So you're thinking of leaving...?

In 2009 a Right Management survey of over 900 north american empoyees found that over 60% were planning to leave their current role.

More recent surveys have indicated that with the continuation of the recession and uncertain economic outlook that this figure is now much higher with employees just waiting for an up turn before they depart.

This is an alarming stat if true and the impact on businesses through this potential talent drain is enough to make the most hard nosed CEO sit up and pay attention.

So what's the solution? and....more importantly who's job is it to stop this loss of employees!

Employee engagement is the key. 

There are numerous postings and articles for EE on the web and the practice is well populated with suggestions for strategic plans and cultural changes to address the problem.

With most of these though the suggestion is that the initiatives and policies should come from HR, Personnel or the Executive Board.

But look at the root causes of why people leave their role and most exit interview data would  suggest it stems from the lack of psychological contract or engagement with their line manager.

Why not then make the line manager accountable?

That's right...set an objective a KPI for the line manager that relates to staff retention rates.

Following the adict that "What get's measured...gets done" - why not ensure that staff retention is focused upon and reduced? 

If the line manager knows their own performance and possibly their performance related bonus will be impacted upon by how engaged they are with their staff then it becomes a higher priority for them.

Metrics can varied but numbers of or percentage of days training given, absenteesism, promotions as well as leavers within a team could monitored as suitable gauges.

Engaging and empowering Line Managers to increase retention and reduce talent loss has to be addressing the issue at the front line.

Time to revisit the objectives you've set??