How to Avoid Losing Your Best Employees During a Recession
As more and more companies announce lay offs, more and more employees are becoming uncertain about their futures. Will their company begin laying off employees? If so, how many? And how long will it be before they get the bad news? As a result, a lot of passive candidates are being lured away from their companies by savvy recruiters. For people in entry level jobs, the decision to leave is easier because not as much is likely to be lost. And this is happening even to companies that aren't struggling.
In his article for ERE, Keeping the Best When Times are Tough, Kevin Weeler uses a personal example about a recruiter whose company was rapidly losing people in "the most critical segment of his company." The company was rapidly losing essential members of its workforce because of lack of communication. The employees feared that they would eventually lose their jobs and decided to get out before that happened. They had no idea that the company was stable and that lay offs would be unnecessary. This is good news for entry level job candidates because this company now has a lot of job openings. But it's bad news for the company; hiring new employees is costly and the expense could have been avoided with a little communication.
"Employment is about relationships, and the strongest reationships are built on trust, respect, and open communication," Wheeler says. "To maintain the employment relationship, employers have a huge responsibility ... they need to clearly know who their best employees are, keep them informed, help them maintain and develop skills, and encourage them to build networks and internal relationships," he adds.
Wheeler goes on to point out that good HR reps and recruiters realize that treating people fairly is not necessarily synonomous with treating them the same.
So to help employers know how to avoid losing their best talent to other companies, Wheeler offers our helpful hints:
- Keep employees informed
- Have a fair and clear performance management system
- Help every employee build a social network
- Educate employees all the time
Wheeler fully elaborates on each point in his article and concludes by saying that not all employees will be lost because they fear being laid off. Some will leave because they don't feel challenged or lack opportunities to utilizes skills they learned in college. Wise employers understand the importance of keeping employees trained and up-to-date with new trends in their industry.
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