When someone underperforms, we can be genuinely interested in why they are underperforming.
Underperformance isn't always an indication of a bad employee. It could be a miscommunication about the role, or poor motivation on the job.
When we provide clear expectations, direct communication, and on-the-job training if it's appropriate, we give the employee a fair opportunity to perform.
The obvious reasons why people leave could be: job satisfaction, better pay elsewhere, no room for growth.
For involuntary offboardings, it could be: poor performance, misconduct, or harassment.
Other reasons that are not so obvious are:
Poor hiring practices - ill-matched candidates, misaligned hires.
Poor onboarding - not setting them up for success.
Poor employee-manager relationship - No psychological safety, distrust, lack of management or leadership support.
Poor people partnership - Misalignment between the People team and other teams across the business will result in unequal or inequitable employee experiences.
Turnover is always a lagging indicator and it's costly to replace and train new hires. It's always worth it to look under the hood to understand what else could be going on.
We're talking a lot about "quiet quitting". We think quiet quitting means employees are doing the bare minimum, they're disengaged, and they might quit soon.
That's not necessarily the case.
A definition of quiet quitting is doing what's within your job description, and dialling back engagement outside of work hours to prioritise other parts of life. It's the view that life does not = work, and it's conscious decision to reject the hustle culture.
This isn't a new concept. And bringing this perspective to the forefront is healthy. In a high-performing culture, companies can take this as an opportunity to review your employee engagement and retention strategy.
For example:
Update job descriptions. Set clear expectations. Job descriptions are also not static, so you should evolve them as the role itself evolves.
Review employee experiences. Based on your organisation's priorities, this could touch on: Reward and recognition, employee performance, learning and development, belonging and purpose, et al.
Connect employees to the company's mission. Everyone should understand how their day-to-day work contributes to the company's mission.
Set an example of healthy work boundaries. Leaders and managers can set powerful examples of healthy boundaries and work-life balance.
When employees feel that their lives matter, and that they can decide how to spend their time as long as the work gets done, they are highly engaged, and they'll deliver what's expected of them. Likewise, going above and beyond should not go unrewarded as this leads to actual disengagement, burnout and resignation.
