Retain More Employees by Listening Better

The Great Attrition (or Great Resignation) has led many employers to reconsider how they can attract and retain employees. However, a recent McKinsey study shows that employers don’t always understand exactly why workers are leaving. While they may assume compensation, work-life balance, and poor emotional health are the main reasons (and they are important!), these don’t cover everything that exiting employees are citing. In fact, many workers referenced feeling undervalued by their organizations and managers, as well as not feeling a sense of belonging at work as their top three factors. In other words, there is still significant gap between why employees are leaving and why employers think they are leaving. The first step in solving that perception gap? Listening.

This may seem like an obvious, and therefore ineffective, skill to suggest, but good listening can do a lot of important work. First, it helps leaders come to successful solutions by understanding the full problem itself; but second, it’s an important aspect of relationship-building, which is crucial when trying to provide employees with that sense of belonging so many say are lacking from their organizations.

Some may think of listening as simply sitting in silence while someone else speaks, but there are tested and proven listening techniques that help people feel valued and even willing to accept negotiations they wouldn’t have originally. Chris Voss, an experienced hostage negotiator, writes in his book Never Split the Difference about purposeful active listening techniques he used to persuade captors to relinquish their demands. Though an extreme situation, he explains that all humans have something to learn from the techniques. See where you can use any of these in your own efforts to both attract and retain talent:

(For more techniques, check out this Harvard Business Review article.)

When leaders understand their employees’ concerns, they are both able to address those needs and give them the sense that they are on their side, helping to make the working arrangement between the two stick. In a shifting, still-dealing-with-the-pandemic market, leaders may feel at a loss about how to keep employees, but actively listening to them can prove to be a big advantage in not only attracting top talent but continuing to develop the talent that’s already there.