"The first net does not catch fish, the second net does not catch fish, the third net catches a main employee." The term "relationship network" may carry a negative connotation in our minds. However, from the perspective of behavioral science, employees can leave a company, but it is difficult for them to sever their social relationship networks. If a company builds an irresistible "relationship network" for these key employees, they must seriously consider this factor when making the decision to resign.
It costs a company a great deal to cultivate and recruit talent, so companies hope that once talent comes in, it will take root and sincerely contribute to the company's growth. The loss of excellent talent would be a significant blow to the company and is the least desired outcome by the leadership team. Therefore, companies go to great lengths to attract and retain talent, and weaving an appealing relationship network is a good method.
Superiors - Learn to be a good boss
Many employees leave a company for just one reason: an annoying boss. A recent survey abroad of 20,000 employees who had just left their bosses revealed that outdated supervision and management methods are the primary reasons for resignation. The length of time an employee stays at a company largely depends on their relationship with their manager. Fair compensation and opportunities for personal growth are very important factors. Many people join a particular organization mainly because of its reputation and dominant position in the industry. Once assigned to a department, their daily work will primarily involve direct interaction with the department manager. As the immediate superior, besides demanding excessive and overtime work, other reasons for dissatisfaction with the manager include arbitrary appointments that hurt employees' feelings; creating internal strife and worsening team dynamics; failing to lead by example and often acting against established rules; favoritism and exclusion of others.
Additionally, if the department manager is not particularly competent or if the department’s work is not crucial to the overall company strategy and shows no significant improvement, then the morale within the department will drop. Over time, talented individuals will inevitably start considering leaving to seek better growth opportunities elsewhere. In many employee turnover or salary surveys, interpersonal relationships rank relatively low as a cause of turnover, leading to insufficient attention from management regarding "managerial issues". Why do departing employees tend to conceal "managerial problems"? First, employees themselves are reluctant to admit or accept that their resignation was due to poor relations with their manager. Second, after submitting a resignation, aspects like departure dates, salary settlements, and future background checks may still be under the control of the manager. Additionally, revealing one’s weak interpersonal skills could affect future job prospects, prompting employees to find other reasons for their resignation. Nowadays, many companies have become aware of this issue and provide more training for managers, teaching them how to be good leaders and use scientific leadership methods to improve "relationships" with employees.
Company - Departed Employees Are Still Valuable Assets
How should companies treat employees who have decided to leave? This is a very practical topic for every enterprise. There is a new position in the human resources department of some foreign companies called "Former Employee Relations Manager". Its theoretical basis is that former employees are also important assets of the company. Many employers hold biases against employees who jump ship, either treating them coldly or avoiding them altogether. Motorola, however, has a different approach. They have a policy: if an employee leaves the company and returns within 90 days, their seniority continues from where it left off. Motorola believes that many people have a desire to explore and try new things, which is characteristic of young people. Exploring and trying new things often leads to learning more knowledge and gaining more experience. If these talents return, they might work even more diligently.
Therefore, after Motorola employees leave, the human resources department still maintains contact with them and expresses that the company welcomes their return. For some Chinese companies, managing departing employees presents a different picture. According to a survey conducted by Peking University纵横Management Consulting Company among its hundreds of clients, about 80% of companies have a relatively stable recruitment and selection system. However, less than 10% have awareness of managing departing employee relationships and establish exit interview record systems. And fewer than 1% of companies process data from exit interviews to establish key factor analyses for employee turnover, conduct detailed analyses of turnover causes, and based on these reports, actively improve internal management and organizational culture. It’s easy to imagine that if a company doesn’t even have an exit interview system, how can it make departing employees part of its human capital?
Employees - Encourage Building Colleague Relationships
The workplace is akin to a small society. For employees, even if they don’t get along or don’t like someone, they must continue working together because it’s a company, not a school, with its own set of rules. If one resigns easily for this reason, one may never find the right fit. Choosing the right work environment is certainly important, but improving one’s emotional intelligence (EQ) is an even sharper tool for career growth. Happy work depends largely on the quality of interpersonal relationships. So don't dismiss building good interpersonal relationships as laughable or manipulative tactics. Adopting an attitude of "if it works, stay; if not, leave" will only let it deteriorate.
Being able to interact with all kinds of people is indeed an interesting aspect of the corporate structure. This is an important added value derived from "work," not only broadening one's life and vision but also being an effective channel and method for personal growth. Growing internal social relationships — while employees’ loyalty to the company may fade, their loyalty to colleagues won’t. By encouraging the development of social relationships between key employees, companies can clearly reduce employee turnover rates. Creating and developing social communities through work, such as joining clubs, can create social bonds that tie employees together.
We can also achieve work tasks in teams. In practice, this is more likely to inspire members' loyalty to the company, making employees love their work and gradually realize how hard it is to leave their team. Internal personnel recommending candidates — generally speaking, companies recruit employees in several ways: advertising to the entire society, referrals from employees or others, recruiting recent graduates, headhunting actions, etc. According to preliminary statistics, the proportion of employees hired through referral methods is the highest.
For example, Cisco currently has 40%-45% of its workforce referred by internal employees, known as "employee referring employee." Doing so has several advantages: the referred person often has a cooperative relationship with the referrer, thus already having a foundation for team collaboration; since they know each other, there is rarely a need for qualification checks; since the company already understands the situation of the incoming person, the new hire can quickly adapt, shortening the time needed to start and produce. The loyalty level of employees recommended internally is very high.
This article comes from www.zp-nmg.com