Quitting a job is hard. But when you’re a boss or manager and one of your best employees leaves, it can be even harder. If you’ve been in a leadership role for awhile, you’ve likely had a valued employee leave, and wished you could have had a little more warning than when he or she handed you their two week notice. There’s no crystal ball you can look into to predict if or when an employee is going to leave, but here are five things you can look for to help you identify when an employee might be on their way out.
Your Employee Used to Refer Multiple Candidates for Open Jobs
If an employee is usually the first one sending you a resume for a potential candidate for an open position, or makes a point of telling you how many different ways he or she has reached out to their network to recruit people, but suddenly seems uninterested, it should be a red flag for you that they’ve gone radio silent. You might want to reach out to this employee and say that you’re hoping that you can review resumes of people from his or her network as you’ve had so many good referrals from this employee in the past. Upon confrontation, if the employee seems sheepish or not ready with an explanation, you may want to have a more direct follow up conversation or conduct a “stay interview” with this employee. -Want best practices for understanding what questions you should be asking your employees about their jobs? Start here.
No Longer Participates in Meetings
You know the employee who loves to give feedback and always participates in meetings? If one of your most vocal employees all of a sudden doesn’t seem keen on attending or participating in meetings, it’s likely that he or she is not fully engaged in their role. It doesn’t always mean that he or she is no longer interested in being there. Their shift in attitude could be due to the stress and anxiety caused by a life event, or what’s happening in the world. However, a decrease in meeting attendance or a noticeable lack of participation in meetings should inspire you to check in with this employee on a meaningful level.
Work Friends have Recently Left
When you have an employee who has a best friend at work, and that best friend leaves, that’s the time to make sure that you’re staying close to the friend “left behind.” Paychex completed a study in 2019 of over 1,000 full time employees and found, on average, that the more friends people had at work, the more satisfied they were with their jobs. When an employee feels like they no longer have someone to talk with, complain with, or eat lunch with, it can feel like they’re starting over with their colleagues, even though they’ve worked together for years. If you’re managing this person, you may want to encourage more team interaction to increase communication and foster new connections.
Won’t Commit to Long Term Projects
If you have a longtime employee that is the perfect person to implement new software or another lengthy, large project, and the employee doesn’t seem excited about leading the charge, it could be a sign that they’re looking at greener pastures. Of course, it could also reflect their tenure on the team and a feeling of “been there, done that,” and wanting to hand the baton to a younger colleague to give someone new experience. If you offer to have them on the project as an advisor or just there for project oversight, and they’re still not willing to pitch in, it’s time to check in with where they’re at in terms of job satisfaction.
Has Started Complaining
Every employee has something they likely wish he or she could change about their role. However, if you have an employee who previously seemed irritated with some aspect of their job from time to time, but now doesn’t seem to have anything positive to say, he or she might be looking for a way out. Sometimes this attitude change can happen when an employee’s best friend gets their dream job, and they feel like their role doesn’t measure up. As a manager, you can wait this out, they will likely snap back to their former selves. However, if a couple of weeks or a month go by with an increase of complaints, you might want to prepare yourself to fill their role.
No manager, boss or owner is ever going to be able to predict when every employee is going to leave. However, if you’re seeing one of these five scenarios, you might be able to influence an employee’s decision to leave. Sometimes just showing that you value their contributions and want to help with their career trajectory or expand their skillset can reassure an employee that you want what’s best for them, want to invest in them, and are open to helping them achieve their idea of success. After all, it’s really difficult to change anyone’s mind after he or she has made a decision, especially if it’s a decision that’s as complicated as leaving a job/career. If you’re willing to address what you’re seeing and ask focused questions about what’s going on, you might have a chance to stop the possibility that he or she is looking to leave.