12 and we’ve summarized those paths in Table 10.1. Paths 4a and 4b describe turnover that results from dissatisfaction, and they are only distinguished by whether the employee has an alternative job waiting in the wings. Paths 1, 2, and 3 are very different. On these paths, the employee experiences a “shock.” A shock is a jarring event that forces the employee to review their current employment situation. On Path 1, the shock is expected and usually non-job-related (the employee anticipates an event – like, meeting a personal savings goal – that would trigger their resignation). On Paths 2 and 3, the shocks are unexpected. Path 2’s shock (e.g., unexpected negative feedback from a manager) “pushes” the employee toward exit. Path 3’s shock (e.g., an unexpected call from a corporate headhunter) “pulls” the employee toward another opportunity. In many organizations, shock-initiated turnover (Paths 1, 2, and 3) is more common than dissatisfaction-motivated turnover (Paths 4a and 4b). Sometimes You Can Avoid Turnover: But when the reasons are directly related to the employee’s life in the organization, you might be able to recognize turnover risks and avoid losing a valued employee. Watch for Warning Signs:  On Paths 4a and 4b, turnover can be a long, slow process. It might take months or years for dissatisfaction to drive an employee to resign, so you have opportunities to short-circuit the process if you are alert to warning signs. Employees on Paths 4a and 4b unknowingly “leak” pre-quitting behaviors (PQBs) that managers can use as early warnings of dissatisfaction-driven turnover. The PQBs that are most predictive of turnover within the next 12 months should surface through your well-designed performance management system (Chapter 7, Managing Employee Performance): decreases in the employee’s work productivity and effort, less willingness from the employee to commit to long-term deadlines, more expressed dissatisfaction with their job or manager and more absences, and less employee enthusiasm for the organization’s mission.16 These behaviors will help you to identify employees who are most likely to be a “flight risk.” Then you can invest your time and resources into the “leaky” employees who create the most value for your organization. Highly valued employees could be targeted for job enrichment (e.g., giving them greater autonomy or flexibility), special projects or advancement opportunities (to make better use of their skills), or retention bonuses.17 Well-timed internal developmental opportunities are very effective in averting dissatisfaction-motivated turnover.18 But think twice before promising that retention bonus – we’ll soon be describing some downsides of using monetary incentives as a retention strategy. Anticipate the Impact of Organizational Shocks: In contrast to dissatisfaction-driven turnover, shock-initiated turnover can literally happen overnight. But you can learn to recognize organizational events that could produce shock-initiated turnover: an unexpected negative performance review, a promotion that fails to materialize, or a restructuring that removes some valued job responsibilities. One study of over 9,000 rejections in a Fortune 100 company found that the 6- month turnover rate among rejected internal applicants was more than triple the company baseline.20 However, internal applicants who were interviewed by the hiring manager were half as likely to exit as internal applicants rejected earlier in the process. Why? A rejection is a clear indication that the internal applicant isn’t ready for the role now (bad news), but a personal interview suggests that they are getting close (good news).  The point is, if you’re aware of internal shocks, you can reach out and reassure valued employees that these are only temporary setbacks. Turnover Should Always Be Met Graciously: these long-term benefits only accrue when the employee leaves their job feeling good about you as an employer. Maintaining that long-term goodwill depends on what you do in the end game. Can you graciously accept the employee’s decision to leave? And what can you learn from their exit? Prepare for Exit Conversations: Exit conversations are employee-initiated communications, during which the employee communicates their decision to move on.23 Employees might spend hours anguishing over how to say goodbye, but managers regularly fumble their side of the conversation because they take resignations too personally. You might feel hurt, betrayed, sad, or angry.24 Keep those emotions in check! Exiting employees often report that the way their manager handled their resignation made them feel unappreciated and undervalued The final exit conversation is a golden opportunity for you to communicate two things. First, express your appreciation for the service your employee has already contributed (Chapter 8, Rewarding Employees). Even if the employee has been a weak performer or difficult to manage, you can still authentically thank them for their past time and effort. Second, indicate the organization’s interest in maintaining a post-exit relationship. That doesn’t mean keeping them on or rehiring them in the future. But you can encourage the exiting employee to remain a customer of your company’s products or subscribe to the company’s newsletter (more on this later).25 Develop Offboarding Rituals: Your company’s relationship with employees doesn’t have to end along with their employment contract. Exiting employees might engage with the organization as customers or clients; they might refer other people to apply for work at the  organization, or return themselves as boomerangs (Chapter 2, Recruiting Employees).26 Recognizing these opportunities, some organizations are investing in “off boarding” strategies that end employment on a positive note and establish long-term connections with former employees Show that it’s natural for people to move on, but always express appreciation for what they’ve contributed.27 Conduct Exit Interviews Earlier in this chapter, we described exit conversations – employee-initiated conversations that precede the actual exit. Exit interviews are the opposite. These are employer-initiated conversations, and they usually follow the exit (sometimes immediately, sometimes 2–3 months after the employee’s departure). Exit interviews are designed to identify the reasons why an employee left, so that the organization can learn how to avoid similar resignations in the future. Therefore, researchers usually recommend that someone other than a line manager conduct exit interviews. It’s better to have the exit interview conducted by a third party (someone in HR) or by a manager further up the reporting line Unfortunately, organizations are better at conducting exit interviews than they are at acting on the information they collect. Around 75% of companies conduct exit interviews but only about one-third of those make changes in response to the data. Exit interviews are an opportunity to learn how employees view the company culture, the workload, and their managers’ leadership styles. Why employees stay Shocks are a major cause of employee turnover, but employees are not equally susceptible to their effects. Develop On-the-Job EmbeddednessOn-the-job embeddedness has three components: fit, links, and sacrifice.39 Fit describes the extent to which a person’s skills, interests, and values align with their work and the organization.  Links are formal and informal connections between people. And sacrifice reflects the cost (real and perceived) associated with leaving the organization. Many of the people management activities we’ve already covered are designed to embed new employees in the organization. Money Isn’t Enough it’s easy for competitors to mimic (and exceed) an organization’s monetary rewards. A better strategy is to focus on helping your employees develop long-term fit and links, so employees will recognize that changing employers means sacrificing a job they love and relationships they care about. Enhance Fit Through Career Management: As a line manager, you’re interacting with employees regularly and you have direct control over their work assignments.43 If you pay close attention, you can present professional development opportunities and/or stretch assignments at the right time, to maintain employee fit over the long run. Sometimes, maintaining long-term fit might involve job changes. As a general rule, companies that encourage promotion from within enjoy lower turnover rates than other companies. Enhance Links Through Relationships As a manager, you can connect people to one another, and that’s especially important when employees work independently or remotely (where spontaneous connections are less likely). One way that organizations create links is through employee resource groups (ERGs). ERGs are voluntary, self-organized employee networking groups. They are employee-led but they are encouraged by employers and often receive company support in the form of meeting space or funding. ERGs are first and foremost about the links component of on-the-job embeddedness, but they also impact the fit component. The relationships that  ERGs establish among like-minded employees continually remind the employee of their good fit with the company and its workforce. Consider Off-the-Job Embeddedness: But employers usually pay less attention to off-the-job embeddedness. The same factors (fit, links, sacrifice) that bind employees to their organizations can also bind employees to their outside-work communities. People consider the extent to which communities fit their lifestyle (e.g., an avid surfer wants to live close to the ocean) and link them to others (e.g., some people want to live near their families). Changing employers could mean relocating, and losing their community is part of the sacrifice they’d have to make. ut employees’ off-the-job embeddedness can be a great source of social support. Employees who are more involved with their lives outside of work, their families, and their local communities are less affected by work-related stress.53 Off-the-job embeddedness has a buffering effect, helping to retain employees when they experience some work-related shocks. So, while you probably wouldn’t want to make off-the-job embeddedness the primary target of your retention strategy, building off-the-job embeddedness alongside on-the-job embeddedness might be a smart move. Conduct Stay Interviews You have lots of ongoing opportunities to gain this information through regular check-ins and performance reviews. But sometimes you might want to have a targeted conversation specifically about retention – and that’s where stay interviews come in. Now, don’t confuse stay interviews with exit interviews. Instead of asking an employee why they are quitting, stay interviews focus on what motivates an employee to stick around, what could be better about their work experience, and how they envision the next stage of their career.59 And unlike exit interviews, where we encouraged you to use a third-party interviewer, stay interviews are best conducted by line managers. In a stay interview, you’d ask questions like: When you start work each day, what do you look forward to? What are you learning?  Specifically: What can I do to make your experience here better for you? Organizations usually conduct stay interviews when they anticipate a turnover surge. That surge might be triggered by a specific event (like an organizational merger or restructure). Stay interviews are particularly valuable when an influential coworker is leaving the organization, because turnover is contagious.61 Losing a work colleague can make coworkers wonder whether they might also find greener grass in some other organization. Stay interviews can target the closest coworkers of the exiting employee, or employees with similar profiles If there is a common cause of turnover that affects a particular group of employees stay interviews will identify those issues and shed light on how to keep others from leaving.63 And don’t miss the opportunity to thank employees – both for their service to the organization and for sharing during the stay interview (Chapter 8, Rewarding Employees). What’s Next? In this chapter, we focused on protecting your investment. After carefully hiring and developing employees, you want to make sure that you are retaining the people who contribute the most. In the final chapter, we’ll take a step back and think about the workplace as a whole. What can you do to ensure that the workplace is inclusive? How can you create a work-place in which every employee can thrive?