No business is immune to the high cost of employee turnover. Even multinationals lose thousands of dollars, as much as one year of an employee’s salary when someone resigns. That doesn’t even include the time spent on finding a replacement.
Sometimes, a resignation affects your production. It could be a major problem, or it could be a blessing. Either way, it’s better if you’re prepared. This means knowing different signs of employee problems so you can detect impending resignations right before it happens.
Tell Tale Signs an Employee is About to Leave
- 360-Degree Attitude Change
Dedicated employees could become passive weeks before they resign. They’ll prefer to sit quietly in meetings instead of contributing and asking questions, like they used to before. It’s normal for people to withdraw when they’re changing jobs because they have other things in their mind. Why would they waste their time thinking about your projects when they’re busy worrying about their next job?
Problem employees, however, might become worse. Since they know that they won’t have to face the consequences of their actions, they might be even more tardy, do shoddy work or talk down to their managers.
- Delegating Tasks to Co-workers
Delegating tasks is not normal for non-managerial employees. It’s a sign that the employee is preparing someone to take over their tasks, so once they hand in their resignation, they wouldn’t have to spend so much time handing off responsibilities.
Employees, especially dedicated and long term employees, will not delegate tasks to their peers for no good reason. This is only done when someone’s going on vacation, and a long vacation at that.
- New Degree, License, Training or Certification
There’s nothing wrong in getting a new certification, but it’s certainly fishy if they don’t tell anyone in the office. It’s something to be proud of, right? So why not show off?
One good reason is if they’re using the newly acquired certification to qualify for a different job. This is common for people transitioning to different careers, and for employees looking for a higher position.
A degree, new license, and even a certification for a new skill is a considerable investment in money and time. It’s reasonable to believe no one would invest in such a thing if they’re just planning to keep their current role.
Employees seeking to improve themselves, even if they’re planning to leave your company, are good finds. It’s possible they don’t really want to leave, and are only doing so due to lack of advancement opportunities—one of the most commonly reported employee problems in any industry. If this is the case, you can minimize the cost of employee turnover by offering them a raise, promotion or different role.
- Requesting a New Schedule, Early Offs, or Going on Leaves
Unusual and last minute requests for schedule changes are a common symptom of someone about to resign. They’re doing this to accommodate interviews, or even go on job fairs.
Requests for vacation time could also mean they’re trying to use leftover credits before resigning. When this happens, you can minimize the cost of employee turnover on your part by updating the person’s job description and alerting your recruiter to start pooling candidates.
What would you do if you notice these signs in one of your employees?
© 2015 Incedo Group, LLC
