In business and, specifically, in HR, specific terms often have very similar meanings in everyday language but very specific, different definitions within the HR sphere. Two such terms are Employee Attrition and Employee Turnover. Both turnover and attrition have to do with employees leaving the organization. However, both metrics have specific definitions that measure different aspects of the overall health of a business. Why the Confusion? The truth is, that turnover and attrition are tricky to define because so many different organizations fail to stick to conventional definitions. LinkedIn has people posting industry standard definitions , but their Insights reports describe attrition using the definition of turnover. Companies like SpriggHR define attrition with a slightly more expansive definition that includes involuntary departures. What’s important is that you know what the metrics mean within your company and what they mean with any company you’re comparing yourself to. Any benchmarking requires you to compare apples to apples, after all. What, then, are the industry standard definitions? What is Employee Turnover? To start, let’s talk about employee turnover. Many people believe that turnover is simply a measurement of the number of employees who leave an organization in a given year. However, this isn’t strictly true. Employee turnover can be defined as “the rate at which employees leave and are replaced.” It’s also defined as a percentage of your total workforce. Turnover can include employees leaving voluntarily or involuntarily. Turnover is a percentage of your company’s average headcount during the time you’re measuring. Turnover isn’t necessarily bad but can be a measure of overall company performance when benchmarked against other industry players. To calculate your turnover rate, you need to know the number of employees who leave whose roles you intend to fill. Whether or not you’ve filled them doesn’t strictly matter, but if you “intend” to fill a role but leave it unfilled for over a year, well, you don’t intend to fill it, do you? The equation for the turnover rate is this: Turnover Rate = (# of Departures / Average Headcount) * 100 Let’s say your company is a mid-sized business with an average of 170 employees over the last year. During that time, 22 employees left. Some were fired, others left of their own accord, but they all filled essential roles that you want to be filled, so they’re all valid for replacement. Turnover Rate = (22 / 170) * 100 Turnover Rate = (0.1294…) * 100 Turnover Rate = 12.9% It’s important to note that turnover rates vary extremely widely. Retail employees have an extremely high turnover rate, at around 60%. Conversely, industries like the Energy or Chemicals sectors have approximately 12%. You can see a comparison and a more detailed breakdown from SHRM here . What is Employee Attrition? Employee attrition is the number of employees who voluntarily leave the organization and who you choose not to replace. For example, say your organization has four middle managers. One of them decides to leave to take an upper management role at a different company. Upon evaluation, you determine that you don’t need that fourth manager role, and a simple restructuring will divide their reports amongst your remaining three managers. This loss of a role is attrition. Attrition requires that the employee leave voluntarily; terminating or otherwise letting an employee go does not constitute attrition. Attrition requires that you do not fill the role. It is, essentially, a shrinkage in your workforce. Attrition brings with it particular challenges, such as declining interest in your products or an impending knowledge-transfer crisis. There’s an interesting line to draw here. Since attrition requires you to have no intention of filling the role, it can be very similar to a case where you’re eliminating a role. However, eliminating a role and terminating the employee in that role wouldn’t fall under attrition because the employee departing is not leaving of their own volition. That quirk catches many people, even HR professionals, off-guard. Is Turnover Good or Bad? Many people have an inherent view that turnover is bad. The truth is, that employee turnover isn’t always bad, and to understand it, you need to understand the context surrounding it. Take, for example, a customer service position. Such a position is likely to have an extremely high turnover rate. Very few people want to work as a cashier for Burger King or as a Walmart greeter for an entire career. These positions are expected to be a) always filled, and b) have strong demand, as entry-level employment (or as employment of last resort for those who need income, no matter how they find it). An industry, or a department within a company, can have very high turnover rates and not be at risk in any way. Consider a company like Trader Joe’s. Trader Joe’s has a company culture of promoting internally, boasting that 78% of their managers started as entry-level workers and 100% of store managers were promoted from department managers. Their entry-level roles may have high turnover, but they aren’t losing institutional knowledge; many of those employees are still employed by the company and are building loyalty through career progression. Turnover can also be planned. Significant seasonal shifts in hiring in retail, for example, are planned turnover. The roles will be filled (even if it takes until the beginning of the next season to fill them), so it’s not a bad thing to have a high level of turnover; it’s expected as a way to handle seasonal shifts in demand. “A host of factors influence turnover. Voluntary turnover happens when employees unexpectedly find a better opportunity elsewhere. That may mean fewer hours, greater pay, better work-life balance, or even closer proximity to their house. It’s up to you to start sorting through the data to see how to reduce it.” – David Cusick, via Lattice . Turnover is only bad if and when it is unplanned and when the job market is poor. If large numbers of employees leave for reasons like unequal industry pay or poor working conditions, that form of turnover is bad. If large numbers of employees leave and you can’t find people willing to work for you despite wanting to fill their roles, that isn’t good either. The key to adequately learning about turnover, and using it to your benefit, is understanding the context. You can ask yourself questions about it, such as: Which departments have high turnover rates? What pressures result in higher turnover, such as compensation? Are there individuals potentially responsible for excessive turnover, like a problematic manager? How does the turnover rate for this department and industry compare to similar rates for other companies? Some amount of turnover is inevitable. After all, no company in the world has a 100% retention rate. The key is to make sure your turnover rate isn’t inordinately high, and if it is, figure out what the problem is and how to solve it. “Turnover metrics are valuable from a legal perspective because they can uncover unconscious bias , discriminatory practices, or reveal a workplace climate that deters women or persons of color from remaining at the company,” said Robert C. Bird, a professor at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business , via Lattice Is Attrition Good or Bad? Attrition is defined as employees who voluntarily leave and whose positions you choose not to fill. It’s already better than other employee churn metrics because it’s voluntary on both sides: the employee isn’t being terminated, and you’re choosing not to fill the role. However, the pressures that inform those choices can determine whether attrition is good or bad. Attrition typically can provide an opportunity. For example, when interest in your product or your company is on the decline, attrition can be an amicable way to reduce overall labor costs and workforce size without resorting to downsizing. You benefit from lower operating costs without making it feel like your business is collapsing under external pressures. The decision of an employee to depart is typically more amicable, though it doesn’t have to be. An employee choosing to quit, because your pay rates are sub-standard, is still, technically, an amicable departure; however, the realization that better things are possible can drive many other employees to leave for similar reasons. Attrition is also a sign that you need to ensure that your company has a central knowledge base and that knowledge and skills can transfer to new employees without losing institutional knowledge. One of the worst risks of attrition is departing employees bringing essential business information or skills with them, leaving the company worse off without them. Attrition isn’t indefinite, either. Understanding when you want to fill a role and when to eliminate it in the future is an important decision to make. Choosing not to fill an open role in the short term can be beneficial, but you may still want to have someone in that role a year or two from now. “The question isn’t whether employee attrition happens when employees leave—it’s really how long the period of attrition should last. An immediate rehiring effort turns a departure into a turnover event, with costs and anticipated benefits of its own. An indefinite period of attrition saves money in the short run but has long-term impacts due to the reduction in staff.” – Bamboo HR . Using Turnover and Attrition to Scale Business Businesses need to be balanced. If you don’t have enough employees to meet demand, your business will suffer. Customers may go unfulfilled, orders can take ages to ship, and customer service falters; critical understaffing can be a death knell for a company with an otherwise significant amount of demand and potential. Conversely, if your business has more employees than are necessary, you run into the opposite problem. Expenses for maintaining your workforce skyrocket compared to income and profits. Employees may find themselves sitting on their hands with nothing to do. You end up with a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation and can even inhibit the productivity of your teams by trying to influence too many voices on too few decisions. Additionally, departments within a business must be in balance. If you have too few customer service employees and too many sales employees, customers may find promises being broken and service sub-par. Too much marketing can build too much demand that the rest of your workforce isn’t prepared to handle. The key is to recognize that turnover and attrition are not inherently bad. Attrition can be a helpful tool to adjust the scope of a business downward without inhibiting business growth. Indeed, limited availability can even increase demand, and a waitlist can be a potent marketing tool. Monitoring these metrics is also crucial for predicting future performance and watching for potential problems. For example, if your business is expecting a 15% or lower turnover rate for Q4, but afterward, you find that your turnover rate hit 22%, you can start to look into what happened and why. You had an expectation, which was off-base. Was it poor predictions, or was there another factor that influenced turnover and increased it? Moreover, is that something you can fix for the benefit of your business? One key is communication. You can’t tell whether turnover or attrition is good or bad without understanding why an employee is leaving. If you’re terminating them, you know the immediate reason why. However, you may want to dig deeper to determine if external or internal pressures led to the problems you terminated them for. Ideally, of course, you will know this before you reach the point of termination, but that isn’t always possible. The crux of the issue is that both turnover and attrition are similar metrics and serve similar purposes but are distinct and valuable in unique ways. Using them appropriately begins with measuring them correctly, and to do that, you need to know precisely what they are. Do you or your business have any questions about the differences between employee turnover and attrition, or about either one separately? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we’ll get a conversation started! As we mentioned earlier, it is pretty easy to mix up the two, so we would be more than happy to clear up any confusion you may be having.

Sooner or later, every manager has to contend with an employee who fails to meet expectations. Perhaps their performance has dropped, they have been assigned new tasks and are unable to handle them, or they handle their tasks, but their behavior is disruptive to others. Many companies turn to a warning system, followed by termination in these cases. However, this response lacks nuance and does little besides imposing the threat of penalty to resolve the situation. Is there another way? Indeed, an alternative exists; the Performance Improvement Plan. What Is a Performance Improvement Plan? A performance improvement plan, or PIP, is a framework and strategy designed to guide an employee with performance or behavioral issues toward resolving those issues. It is: A formal document, not an informal agreement or discussion. A set of goals and deadlines, with specific timelines for improvement. A framework for resolution of the issues, on both success or failure. PIPs are used to help struggling employees realign themselves, learn what skills or techniques they may be missing, and restore their good standing position with the company. Upon the successful resolution of a performance improvement plan, the employee is absolved of risk; conversely, if they fail to produce results, the plan offers a resolution to the problem in other ways. Some may view a performance improvement plan as the first step to firing an employee with cause, by putting them “on notice” such that any failures can then be recorded and used against them. While some companies use them in this manner, a real PIP has significant benefits beyond “an excuse to terminate an employee.” Moreover, since most of the country uses at-will employment, such excuses are not typically necessary. A performance improvement plan should instead be viewed as a good thing . It’s an opportunity for growth, training, and alignment of skills and behavior, not a looming threat of termination. It’s a sign that the company views the employees as valuable enough to invest in and keep them around. An employee who has proven they can handle some tasks, but not others, may be demoted but kept on staff, where they can be effective but not disruptive. Others whose talents push them in one direction may find that they are transferred to a department more in line with their abilities upon resolution of their PIP. The best performance improvement plans, in fact, often have potential outcomes other than “return to the norm” and “termination.” Creating and implementing a good performance improvement plan is a six-step process. Step 1: Determine If a PIP is Warranted As mentioned above, a performance improvement plan is meant to be a tangible framework for improvement and realignment with business objectives. It is not meant to be little more than a paper trail for impending termination. Thus, HR needs to determine whether or not a PIP is warranted. Questions to ask can include: Is the employee’s behavior or productivity in question? Some issues may not have a root cause in behavioral or productivity adjustments and thus cannot be addressed with a PIP. Is the issue new, or has it been mentioned in past performance evaluations? The longer it has been going on, the more likely it is that past attempts have been made and failed. However, it’s also possible that the employee did not know they had a problem until now. Is the employee’s manager dedicated to helping the employee improve and succeed? A manager at the end of their rope, frustrated with an employee who doesn’t listen to feedback, may not be capable of managing a PIP properly. Can a framework with tangible goals help improve the situation? Sometimes a problem is outside the control of the employee, manager, or business. Other times, it relates to behavior that cannot be fixed with a PIP. Has a factor been overlooked that can explain the problem? For example, if an employee took time off for illness and missed critical training, the issue can be solved by recognizing and providing the missing training instead of a PIP or as part of a PIP. Is there a valid and warranted excuse for this behavior? For example, personal, family, or health issues can cause problems in the workplace. Accommodation or understanding may be more valid than a PIP in these cases. This analysis aims to determine whether or not the issue can likely be solved with a performance improvement plan or if it would simply waste time, and termination is a better option. Additionally, a PIP should never be a surprise. It is a formalized “last resort” for the employee. Before reaching this point, their manager should attempt to work with them in varying degrees of formality to identify, address, and solve their problems. Step 2: Decide on Potential PIP Outcomes Typically, the best outcome of a performance improvement plan is a return to form. The employee should, through the framework, be able to adjust their behavior such that they can accomplish tasks, avoid unnecessary conflict or abrasive behavior, or otherwise adapt to the requirements of their job. However, this is not the only possible outcome of a PIP, nor is it the only “good” outcome. The “failure” outcome of a PIP is, obviously, termination. If an employee proves that they are not capable of adjusting their behavior to suit the goals and needs of the business, then terminating their employment is the best option for the business. There is also the option for the employee to dispute or refuse the PIP. In some cases, this can bring to light a failure of management, another team member stealing credit for the employee’s work, or another systemic issue. Otherwise, it can be a sign of refusal to improve or adapt and result in termination. That said, two other potential outcomes can be viable for both the business and the employee. The first option is a demotion. The employee may have been hired for a role they were not genuinely fit to handle, or they were promoted beyond their means. In many cases, such an employee struggles to find their place and may benefit mentally and in career terms by reducing their role and responsibility. This realignment of responsibility with skill level may be disheartening for the employee, but it’s still better than firing them. The second option is a transfer to another department. For example, perhaps an employee is put on a PIP for consistently being unable to meet sales goals in their role as a sales representative. However, throughout their employment, they have discovered a passion for data analysis and the back-end office worker that facilitates the success of the sales staff. The PIP can identify these skills and lead to transferring the employee to a role where they are a better fit for the company. The key is not necessarily to set a goal for the PIP; it’s to provide and watch for the possible outcomes. The employee should also know that the PIP is not a binary “improve or be terminated” program, which gives them more opportunity and flexibility to succeed. Step 3: Build the PIP Framework Next, it is time to draft the PIP agreement. A PIP should: Be SMART: That is, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound . In other words, the goals must be tangible, the deadlines for achievement set down, and everything must be measurable and achievable. Include a space for a specific description of the issue , including documented instances of failure to meet expectations, which expectations need to be met, and how. For now, this can be blank or a template, as we’re only developing the framework for a PIP in general. Include guidance on how to adjust behavior to improve , and offer resources and opportunities for training and other information necessary to make that improvement. Set a schedule for check-ins with the manager overseeing the PIP , to keep on track of progress (or lack thereof). Depending on the situation, this manager may need to be someone outside of the department to avoid conflicts of interest. A listing of the PIP outcomes , including the requirements for achieving them, as necessary. You can see examples of what PIPs look like here. As you can see, a PIP doesn’t need to be an exceptionally long or complex document. In fact, the more complex the scenario, the less likely a PIP is to be applicable to the solution. Step 4: Fill Out and Review the PIP to Remove Bias Armed with a template PIP, you can now fill it out and make it relevant to the individual employee with issues. Fill out the area that needs improvement, the goals for improvement, the timeline, any resources you can provide to assist, and the deadline with possible outcomes. Before approaching the employee about the PIP, the document should be reviewed to remove any potential bias against the employee. This “sanity check” helps avoid problems such as: A manager with a grudge sets unsustainable or unachievable goals. A PIP aims to “solve” issues that cannot be solved through training, like emotional, health, or other problems. A PIP that demands success when no support was given to reach it. A common example is an issue where improper onboarding led to an employee not knowing what they should be doing. A PIP is not the ideal solution to this situation. Additionally, it may be helpful to review the overall workplace and see who has received PIPs in the past, looking for trends that could be construed as discriminatory. While this should not be the case, there’s always the risk of individuals in power with biases causing issues. Step 5: Implement and Monitor the PIP The meeting wherein an employee is presented with a performance improvement plan is never fun, but it’s a necessary first step. It should be stressed that a PIP is positive; it means the company wants to give the employee an avenue to improve and a chance to do so, rather than terminate them. The employee should also be made aware of the tangible goals, desires, and steps included in the PIP and given a copy of the document themselves. This time is also an opportunity to discuss the situation in candid terms. In some cases, this may be where an employee can present their case and the evidence that exonerates them. Depending on further analysis, this may be the opportunity for the PIP to be withdrawn pending further investigation or adjusted to consider new factors. As the PIP is implemented, perform regular check-ins to ensure the employee is progressing and that any questions are answered and any resources are provided. A performance improvement plan is, after all, designed to facilitate success, not enforce consequences for failure. Step 6: Review and Conclude the PIP with Relevant Action As the PIP progresses and nears its conclusion, decisions must be made. If the employee has improved, the PIP can be closed with no further issues on their file. If the employee shows improvement, but not to the point required, some leeway may be granted, alternative avenues for improvement can be offered, or the employee’s position may be adjusted. And, of course, if the employee fails to improve or regresses, proper action can be taken, and termination proceedings can begin. Bear in mind that adjustments to the PIP can be made at any point in the proceedings. You may discover, for example, that the outcomes you’re measuring are not actually within the employee’s control and that punishing them for failing to meet them is unnecessarily harsh. The PIP can be closed as a success even in such instances if the employee demonstrates improvement in other areas or if such improvement is not necessary. Upon closing the PIP, proper action must be taken. If the framework indicates that the only valid response is termination, and the employee has shown no other argument for an alternative, then proceed. After all, a performance improvement plan is predicated on that middle word: Improvement. Do you have any questions about the performance improvement plan or if your company should implement it for an employee? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we’ll get a conversation started. As mentioned, a performance plan may not be helpful in every situation, and it’s important to understand how and when to use it. We would be more than happy to assist you in understanding it better however we possibly can!

For the last several years, the winds of change have been blowing through the job market. Moreover, the pandemic has put significant pressure on the labor market, pushing it away from one dominated by companies.  The balance of power has shifted in favor of the candidates, who are now in comparatively short supply and high demand. They have the luxury to pick and choose between their roles, finding the company that best suits them to work for.  Companies, meanwhile, need to struggle and compete with one another to hook the candidates they need to keep going. This change has led to a rise in one of the most annoying, expensive, and time-consuming situations for a company to be put into. You put out a job ad and start pulling in applications. You filter through the applications and identify your top candidates. You conduct interviews and choose the best candidate from among your pool. You send this candidate a job offer and begin the process of hiring. The candidate accepts the job offer. Then, a few days or a week later – before they onboard – they decide to rescind their acceptance and take a different job with another company. You’re left without your candidate and need to move on. How does this happen? The Candidate’s Perspective   In the current job market , candidates – especially the top ones, who may be passive candidates already comfortably employed, or candidates supported by savings or a spouse who have the luxury to look – often interview with multiple companies at once. They put out numerous applications and do interviews with whoever gives them the time of day. Since candidates are in short supply, this is likely to be most of them. They then have the option to compare the companies they engage with. They can compare compensation offers, benefits packages, workplace culture , how well they got along with the interviewer, and more. They have their pick of job offers. The candidate has no concern for the expense you racked up in the process of reviewing, interviewing, and preparing to hire them. And, honestly, it shouldn’t be their concern. It’s part of the cost of doing business. This difference in perspective is what makes the whole situation such a contentious issue and why the hiring manager and the candidate have such differing opinions. The hiring manager knows that the company has invested significant time and money into this candidate already. So the hiring manager is left in a challenging position and asks the question, “What should I do after a candidate backs out of a job offer”. Especially if the person they wanted to hire backs out when hiring needed to be done by a deadline. The candidate doesn’t know or care about any of that. They want what’s best for themselves, and if another company gives them a bigger, better offer, why would they turn it down? They don’t even have to worry about burning bridges with you because the chances of them having to come back to you are relatively slim. Many hiring managers like to convince themselves that candidates view this situation as unethical and exploitative but do it anyway out of greed. The truth is, candidates only want what’s best for themselves and their families. Companies are machines worth no affection or remorse, and indeed, that’s what companies have built up for themselves over the past decades. We’re reaping what we sow. None of this changes the situation. All you need to do is know how to deal with it. Two Different Situations Generally, there are two different situations where the candidate decides to rescind their acceptance of a job offer. If you’re not looking closely, you might not notice the difference. In one, the candidate tells you that they’ve received a better offer and are choosing it over yours. After that, they ghost you, and that’s that. In the other situation, the candidate tells you they received a better offer and then tells you what it is. This is important because, in this situation, the candidate is interested in working for you but received a more compelling offer from a less compelling company. They’re giving you the opportunity to counter-offer, improve your offer, and rope them in. It’s essential to recognize which situation you’re dealing with and whether or not you want to hire that candidate after they pull such a stunt. These candidates are just as likely to keep their feelers out and be willing to either jump ship later or use the threat of a better offer to fish for a raise. If they’re talented and beneficial to keep on hand, it can still be worth keeping them, but it can be expensive and stressful. If the candidate got a better offer and is informing you they’re not going to work with you after all, there’s not much you can do about it. A counter-offer probably won’t keep them around. Legality, Ethics, and Morals Is it morally correct to take the better offer and leave the company floundering? Is it ethical? Is it even legal? These are questions the candidate might be asking themselves, and they’re questions you need to understand to know what your options may be. First, let’s talk about legality. In purely legal terms, most of us live in “at-will” employment states. “At-will” employment is a form of employment that can favor the company and the labor market at different times. The company can use the threat of termination as leverage in virtually every situation, using that power to keep employees in place despite less favorable conditions. Since jumping ship is difficult in a competitive labor market, the employee has little choice. Unfortunately for companies, since the tides have turned, that same framework is used against you. Just as you could terminate an employee at any time, so too could the employee, and now you have no leverage to keep them around. Legally, nothing is stopping them from rescinding their acceptance of an offer, no matter how far along in the hiring process it is, even into onboarding. In fact, probationary periods often give further leverage to the employee in this situation; they’re always at risk of being let go in the first six months anyway, so choosing to leave during onboarding for a better offer is no skin off their back. There’s one single exception to this: contracts. IF, and only if, you have produced a legally-enforceable contract that says the candidate will not accept a different offer and will work for a specific contract period (usually at least six months, sometimes a year), then there’s more of a leg to stand on. And no, an offer letter is not a legally binding contract. It can accompany a contract, but it is generally just a statement with a signature to acknowledge the terms of employment, with further paperwork to come down the line. IF there was an actual contract, and IF you choose to pursue it, you could sue the candidate for breach of contract. If you do so, there are three possible outcomes. The candidate wins, your contract is labeled void, and you gain nothing while losing the time and money spent on the suit. The candidate loses, but you only gain damages, forcing the candidate to repay some portion of the expense they accrued in the loss of the hire and possibly legal expenses. But, you also take a dramatic hit to your reputation; who wants to apply to a company that sues candidates? The candidate loses and is told they must honor the contract and work for you. And, work for you, they will, with as much resentment, anger, and implicit sabotage as they possibly can. Chances are, they’ll do more harm than good. So, even if the law was on your side – which it isn’t – there are no positive outcomes from pursuing it. The Morals and Ethics of Declining an Accepted Offer Is it moral or ethical for the candidate to rescind their acceptance of a job offer? The truth is, it doesn’t matter. That’s because perspectives differ, and there’s no such thing as an objective morality when it comes to negotiations in a situation like this. If anything, since the candidate is the one who risks their shelter, security, and health, their self-interest is of much greater concern than the interests of a company, which risks none of those things. Regardless, morality and ethics don’t play a serious part in this situation unless you’re planning to try to emotionally blackmail a candidate into dropping a better offer to work for you. And, again, there are no positive outcomes from such a ploy since the employee you’ll end up with will be regretful and resentful at best. What Should You Do Next? With legal action off the table, as the hiring manager responsible for filling an open role , you have to figure out what to do next. The first step is, as mentioned above, to verify whether or not the candidate is trying to push for a counter-offer. If they are, and you can offer it, you can still hook the candidate. This isn’t always going to be the case, but when it is, it can be a favorable outcome for both you and the candidate. However, if the candidate is well and truly gone, you’re left in a lurch. Luckily, you have options available to you. Remember that candidate pool you built up? It’s time to turn to your second choice. Incidentally, this is why it’s a bad idea to send rejections to your other candidates before your role is filled. Even the offer letter being signed isn’t always enough. Wait until the candidate is truly onboarded before informing other candidates that the position has been filled. If the initial candidate doesn’t work out, you can reach out to one you previously rejected and send them an offer. Many candidates who were passed over for a position will still be at least somewhat interested. Some might reject you, either because they found another job in the meantime or because they don’t want to always feel like the “second choice” (even if they are). While you’re at it, you might consider looking over your hiring process and your company to see if there are changes you can make to encourage candidates to not jump ship, despite a signed offer letter. Make your company culture more enticing , as a benefit that can outweigh a slightly higher salary at a worse company. Examine your pay and benefits package and ensure that it’s more competitive, so this kind of poaching is less frequent. Tweak your hiring process to be more emotionally and cognitively engaging, so your candidates have a more personalized experience, building a connection that is harder to drop. You can also talk to the candidate who left and ask what factors played into their decision. Often, they had received a much better offer from another company, and if you can’t increase your offers to be competitive, there’s nothing you can do. In some cases, the candidate ghosts because their circumstances change, such as a health or family situation that gets in the way. You may still be able to “hold” a position for them or keep them on the top of the list if they come knocking again. This outcome is rare, however. In other cases, the candidate might be able to talk about specific issues they had, red flags raised, or problems they encountered. For example, a minority candidate might have been introduced to an interview panel of all white men and gotten a bad impression of your leadership or company diversity . They may have encountered an interviewer or future coworker in a casual setting and had a bad social experience. Or, maybe, your hiring process was uncommunicative or delayed and inconsistent, and they didn’t want to work for a company that disorganized. In these cases, you can often take steps to minimize the issues and remove the barriers for future hires. You’re unlikely to recapture the lost candidate, but you can allow them to pave the way for other candidates after them. Ghosting is an unfortunate fact of doing business; how you handle it helps determine if you’re a great place to work. Conclusion In the rapidly evolving job market where candidates now wield more power, companies must adapt to the reality of candidates rescinding job offers. When faced with such a situation, it’s crucial to act with pragmatism rather than emotion. While the impulse may be to pursue legal action or counter-offers, these are often not viable or constructive paths. Instead, companies should focus on strengthening their hiring processes and company culture to be more enticing and competitive. Turning back to the candidate pool and engaging with your second-choice candidates is a strategic move. This approach, coupled with introspection about the company’s offerings and recruitment tactics, can mitigate the fallout from a candidate’s withdrawal. Learning from instances where offers are declined and taking proactive measures to improve can prevent future occurrences. Don’t let a withdrawn job offer set you back. Take this opportunity to revitalize your hiring strategy and strengthen your team. Reach out to us today and pave the way for a more resilient and attractive workplace.  Act now—because the right candidates won’t wait, and neither should you. Page updated on November 6, 2023.

An employee leaving is rarely a cause for celebration. The days of 50-year careers and retirement celebrations are over, and these events are a rarity. Today, when employees leave, they’re likely doing so because they have another, better job lined up. This kind of turnover can be both annoying and costly. Not only are you losing an employee, but you may also already be short-staffed, you may be in the middle of a high-volume time of year, or you may be a star employee. Their loss will be felt, not just in their team or your overall productivity, but your bottom line as well. When all of this is weighing down on your mind, it can be easy to forget some of the common courtesies necessary to let an employee leave with grace and goodwill. One such courtesy is responding to a letter of resignation. Whether you’ve forgotten to do so or aren’t sure how to respond appropriately, let’s discuss the issue. Determine the Context An employee leaving with a letter of resignation is generally one of the better outcomes, believe it or not. When the alternative is an on-the-spot “I quit!” leaving you in a tight spot, having advance notice of a resignation letter is a great position to be in. However, you still likely want to analyze the situation to determine the next steps. First, look into the reason why the employee is choosing to leave. Generally, these reasons can be divided into two groups: those you can refute and those you can’t. For example, if an employee has a family emergency and will not be able to continue working indefinitely – such as becoming a caregiver for a parent or spouse – there’s not much you can necessarily do to keep them around. On the other hand, situations such as: The employee is pursuing other opportunities to advance their career. The employee is moving across the country for a spouse’s job. The employee is no longer satisfied with your benefits package. These can be refuted. In particular, you can consider offering additional perks and benefits to keep the employee on board. Addressing the three complaints above, you can: Offer a defined track for a promotion, raise, or increase in title and duties. Offer the option to work remotely. Offer an increase in benefits. For an excellent employee, taking action to keep them around may be enough to convince them to change their mind. Often, employees don’t necessarily want to leave; they want stability and a long-term career. Unfortunately, stagnation in the workforce often means career paths don’t exist the way they used to. Sometimes, the only way an individual can advance is to take a new position with a different company. Sometimes, the employee is leaving for a reason that can be addressed, but that is unlikely to be. For example, if they have an ongoing feud with a manager, terminating that manager could keep them around. Similarly, a workplace culture they find toxic can be adjusted. However, these are major shifts, and many employers are unlikely to make those shifts for a single employee. Establish a Timeline The traditional timeline for an employee leaving is a two-week’ notice. This time frame gives the employer some time to begin transitioning duties to other employees, begin seeking a replacement, and take other relevant actions such as handling all of the paperwork, paying out remaining benefits, and handling a transfer of insurance coverage. Sometimes, the employee may give more or less notice. Two weeks is standard, but it is not required in any jurisdiction. “There are no federal or state laws that require an employee to provide two weeks’ notice to his or her employer before quitting. […] all states except Montana have adopted the at-will rule, which is a common-law doctrine that defines most employment relationships. Excluding exceptions, the at-will doctrine gives an employer the right to terminate an employee at any time, without cause or any reason. Likewise, employees are also allowed to leave their employment at any time and without reason. Thus, neither the employer nor the employee is required to give the other any notice that the employment relationship will end.” – Employment Law Handbook . The two weeks’ notice may be written into the employment contract. In this case, if the employee leaves with less notice, you could potentially pursue them for a breach of contract. In practice, this is virtually never worth the effort and expense. In some cases, the employee may give a longer notice, stating their intention to leave at a given date in the future. This additional notice is beneficial to you, as it gives you more time to handle the transfer. It’s not typical, and you should not expect it, however. Your first goal should be establishing a timeline based on how much notice you have. It’s essential to recognize that this is unlikely to be “business as usual” for the employee up until their last day. Instead, this time should be used to transfer institutional knowledge, add to a knowledge base, transfer accounts, and duties, train a replacement, and handle whatever other tasks need handling to ensure a smooth transfer. Ideally, of course, you should have enough employees on hand that you can promote someone else to take the spot, but many companies operate on short staffing these days, so this may not be possible. Do the best you can to distribute duties temporarily and record institutional knowledge while searching for a replacement. Issue a Formal Response A formal letter of resignation usually requires a formal response. This formal response is the first step in the paperwork that must be completed to end the employment contract of the departing employee. A formal response letter should: Be in a formal business letter format . This letter is not a casual agreement, and your response may be considered part of evidence or discussions down the line, particularly if there’s ever a legal disagreement. State acceptance of resignation . Typically, the first paragraph will include an acknowledgment of the employee’s intent to leave, as well as a statement of their intended final day. Show compassion and offer support . This inclusion is the most customized part of the letter. It should express professional sentiments that you are sad to see them go and offer them support in their future endeavors, including being a reference for future job searching. Of course, this should be tailored to the relationship and circumstances you have with the departing employee. Be proofread . Nothing is worse than immortalizing a typo or poor turn of phrase in a formal letter that will be filed away and kept for years to come. Be saved . The employee’s letter of resignation, and your response, should be held in their file with HR for a relevant duration. These records should be kept in case disputes arise later. There are many options for formal letters. Some companies issue them as a matter of course and as part of their procedure. Others consider it more or less a formality, while everything else gets handled in a more casual, verbal, in-person manner. It also depends on the relationship between the company, HR, their manager, and the employee. If there’s antagonism or ill will, the process may be insulated behind formality. If it’s all casual and friendly, the letter may be little more than record-keeping. For examples of letters and templates you can use, check: Linguaholic’s analysis of resignation receipt letters and responses. Indeed’s analysis and template versions of response letters. Sample letters from MyCareersFuture. An example letter from GreatSampleResume. Your letter may or may not contain an attempt to bargain to keep the employee around. Again, this may depend on your relationship with your employee and their reason for leaving. Offering a counter-offer, promotion, or another package to retain the employee may be able to change their mind and keep them around. Be aware that employee retention is a tricky issue. If an employee expresses their intent to leave and you give them a counteroffer to stay that they accept, this sets a precedent. Other employees may use this as leverage to ask for increases of their own, which can trigger either a wave of demands or a wave of resignations. Situations like this are why retention is challenging to navigate . Include and Proceed with the Next Steps Once you have accepted the letter of resignation, you need to begin the transfer of knowledge and duties immediately. Your employees had work to do, but they will no longer necessarily be doing it. Their duties need to get assigned to other employees who can handle them temporarily, or another employee needs to get promoted to assume those duties, and their duties distributed, and so on. Sometimes this is easy with a simple division of labor amongst an existing team. Sometimes it’s a cascade of changing responsibilities that results in restructuring the department. Behind the scenes, as far as the employee is concerned, you need to begin hiring a replacement, either for the employee or for the person promoted to replace the employee. Depending on your hiring process, you may need to start from scratch or have a pool of hot leads ready to be contacted for an interview or offer. Ideally, the timeline provided and the structure you have established within HR will allow you to handle the transition smoothly. What Not to Do Reacting inappropriately to a letter of resignation can have disastrous consequences for your business. Depending on how you react, it might: Spur other employees to demand compensation or leave. Damage your employer's brand and reputation for future employees. Damage your ability to smoothly transition to a new employee. Breach a contract or violate behavioral policies and lead to punishment or legal action. Thus, it’s not enough to know what you should do. You should also know what you should avoid.  Don’t take it personally. In some cases, you are the reason the employee is leaving. Most of the time, even if this is the case, they will act professionally and won’t state that as the reason. Regardless of whether or not it’s true, please don’t assume it is or act like it is. Reacting personally or acting defensively is a natural response to an adverse event, but you have to resist it. Employees come and go; it’s part of doing business. Remind yourself of this fact.  Don’t argue or berate the employee. “You can’t quit; you’re fired!” is not an appropriate response. Reacting with anger, bargaining, or attempting to argue that the reasons they’re leaving are not valid will only create ill will between them and your company. Worse, it can spread to other employees and even to candidates beyond your office walls, and that sort of reaction can have long-reaching repercussions. Don’t express relief or happiness. Even if, realistically, you’re glad to see them leave, don’t let anyone know. “Do not–ever–immediately tell every other employee how relieved you are that the departing employee is departing. Don’t do it in one-on-ones, or even if you have a great relationship outside of work. It makes you look unprofessional and will make the other employees wonder whether you’re harboring similar thoughts about them and their performance. Even if you are positively bursting with glee that the departing employee is leaving, wait until you’re with your partner or a non-work friend to revel in your delight.” – Zippia . If you follow all of these precautions, you’re much more likely to ensure a positive relationship with your former employee, which can lead to referrals for new candidates in the future, as well as a generally more positive employer brand. Sooner or later, it’s a situation you’ll need to deal with. Learning how to handle it well is an essential skill for an employer.

There are many different ways a company can encourage employee retention; one of the most popular is the retention bonus. At first glance, it seems like a good idea. Employees who stick around get a bonus to financially reward their loyalty. What’s wrong with that? The truth is, almost everything. Retention bonuses have tons of issues; foremost among those issues is a simple fact: there’s no evidence that they work . What is a Retention Bonus, Specifically? A retention bonus is a monetary bonus given to employees outside of their usual salary. Most often, they are used when there’s a crisis or shift in the company, such as a PR disaster or a merger, but they can also be used during a crucial business cycle to try to ensure that key employees stay on board. “A retention bonus is a targeted payment or reward outside of an employee’s regular salary that is offered as an incentive to keep a key employee on the job during a particularly crucial business cycle, such as a merger or acquisition, or during a crucial production period. This payment, meant to keep an employee from leaving their position, is typically a one-time payment.” – Investopedia . Bonuses are also frequently used to combat corporate poaching . Since poaching employees is explicitly not illegal, companies need to do something to keep their employees around, and bonuses are a common answer to that problem. The Many Reasons Bonuses Don’t Work for Retention The biggest problem with a retention bonus is that there’s no evidence that they’re effective. Bonuses have a lot of issues, and as it turns out, they are rarely more attractive than whatever outside reason the employee has to leave.  Bonuses are one-time payments and don’t foster long-term loyalty. The biggest issue with a bonus is that it’s just that: a bonus. Bonuses are one-time payments, unlike a raise, which is a long-term benefit to the employee. As such, the employee knows that the money is just a one-time thing. They might recognize how minimal it is, compared to what actual compensation would be worth, especially if they’re already considering outside offers. Consider the plight of nurses right now. Many hospital systems are offering anywhere from $5,000 to $40,000 as a sign-on bonus. Meanwhile, nurses who haven’t jumped ship are getting a pittance in comparison. On top of that, the new starting salary for nurses is increasing such that a fresh-out-of-school nurse can be making more than a ten-year veteran of the hospital. Even a more significant retention bonus won’t solve that problem.  The effect a bonus has on retention “wears off” over time. Another major problem with a bonus is associated with its temporary nature. Many employees look at a bonus and think, “alright, that’s enough to keep me around for a month.” After that month is up, the employee no longer feels guilty about looking for a new job and is still just as willing to jump ship; all the bonus did was keep them around for a few weeks. Now, if the reason you’re offering the bonus is due to crunch time, and in a month, you won’t need their services as crucially, this is fine. However, that’s not the case in most situations. Often, bonuses are used to potentially increase retention through tricky and permanent situations like mergers and acquisitions. Unless you’re willing to pay a retention bonus every few months, you’re not going to get long-term effects from the bonus, and at that point, it’s just a raise by another name and with less consistency.  Money is an ineffective motivator for retention when the reason to leave isn’t monetary. When an employee chooses to leave your company, why did they make that decision? Sometimes, sure, it’s because you’re not paying them enough, or their benefits aren’t good enough, or they’re spending too much money on a commute. In those cases, a bonus might be able to get them to stick around while you work out a better offer, increased benefits, or higher pay. Most of the time, though, the reason an employee leaves has nothing to do with the money. Maybe they don’t like their manager. Maybe the company merging with yours has a bad reputation, and they want nothing to do with it. Maybe they don’t like the direction your company is going. Maybe they don’t feel valued or that their contributions are meaningful. In these cases, a bonus won’t help and can even hurt if it’s insultingly low.  Uneven bonuses can convince others to jump ship. When you give out a retention bonus, who do you pick? Most companies choose their most valuable or crucial employees. It seems fine on paper, but put yourself in the shoes of the employees who don’t get a bonus. They feel less valued or less respected, and they have tangible evidence that you don’t care about them as much as you do about the people who got a bonus. Even if you pay them more, all they see is themselves getting passed over for a bonus. You might keep your bonus employee around, but the others might leave in response. Bonuses can also cause resentment or jealousy in loyal employees who don’t get one. This reason is an extension of the same point we just made but with a different angle. Those employees who don’t get a bonus feel bad about the situation. Many of them, however, may not be in a position to jump ship immediately. So, they’ll foster that resentment. They might work more slowly, put less effort into their job, or not pay as much attention. Some rare cases might even subtly sabotage their job out of spite. All because they didn’t get a bonus when someone else did. A bonus gives an employee a buffer to search for a better job. Another problem with a bonus is that, unless there are specific stipulations on how long the employee needs to stick around to get the money (such as paying it out over the course of three months), it just becomes a financial buffer the employee can use to search out a new job anyway. Absolutely nothing stops them from seeking out new work, and even if you have stipulations on the bonus paid out, they can use that lost bonus to negotiate a higher starting rate from a new company. Savvy employees may seek additional bonuses when they know they’re available. Once you’ve opened the Pandora’s Box of bonuses, you open yourself up to potential exploitation. Many employees will see that someone got a bonus and will start to fish for one for themselves. If they know that they’re a critical employee, even if they’re loyal enough to stick around, they might start a job search, talk about it with their coworkers, “accidentally” browse Indeed on a company machine, or otherwise let slip that they’re thinking about leaving. In the best-case scenario, they essentially hold themselves hostage until you pay them a bonus. At worst, their job search is real enough to find them a better offer, and you lose an employee you weren’t otherwise going to lose. Bonuses can encourage bad behavior because they prove you need the employee. A bonus is a tangible form of proof that you need the employee enough to pay extra to keep them around. Many employees will take that as a sign of job security and may relax their behavior. They may be more free with criticism of the company or their managers, they might slack off or work less, and some may even get full of themselves. Either way, bad behavior can result from a bonus, not because of the money itself, but because of the implication. A bonus only encourages staying around, not working harder. The flip side of a bonus is that a retention bonus is literally “we’re paying you to stay here and keep doing what you’ve been doing.” It confers no additional responsibilities, rights, or value, so the employee has no reason to step up their game. If you give them a retention bonus and then expect them to work harder, take on additional responsibilities, or otherwise do more, you’re going to be out of luck. This is especially true of situations where you give one employee on a team a retention bonus but cut two or three others from the team due to a merger or acquisition cutting budgets. Dividing those responsibilities amongst the remaining team requires more incentive than just a minor one-time bonus. Convinced that bonuses don’t help? Well, good news; there are several things you can do instead of offering a bonus that can boost retention. What to Do Instead of a Bonus to Encourage Retention Since a plain old monetary bonus doesn’t do enough to encourage retention – and can even have the opposite effect – you should look for other alternatives. There are plenty of ways you can boost employee retention in different ways. Give your key employees a raise. One of the biggest problems with a bonus is that it’s a one-time payment with no increased overall value to the employee. That money isn’t treated like an additional perk of the job; it’s just something they can use to pay down debt or buy something nice. It’s a treat, not a diet. One of the best ways to boost retention, particularly for your key employees, is to give them a raise. A raise shows that you value them not just right now, but for the long term. More importantly, it’s more value to them over time. If you think a raise seems expensive, the cost of hiring a new employee to replace the lost critical worker can be even steeper, so it’s worth considering the balance. Conduct exit interviews and look for the reasons people leave, to address them. Inevitably, people will leave your company. Turnover is natural; it can even be encouraged in a good company; once an employee reaches the peak of their growth with you, it’s better to help them move on than to try to keep them around in a job with no future. In cases where turnover is negative, it’s crucial to conduct exit surveys and interviews as part of an offboarding process . These allow you to ask questions about why the employee is leaving, pointing to problems you may or may not know about. Once you’ve identified a problem, you can then work to solve it. Some problems don’t have easy solutions. If all of the turnover traces back to a bad manager, getting rid of that manager is beneficial. If people are leaving because of company culture or an impending merger, there’s not likely much you can do about it without extreme changes to the company. Offer retention tools like stock options that incentivize sticking around. Stock options are often referred to as “golden handcuffs” because of their sheer value coupled with their ability to keep employees around. They can be a significantly valuable addition to a benefits package as part of a retention plan. That said, stock options only work if the employee trusts that your company is growing and going places; if they think you’re on the verge of failing, they won’t find value in your stock. Provide employees with training and growth opportunities. Another way to foster loyalty and keep employees around is to provide them with a route to improve themselves, their skills, and their careers. Training, promotions, and growth opportunities are some of the best things you can provide; when you can offer them. When an employee reaches as high in the organization as it’s possible for them to go, though, you may need to confront the reality that they’ll need to leave sooner or later. Allow for a healthy work-life balance. These days, many employees are more concerned than ever before about their work-life balance. They want free time, time off, flexible hours, and general respect for their time and their lives outside of the company. If you can’t provide that, they’re going to find somewhere that can. Retention doesn’t have to be an unsolvable problem. There are ways to go about it successfully, but bonuses aren’t likely to be your golden ticket.

Any time an employee quits or otherwise leaves your organization , it’s essential to understand why. This holds true whether they’re retiring after a long and happy career, leaving because their temporary contract is up, or moving to greener pastures. Understanding why an employee leaves can show you issues at the ground level that you might not be able to see from above. It can reveal systemic problems, problem managers, and other issues that drive turnover; and that you can fix. “An international financial services company hired a midlevel manager to oversee a department of 17 employees. A year later, only eight remained: Four had resigned, and five had transferred. To understand what led to the exodus, an executive looked at the exit interviews of the four employees who had resigned and discovered that they had all told the same story: The manager lacked critical leadership skills, such as showing appreciation, engendering commitment, and communicating vision and strategy. More important, the interviews suggested a deeper, systemic problem: The organization was promoting managers on the basis of technical rather than managerial skill. The executive committee adjusted the company’s promotion process accordingly.” – Harvard Business Review . A crucial part of understanding why employees leave is the exit interview. The exit interview is your one chance to have a heart-to-heart with an employee about why they’ve decided to leave. Unfortunately, exit interviews are also tricky to conduct appropriately. Many employees still fear repercussions even as they leave; what if what they say hurts their chances of returning if things don’t work out or damage their ability to use you as a professional reference? There’s a push-and-pull between the ex-employee’s motivations and the interview goals from HR’s perspective . Remember that exit interviews can be performed either in person – like a hiring interview – or as a survey the employee can fill out and return to HR later. Typically, you want to do both; provide an exit survey with many questions, read through it, and conduct a more specific and targeted exit interview in person. A large portion of the final two weeks of an individual’s employment should be spent arranging this. What we’ve done here today is put together an extensive list of exit interview questions you can ask. All of them aim to help you get a piece of useful information that may identify problems within your organization, which may be solvable to help boost retention and satisfaction rates with your remaining employees. You don’t need to use all of them, but the ones you do use will be useful, for sure. The Basics This first set of questions are the most basic, common questions every exit interview should ask. They lay the groundwork for gathering relevant information without trying to dig too deep or too specific right off the bat. Why are you leaving the company? What inspired you to look for a different job? When did you decide to seek other employment? Could our company have done anything to keep you around? Would you consider returning to the company in the future? Do you think your pay and benefits were reasonable? What should we look for in a replacement for your role? How much did your job change between being hired and today? Did you find your duties to be reasonable or unreasonable? What were the best and worst parts of your job? Do you feel you were treated well in your team or as part of the company? These questions generally focus on identifying the main reasons why an employee is leaving, the context of them leaving, and the details of the situation. For the most part, these questions are meant to go on a basic exit survey since they’ll be general and asked of everyone who leaves. Some of the information is relevant to an exit interview, so the answers should be read. Others are simple and general enough that it’s easier to ask for them on paper than to spend time in an interview asking about them. In particular, you’ll want to pay attention to the questions about a replacement, how the duties of a job shifted over time, and how well the employee feels they were treated. These questions, and the answers the employee gives, can give you deeper insight than they might think they’re providing. Soliciting Feedback This second set of questions focuses on feedback. This feedback can center around the company as a whole, around the role, team, or department, or about specific business processes, mechanisms, or roadblocks that may have contributed to the employee leaving. One vital part of this set of questions is to customize them for your situation. You can tailor them based on the employee’s role, level, and position within the company. You can also tailor them to what the employee has said about their reasons for leaving. What could we have done better as a company? What feedback do you have about your working conditions? How would you improve your position if you could? What kind of constructive criticism would you give to other employees here? Is there a part of our process that you feel needs to adapt or evolve? How would you characterize collaboration and communication between teams? Did you ever feel that you were not equipped to do the job you were asked to do? Did you ever experience harassment or discrimination? If so, was it reported and handled? If it wasn’t, why not? The questions in this section give you deeper insight into what your existing employee thinks of their team, their management, and the company as a whole. They’re essential for getting an overall picture of the company and identifying any problem areas that may drive an employee to leave. In particular, you want to pay attention to any crossover, in these answers, between multiple exiting employees, as that can signal a specific issue that is causing turnover. The final three questions about harassment and discrimination are exceptionally important and need to be handled with care. Bad experiences of those sorts are not just detrimental to your company; they can be grounds for legal action. This is even worse if the employee reported such events but was ignored. Hopefully, however, #8 is a “no,” and the other two don’t matter. Culture and Image This set of questions focuses on your company culture and your image as an employer, from within and without. It will help you get an idea of how well you’ve managed to make a good impression and whether or not the company culture is sufficient for maintaining or growing a positive image outside of your company. Would you recommend our company to friends or family? What three words would you use to describe our company culture? How did working here compare to what you were told when you were hired? What was your favorite part of working for our company? Did you feel comfortable speaking up with ideas, feedback, or criticism? How would you rate our work environment overall? Your overall company culture, both internal and external, is critical for building and maintaining an employer brand. You want to identify if there are cultural issues that could affect your future hiring, your reputation, or your brand image. These can be very detrimental impressions to let go unchallenged and can lead to a suppression of high-quality candidates in the future. Specifics and Details This section of questions focuses on more specific problems and issues that the employee may have run into. These are difficult; the employee may not want to speak ill of the people they’re leaving, even if those people are directly responsible for their decision. They don’t want to come off as rude or burn bridges, after all. You’ll need to be tactful to pull out relevant information from most employees, especially if the employee is on generally good terms and has answered positively that they would be willing to return if the circumstances allowed for it. Did you get along well with your team members? Did you ever receive constructive feedback from your managers? How would you improve the team you worked with? What could your manager/team leader have done better? Did you feel that you had adequate training or routes to improvement? Did you feel that you had growth and promotion opportunities within the company? Who amongst your peers or leadership stood out as exceptional? If you had parting words of advice to your team, what would they be? This last section of questions is very flexible. Some of them are useful as-is, but many of them are contextual; if an employee wasn’t part of a team, wasn’t a long-term employee, or didn’t receive training, those questions aren’t applicable. These are the questions you’re more likely to want to ask during an interview, tailored to the answers they gave on a survey. The Purpose of the Exit Interview The exit survey and exit interview serve a defined purpose for your organization. When you compile questions like those above into an interview and survey, you do so with three primary goals in mind. To determine why the employee is leaving. At the most basic level, you want a record of why employees are leaving. Some turnover is inevitable, and many reasons an employee might leave are not related to your job in any way. For example, if an employee suffers a family crisis and needs to leave their job to become a caregiver, it doesn’t reflect poorly on your organization. Conversely, if your employees are leaving primarily due to a single bad manager – “ People don’t leave jobs, they leave bosses ” – it’s something you can identify and work to change.  To uncover pain points and roadblocks that drive employees away. You can uncover the reasons employees leave in three ways. The first is when they up and tell you directly. Many employees will not want to do this outright for fear of burning bridges, but some might. The second is when they hint at it in the things they say, but don’t outright state. People often dance around an issue by trying to remain tactful. Unfortunately, there tends to be a level of ill will between HR and an exiting employee, making a frank discussion even more difficult. The third is when multiple employees leaving all have similar things to say. One employee leaving because of a given manager might be a poor cultural fit. Three employees leaving out of the same team, even if they cite cultural differences, might indicate a problem manager. Reasons like this are why it’s essential to perform these surveys for all existing employees and keep records on hand to review. To gain a better understanding of ground-level company operations. Upper management, executives, and C-levels often have a disconnected view of the company they run. It’s inevitable simply because of how they operate at a different level, guiding operations and strategy rather than tactics and actions. Thus, these upper management individuals need to gain a better perspective in any way they can. All the theories and strategies in the world won’t make a business a success if the employees are downtrodden when working on it. Overall, exit surveys and interviews are of critical importance for a wide range of reasons. They give you a ton of excellent information you can use to improve your company, your teams, and your benefits packages. Moreover, they can identify problem people, processes, or holes in coverage that lead to a poor experience for employees. Especially in high turnover cases, this is critical for fixing the problem and righting the ship.

The performance review, performance appraisal, or performance evaluation is a critical part of every company’s process. Every employee, periodically throughout their employment, must have their performance evaluated. This evaluation is an essential tool for various purposes, so you must understand what it involves, what it’s used for, and how to perform one if you’re in any way involved in the process. Today, I hope to demystify this process by defining it, explaining how it’s used, and providing some examples. Let’s get started! The Definition of a Performance Appraisal While there are many different terms for a performance appraisal, they all reference the same event. A performance appraisal is a meeting, typically between an employee and their manager or department head, and potentially involving an HR manager , a C-level executive, or another member of upper management. This meeting is traditionally an evaluation of the employee’s performance since their last review (or their first review since they were hired). These are: Planned meetings. Performance appraisals are planned meetings. Employees need to be aware of them, prepared for them, and aware that they exist. Given their importance in the professional growth opportunities, compensation, and other aspects of the employee’s career, they should not be surprised by a review. Regular meetings. Appraisals need to be held on a regular schedule. Typically, performance appraisals happen once or twice per year, though some organizations may process them quarterly. Formal meetings. A performance appraisal is a precise process as part of the management, organization, and bookkeeping for the company. They are recorded and kept on file, used to chart the overall progression of an employee, and can be used both to guide the employee towards improvement and to diagnose issues with the team, department, or company as a whole. Standardized meetings. Performance appraisals are only as valid as the data they harvest. If they are informal or inconsistent, the information they provide cannot be accurately compared to past evaluations, and thus their value is diminished. Impartial meetings. A core element of an effective performance appraisal is that it is neutral. In particular, if an appraisal is used as grounds for termination, it may become evidence in an accusation of discriminatory termination, as has happened often in the past . A performance appraisal guide gives you the structure to evaluate the job performance of the employee in question. Thus, the related question is, what is job performance? From AIHR Digital : “Job performance is the degree to which an employee fulfills the tasks of their job description. People with good job performance fulfill all the requirements of their job, achieve the objectives of their jobs, and meet the criteria for performance. This is also referred to as in-role job performance.” In addition to in-role job performance, an employee may also be evaluated or commended on their out-of-role performance. Out-of-role performance includes behaviors that benefit the organization as a whole, the employee’s team, or the company brand. Employees are going above and beyond the requirements of their job, stepping out of their way to facilitate onboarding or mentor a new hire, or other “organizational citizenship” behaviors all fall under this heading. It’s essential to maintain the distinction between the two. Once an employee’s extra-role performance becomes commonplace and evaluated as the baseline, it becomes an incentive to either withdraw from that performance or leave the role. Employees who do not feel appreciated for going above and beyond will not go above and beyond, to put it simply. What Are Performance Appraisals Used For? A performance appraisal has many purposes. The appraisal helps the employee maintain awareness of their performance. An employee cannot adjust their behavior if they are not aware that their behavior is incorrect. The performance appraisal is a way for the manager or supervisor to offer feedback to the employee, letting them know if they’re doing well or doing poorly, if they have issues, or if they are right on target. That said, an appraisal should not be a surprise. In a modern organization, one of the core pillars of employee satisfaction and effective management is transparent communication. Employees should be aware of shortcomings long before their review, through more information sit-downs and ad hoc meetings, and given feedback to address issues long before they become problems. The performance appraisal is merely a way to formalize and codify regular employee performance reviews and serve as an impartial guide to measure that performance. The appraisal helps notify an employee of issues they may not recognize as issues and helps guide them towards a resolution. Sometimes, an employee may not know how much of their feedback is personal or straightforward requests from a manager and how much of it is more critical business-related feedback. These mistakes are often a failure of communication, but the performance appraisal can help drive home the importance of appropriate feedback. One single review is rarely grounds for termination but can lead the employee to re-evaluate their behavior and work responsibilities to adjust their course before subsequent reviews. The appraisal praises the employee for their satisfactory and exemplary performance to encourage further performance . However, performance appraisals should never be entirely negative. Every employee has redeeming qualities, or else the organization would not still employ them. Thus, a good performance appraisal balances negative feedback with positive feedback. Specifics of both should be mentioned in their review and used as examples. They need to know what they should be doing more of and what they should avoid. No one is perfect. Performance appraisals should rarely be wholly positive, but neither should they be relentlessly negative. Purely negative performance evaluations can hurt your employee morale, make them less likely to work to improve, and more likely to find alternative employment before they are terminated and have a black mark on their record. The appraisal helps the organization determine its budgetary disbursement for bonuses, raises, and other benefits. A vital element of the performance appraisal process is the ability of the company to use an unbiased and consistent approach to determine the disbursement of financial incentives and other employee compensation. Budgets are limited, and it’s worthwhile to reward exemplary performance as an incentive to encourage further outstanding performance. The appraisal can establish grounds for the termination of a chronically underperforming employee. No manager enjoys terminating an employee. However, if an employee consistently underperforms or makes disastrous mistakes, the evaluation must determine if they are doing more harm than good. Circumstances can lead to a drop in performance. There are often multiple options to assist in an employee’s circumstances before resorting to termination. For example, do they need more medical leave, training, access to therapy, or another system you can provide to address their issues? Is there a disagreement between your team members, or is there an outside factor that is poisoning your work environment? A performance appraisal can be an opportunity to discuss the problems on the record and then turn the discussions towards individual team members. Once you’ve identified the root of the issue, you can work towards resolving the pressures that force job performance into the back seat. How is a Performance Appraisal Performed? There are many different forms of performance appraisal, and none of them are perfect: Self-evaluations are a common way employees can offer their perspective of their position, but they are not suitable for an official performance appraisal. However, they can be an excellent preliminary tool to help management understand what an employee does and doesn’t recognize about their situation. Behavioral checklists are a format wherein a form is created with a list of behaviors, typically specifics about duties and performance. These are often a simple yes/no checklist. This format avoids over-generalizing behaviors and is very quick to fill out. However, the format removes nuance and the ability to discuss goals, and the chance to go into detailed analysis. 360-degree feedback is a form of performance evaluation that delivers feedback to the employee, not just from their supervisor or manager, but from others on their team, in their department, and in upper management who may be involved in the process. As a result, they can provide good, comprehensive evaluations of the bigger picture. However, not everyone is capable of delivering constructive feedback, especially peers. Additionally, people involved in the process but who do not directly interact with the employee may not have much to contribute. Rating scales come in several forms. They may have a +1 – 0 – -1 scale of “exceeds, meets, fails to meet expectations.” They may have a poor-to-excellent, 1 to 10 scale. Regardless of scale, the goal is to set specific behaviors, attributes, and qualities to evaluate. Additionally, each one is weighted as to how important it is in the overall scheme of things within the organization. This way, low ratings on minor behaviors do not counteract high ratings on more essential qualities. The primary drawback of these scales is obfuscation, complexity, and misunderstanding. It can be difficult for an employee and even a manager to grasp, at a glance, what is considered a “good” result and what isn’t. Additionally, these scales – particularly the broader 1-10 scales – are more subjective and can lead to biased results. Management may think that an employee is doing excellent work and award them with a score of 8/10, but that employee may be worried that they are underperforming in some way. You can see the issue here. Additional forms of appraisal may be used in specific circumstances. For example, a critical incident appraisal can be a valuable point of feedback for how an employee acts during an unusual but severe incident. These are not a replacement for regular performance evaluations but can be an accessory to help showcase unusual behavior during a crisis. What Metrics Should a Performance Appraisal Measure? It’s essential to develop a performance appraisal prior to performing the evaluations. Establishing precedent for what is important and worth monitoring is critical. What, then, should your appraisal measure? Core job competencies. These are the skills, abilities, and performance attributes everyone within the department (or the company) needs to succeed — for example, the ability to communicate within and without their department. Role competencies. These are the skills, abilities, and attributes the employee needs to succeed in their specific role. For example, these could include fluency with a ticketing system for a support agent, fluency with a type of software for a developer, or ability with a coding language for a programmer. Role expectations. What is expected of the employee, and how well do they meet or exceed those expectations? How well is the employee collaborating with their team and the rest of the company? How reliable is the employee in terms of their attendance, performance, and other aspects of their role? These are just some of a large number of possible qualities your evaluations can examine. Performance appraisals are, by necessity, customized to the company, the department, and the role of the employee, within a general framework. Not all aspects will apply to all roles; an internal developer does not need to be judged harshly for lack of customer service skills if they are not in a service position, for example. What Do Good and Bad Performance Appraisals Look Like? When developing performance appraisals, it can be helpful to see what good appraisals look like. More importantly, it’s valuable to see what bad appraisals look like, to avoid falling for the same mistakes yourself. This post from Valamis includes four examples, two good and two bad. It showcases common pitfalls, such as over-generalized, under-specific, and overly-personal performance reviews. It also showcases how to do negative performance reviews in a personalized, helpful way, without accusatory phrases, overt negativity, or other common problems. This post from Business News Daily showcases five examples of user-submitted anecdotes, performance reviews that were among the worst submitted. This post from Venngage offers a series of formats and templates for generic (but useful) performance appraisal documents. They have sample text filled in, and the post also includes advice from an HR manager. Overall, it’s a good resource to start building your evaluation process, at which point you can customize it for your company. Overall, it’s difficult to show examples of unequivocally good or bad performance appraisals because, by their very nature, they are customized to the company, department, and role. As long as they can accurately measure an employee according to work-relevant qualities and behaviors, they are often good enough. Just make sure your appraisal process meets the qualities above – regular, planned, formal, impartial, and standardized – so that they can be used to accurately judge your employee performance. Conclusion  How do you feel about performance appraisals? Do you have any questions for me? Are you already implementing these in your organization, or are you planning to?  Performance appraisals are a vital element of employee management, serving to evaluate and guide employee development. These structured, regular, formal, and impartial meetings ensure that both employees and management maintain a clear understanding of job performance and expectations.  They are instrumental in employee growth, addressing issues, recognizing commendable performance, and making strategic decisions regarding compensation and termination. A well-crafted performance appraisal balances objectivity with tailored feedback, fostering an environment of continuous improvement and alignment with organizational goals. As such, they are not just a tool for assessment but a cornerstone of effective management and employee satisfaction. Ready to transform your company into a high-performance team? Contact us today to learn how we can help you build the team you need.

Some view the EEO statement as a checklist item to publish as a line item for doing business in modern society. For others, it’s a statement of purpose and a reflection of intention. It’s no wonder that it’s contentious and often falls short of the mark. How can you write one that reflects sincerity and truly works for your business? What Is an EEO Statement, Anyway? An EEO statement is a statement made by an Equal Opportunity Employer. It’s meant to give a tangible voice and commitment to equality and diversity in the workplace. Usually, it’s a simple paragraph, added to other forms of paperwork such as job applications, and is often published elsewhere. The EEO statement is typically short, but a company may have a more extensive and in-depth EEO policy published elsewhere and available for reading. Here’s a sample of an EEO statement from BetterTeam : “[Company Name] is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws. This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization, including hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, leave of absence, compensation, benefits, training, and apprenticeship. [Company Name] makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications, merit, and business needs at the time. For more information, read through our EEO Policy {Add Link}.” As you can see, the statement doesn’t need to be complex, but it’s an essential part of a company’s commitment to equality and diversity. Is an EEO Statement Required? Why would a company create and publish an EEO statement if they aren’t truly dedicated to equality? The truth is, it’s complicated, as with many governmental regulations. Federal laws regulate company behavior and make discriminating against individuals or groups of people based on particular protected characteristics illegal. Companies can be sued for discrimination, including discrimination in the hiring process. However, there’s one caveat: the laws only apply to companies with 20 or more employees, companies that have federal government contracts, or governmental agencies themselves. “Unless you are a federal contractor, you are not required to have an EEO statement in your job postings. […] Employers with federal contracts of $10,000 or more are, however, required to provide notice in job advertisements that qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and national origin. If the federal contract is $15,000 or more, the notice must also mention disability. If the federal contract is $150,000 or more, the notice must include status as a protected veteran.” – Mineral . You can read more about what companies and entities are covered by equal employment law enforcement here . This means that your company generally does not need an EEO statement unless it is a federal contractor. You are subject to discrimination laws if you’re above a specific size, but you don’t need to have the statement present in every job posting. Of course, even if the EEO statement isn’t required, it’s often a good idea to create and include one to show your company’s dedication to equal treatment of all people. Why Does Sincerity Matter? One of the biggest shortcomings of the EEO statement is how frequently it ends up meaningless. Far too many companies include the EEO statement because they have to by law and don’t use it to reflect actual business practices or decisions. For example, a series of studies into “resume whitening” (the practice of making a resume appear less diverse and more reflective of a white person). They found that, in most cases, the presence of an EEO statement had little or no effect, and company practices were often discriminatory without it. There was no real difference between companies with an EEO statement and companies without one. In other words, it’s performative. It’s the same way that companies can take to Twitter and promote an ad campaign about recognizing women in the workplace while still paying them 20% less than men, or how they can promote LGBT rights while refusing to hire or support their LGBT workers. Because of mandated regulations, companies publish EEO statements as a line item to comply with the law while doing nothing more than the barest minimum to remain compliant. Even then, many companies either knowingly or unknowingly violate discrimination laws and are never called on it because the people subject to discrimination either aren’t in a position to see it (an individual who isn’t hired can’t exactly see how a factor like race plays into it internally) or lack the resources to pursue a lawsuit. The EEO statement is often a token effort with no action behind it. Companies who want to produce a sincere and effective EEO statement need to put their money where their mouth is. How to Write a Sincere EEO Statement The key to writing a sincere EEO statement is proof. As seen in the example above, the EEO statement itself is relatively generic and boilerplate. How do you stand out and show that you’re sincere in your statement when you’re one of a crowd of people making the same statement?  Keep the statement simple. The actual EEO statement is often meant to be little more than 1-2 paragraphs at the bottom of your paperwork or in an online job posting. It’s not there to be a full-page document your candidates will ignore. Instead, keep your EEO simple, include the details mandated by federal labor laws (if you are subject to their inclusion), and save the details for an EEO policy page on your website.  Leave out the legal language. Your EEO statement does not need to be drafted by a lawyer and phrased using absolute terms. In fact, in most cases, a legalese EEO statement is going to feel disingenuous and fake. People will (often correctly) get the impression that you are including it because you have to, not because you’re committed to the values you espouse in the EEO statement itself. Instead, write your EEO statement in plain language, stating that your business is committed to diversity in hiring. Consider all angles, and feel free to go above and beyond the bare minimum list of protected classes and categories.  Highlight specifics of company culture. Sometimes, parts of your company's operations and culture highlight diversity in and of themselves. This highlight can be beneficial to showcase that you’re doing more than just including a statement; you’re putting it into practice. You’ll see that more in some examples further down.  Provide proof. Again, an EEO statement is not meant to be an all-inclusive document proving that you’re committed to diversity. Instead, it’s a simple statement that brings attention to the fact that you’re putting effort into it. A deeper diversity and inclusion report can be made available on your website and linked to your EEO statement. An excellent example of this is HubSpot. HubSpot puts a lot of effort into diversity, inclusiveness, and equal opportunity throughout its global organization. They also do two things to back up their statements. The first is providing a diversity hub on their website, found here . This hub showcases everything from the individual stories of employees to reports about awards they’ve won for their inclusiveness to open letters they’ve published in support of minority movements. The second is their annual diversity report, found here . Every year, HubSpot publishes a detailed report on its workforce, including formal and informal measurements of diversity and links to past reports and analyses of their progress toward greater equality. If anyone is concerned about whether or not HubSpot is invested in diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace, this page does a pretty good job of showcasing that they’re putting real, tangible effort into it.  Take action. Providing proof of the actions you take is crucial, but it can only be done if you’re taking action in the first place. So, what sort of actions can you take? Offer or require inclusivity training . There are often complaints with required training (reverse racism is common, even though it isn’t real ), but typically the complaints relate more to bigots being challenged than to any real problem with training. Be aware of biases . In another post we wrote this week, we discuss the biases that can occur in the hiring process. Being aware of those biases is the first step towards minimizing or eliminating them. Everyone, and every process, has biases built in; no one is free from inherent, unconscious bias. Add structure and remove unnecessary information from the hiring process . For example, using “blind hiring” and anonymizing resumes can help remove some sources of bias that come from information like names and locations. Structure, like the use of interview scorecards, can be another way to add a more objective viewpoint and remove subjective judgment biases from decision-making. Ensure open lines of communication and proper channels to report issues . Equality and inclusivity are critical not just in hiring, but also in the workplace. Make sure there are lines of communication and policies in place to handle issues when they arise. This is just a selection of the actions you can take and report on as part of your overall commitment to equal opportunity. Every company has a different starting point and will need to take different actions to handle specific biases unique to their situation. What Does a Good EEO Statement Look Like? To round out this post, let’s look at a few good examples of EEO statements from actual companies and why they work. “SurveyMonkey is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.” – Survey Monkey. This is an example of a straightforward, plain-language version of an EEO statement. It mentions diversity and inclusion, avoids legalese, and does everything it needs to for a simple EEO statement. It’s light on details, but the company can make up for that elsewhere. “At Google, we don’t just accept difference — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our products, and our community. Google is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.” – Google. Google is in a controversial place. They’ve tried to take action to push for diversity and had significant pushback from white male employees. As a fast-paced tech company, they self-select for certain kinds of people, while others (notably women and minorities) tend to burn out and leave faster. Regardless of their actual performance, their EEO statement is proactive, plain-language, and relatively effective. It will be a perfect statement if they can sort out the more tangible issues and back it up. “Dell is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind: Dell is committed to equal employment opportunity for all employees and providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Dell are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, national, social or ethnic origin, sex (including pregnancy), age, physical, mental or sensory disability, HIV Status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital, civil union or domestic partnership status, past or present military service, family medical history or genetic information, family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Dell will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics.” – Dell. This EEO statement is an example of a less-good one. You can applaud Dell for adding a long list of categories they care about, including several that are not on the typical lists of protected categories. The problem with this statement is that list itself. First of all, the more inclusive the company gets, the more it will need to add to the list. Secondly, if an individual has a specific concern that isn’t on the list, the specificity of the list will make them think they aren’t covered. Dell would do better with pruning the list down and making the language more casual. So, there you have it; several examples of EEO statements and how they work (or don’t). Hopefully, this can help you produce a compelling, effective EEO statement of your own.

Recruiting is a tricky business. There are many different ways it can go wrong, and every person out there has blind spots to some of them. Some might mean not knowing enough about a subject to miss the characteristics indicative of a great candidate. Others are worse, like relying on implicit bias and implementing accidental discrimination in your hiring practices. “I didn’t realize” isn’t a valid defense against unfair recruiting practices or discrimination. Not putting thought into your hiring practices is a great way to ensure that you end up with a sub-par workforce. How can you put oversight into practice and ensure that you’re eliminating as many sources of unfair hiring, discrimination, and adverse impact as possible? Here’s a guide on what to avoid. Understand Protected Classes and Characteristics The first thing to do is recognize that there are laws and regulations about hiring. Many protections are designed to apply fairer treatment across the board, typically protecting specific characteristics. By removing these characteristics from consideration, you remove the option to discriminate because of them. You can’t make a hiring decision influenced by a candidate’s race if you don’t know their race, after all. So, what are the protected classes? Sex and Gender . Some states also add transgender status as a protected class, and all employers should follow suit even if it’s not legally required. Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Related . In practice, this ends up being gender discrimination through another lens. Race . Racism and racial bigotry are some of the most prominent forms of discrimination, and many techniques are available for avoiding it, some of which we’ll discuss later. Nationality or Origin . Discrimination along with nationality is closely linked to racism and thus is also a protected characteristic. Skin Color . Again, a form of racial discrimination, most typically. Religion . Discrimination against religious practices is prohibited. Age . Various laws apply to age in hiring, including child labor laws, but age discrimination is specifically for people over 40 years old. Disability . There are thousands of small ways disabled applicants get discriminated against in hiring, and many of them are easy to avoid if you know what to look for. Veteran Status . A relatively recent addition to anti-discrimination laws; this protects veterans and active service members. Genetic Information . You cannot require or make decisions based on the results of any genetic test, including simple ones like Ancestry.com results. Additionally, many states have more protections than the federal-level protections listed above. These can include creed, code of ethics, political ideology, gender identity, sexual orientation, and more. In a sense, it’s easier to say “make decisions based on education, skills, and experience, and nothing else” than it is to list all of the protected categories. Remember, every category on this list is there because of high-profile discrimination successfully fought in courts. Don’t do something that can make your company the next prominent example. So, what specific practices might sound tempting but should be avoided? Maintain an Accurate Job Description Your job description is the core of your hiring process. It attracts candidates, allows them to self-filter, and gives you a framework to apply further filtering. To that end, your job description must be accurate. Unfair hiring practices include: Writing an overly strict job description . This practice can cause candidates to self-select in a biased way, particularly along gender lines. Writing a job description for a job that does not exist, with the intent of harvesting resumes for other purposes . This practice is disingenuous and unethical, though not overtly discriminatory. Changing the job description in the middle of the hiring process . Many companies get in trouble for picking a candidate that doesn’t meet the job description, then changing the description to fit the new candidate, disregarding more qualified applicants. This often ties into nepotism or other forms of unethical treatment. Altering the job description to be inaccurate . Writing deceptive changes into a job description to attract candidates who otherwise wouldn’t apply is considered unethical. A primary example is a highly inflated salary range (the top end of which would never be signed). In general, the job description should be as accurate as possible and remain unchanged from the start of the hiring process to the end. If you need to make significant changes to the job posting, take it down and create a new one instead. Just make sure not to do this to specifically disregard some applicants and hire someone else. Beware Exploitative Recruiter Tactics Many companies hire recruiters to handle their hiring. These recruiters act as middlemen and service providers, and they can provide a valuable service to their clients. However, they may also use exploitative or underhanded techniques that can, at best, be considered unethical. At worst, they can be labeled discriminatory. Examples of such methods include: Altering a candidate’s resume, either to make them appear better or worse than they are . These alterations are often meant to game the system of an ATS but may result in bias for whoever the recruiter wants to pick. Using “expiring offers.” Job offers typically do not expire unless your job is genuinely on a time limit and needs to get filled ASAP. If a recruiter is setting “take it or leave it” offers to pressure candidates to decide, it can be considered an unfair hiring practice. Soliciting money from candidates . Good recruiters get paid on commission based on the contracts they fill successfully. If they solicit money from their candidates or applicants, they often suppress the best candidates, who know better than to pay. Undermining existing employers . If a recruiter is targeting passive candidates, some might be tempted to spread unfounded rumors (“ I heard they’re looking at bankruptcy proceedings, how do you feel about your job? “) to undermine a sense of confidence and stability in the candidate and encourage them to move. Again, this is considered unfair hiring. Not disclosing themselves as a recruiter . Some recruiters will claim that they’re HR employees, hiring managers, or have a personal and direct connection to the hiring decision-makers for their companies, and on this pretense, try to convince candidates they have a better chance. It’s called “rusing,” and it’s unfair and unethical. Working with a recruiter is not a bad thing, but you need to make sure your recruiters are on the same page and that they have worked to minimize bias and unfair practices in their processes. Seek to Minimize Unconscious Bias Unconscious bias is, in a way, the opposite of overt bigotry. It’s implicit and fundamental, often hard to detect, yet still discriminatory. For example, say you are hiring for an engineer position. You have two candidates who are, on paper, identical. They graduated with the same GPA and degree from the same institution. They have the same amount of experience and have listed the same skills. The only difference between them is that one is male and one is female. Which one do you hire? Implicit bias might make you think the male is the better candidate because there’s a significant gender disparity in engineering, skewing more toward males. You’re more used to seeing male engineers, and so the male candidate “better fits” the role, even if they’re both perfectly qualified on paper. Of course, in reality, this scenario will rarely happen. No two candidates are ever perfectly identical save for one protected characteristic. But, this is how unconscious bias sneaks in; your personal experience indicates a trend that you unconsciously follow. “However, having a panel of interviewers does not always eliminate bias in the hiring process. Sometimes, having a panel of interviewers can still lead to one person influencing the opinion of others, especially if that person has a lot of authority. ‘Groupthink’ is often a result of this occurrence and can be just as ineffective in eliminating hiring bias as having a single interviewer make the decision.” – ThriveMap . How can you minimize unconscious bias? Recognize that you have bias . No human being alive is without bias; this is why many hiring decisions should be made by teams, preferably diverse teams. Use technology where applicable . For example, anonymizing resumes can strip names, which usually bring biased connotations with them. Invest in training . Today, many organizations provide training on recognizing and fighting bias in the workplace; invest in using this training throughout your organization, including management. Unconscious bias can never be entirely removed, but it can be mitigated. Be Cautious with Technology Many modern applicant tracking systems claim to use machine learning, pattern matching, and advanced AI to help filter and pick the best candidates. The trouble is, that technology is itself not unbiased. As a simple example, a neural network will take a data set and look for patterns within it. It might take a look at a group of highly successful people (such as, say, the list of Fortune 500 CEOs) and then look for those characteristics in the candidate pool. It will then select candidates who meet those characteristics. Unfortunately, that sample pool might not be representative in a positive way. For example, in the Fortune 500 list, there is a higher concentration of men named “David” than women . Thus, the AI might choose a man named David over a more qualified woman. To us, this doesn’t sound sensible. To an AI, it’s a pattern, and all patterns are as valid as any pattern without other validation. This is proven time and time again with machine learning and AI technology. They can be helpful, but they reflect the biases inherent in the data fed to them and the people designing them. This is an emerging field of study , and it’s why reliance on machine learning without validation is likely to enable and reinforce bias in your hiring practices. So: you can use modern technology, but be aware that it can be biased, and watch for those biases to appear. Set Diversity Goals Diversity is essential in hiring, not just in minimizing bias but in maximizing productivity and creativity in the workplace. Thus, hiring more diverse candidates will benefit the organization. However, this must be done carefully. “Diversity goals are worthwhile,” says Bohnet. “They make the issue front and center” in organizations. And yet, she says, be careful when you broach the idea with colleagues. These goals “are sometimes controversial for companies because they can undermine the people who are hired in those categories or lead to a backlash from the traditionally advantaged groups.” Data can help you get buy-in. A growing body of research suggests that diversity in the workforce results in “significant business advantages,” says Gino. She recommends that “at the end of every hiring process, leaders track how well they’ve done against the diversity goals they set out to achieve.” This also encourages those involved in the hiring and in other parts of the company “to keep diversity and equality top of mind.” – HBR Remember: employees should not be hired because of their diverse characteristics alone; they must still meet the criteria outlined in the job description. This helps ensure that they’re a productive team member and not a checkbox to avoid discrimination suits down the line. Remain Vigilant Many sources of bias are self-evident, and many unfair hiring practices are clearly unfair. They work simply because the people in charge don’t notice or don’t care to look for them. Thus, the number one thing you can do to minimize unfair hiring practices and discrimination in your hiring is to remain vigilant. With the proper safeguards and reviews in place, you can work to reduce any instances of unfair hiring that may sneak into your process.

Your thoughts are shaped by the pressures that formed you into the person you are today. These pressures can be social, they can be cultural, they can physical; they are the sum total of your experiences, viewpoints, education, and more.  In other words, no two people think in the same way. While it might seem as though one of the best things you can do to build a team is to find like-minded people who “think the same way as you” to avoid conflict and keep everyone focused on the same task with the same perspective, this is, actually, detrimental to a business. The truth is, that diversity – in culture, in religion, in background, and in thought – is a critical component of a great modern business. Thought diversity breeds conflict and disagreement, which are not harmful when approached the right way. Conflict brings ideas, resolutions, and thinking outside the box to find new solutions. Disagreement fosters discussion and new ways to approach a problem. To quote myself from a previous article: “Diversity is critical for a high-performance team. An effective team should consist of people from different backgrounds, demographics, skill sets, and knowledge bases. Drawing from a diverse teams’ thoughts, experiences, and histories leads to more varied discussion, more diversity of ideas, and better end-results.” Diversity in background, diversity in perspective, and diversity in thought are all critical components of a highly effective business. What is Thought Diversity? Thought diversity, also known as cognitive diversity, has been taken up as a buzzword, which is dangerous because it risks the concept becoming just another piece of jargon. When taken seriously, thought diversity is a critical component of business success. There’s just one question: what is it? Thought diversity is diversity in how you think, how you attempt to solve problems, and your experiences that inform your potential solutions. Consider: A graduate of Yale and a graduate of a local community college will have different approaches to solving a problem. A white male and a black female will have different perspectives on issues. An able-bodied individual and a disabled individual will, again, have different views. The Center for Talent Innovation describes two kinds of diversity: inherent and acquired. Inherent diversity is the diversity that stems from “traditional” diversity characteristics. Those characteristics include race, ethnicity, religion, background, etc. Acquired diversity comes from experiences, such as education level, lifestyle, and participation in extracurricular activities of various sorts. Both forms of diversity can be necessary for building a high-performing team and an effective business, and both contribute to thinking in different ways. Thought diversity is, essentially, conflict. However, it is a conflict that is both reasonable and mediated. Reasonable conflict means conflict over, for example, an approach to solving a problem. Irreconcilable differences (such as unquestioned bigotry from one party) are not reasonable conflicts that can lead to productive outcomes. Mediated conflict is a conflict that is channeled in a constructive manner. If a conflict between the hypothetical Yale graduate and community college graduate leads to one party disregarding the other, the conflict does not lead to solving a problem, just to driving away an employee. Thought diversity can be difficult to leverage, and it’s hard for many people to internalize if they’ve never encountered it before. To quote Titus Talent , thought diversity in the workplace means: “Implementing processes that celebrate thought diversity means opening yourself up to the idea that your way is not the best way. Reordering day-to-day operations can improve thought diversity by making the workplace more accessible to a larger group of people. A diverse workplace makes employees feel safe to express their perspectives and their needs.” Confronting diversity in thought without downplaying, minimizing, or disregarding opposing perspectives is difficult but essential. What Thought Diversity is not Thought diversity is distinct from neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is the viewpoint that differences in mental state, cognitive perspective, and brain chemistry/structure are not deficits but rather normal variances.  Neurodiversity includes things like ADHD, autism spectrum, dyslexia, and other former “disorders” that are increasingly being recognized more as differences in natural thinking that deserve accommodation rather than oppression. While neurodiversity is a form of diversity and can lead to thought diversity, the two are not the same. Another thing that thought diversity is not is an enforced change in perspective. All too often, business owners (typically white and male) try to train thought diversity into existing employees rather than bring it in from the outside. This is ineffective primarily because the individuals attempting to think in diverse ways will still default to their natural thought patterns. True thought diversity stems from diversity in natural thought patterns and perspectives rather than some trained, temporary cognitive exercise. Thought diversity cannot be turned on and off and is not an experiment; it is the natural consequence of differing perspectives encountering one another in a tempered, controlled environment. Where Does Thought Diversity Intersect Recruiting? There are three places where thought diversity is important in recruiting. Identifying, monitoring, and paying attention to thought diversity throughout the recruiting and hiring process is extremely important.  What are the three ways to use thought diversity in recruiting? First: Diversity in Candidate Selection As you might expect, the first is in who you choose to hire. When you build your candidate pool, and when you prune it down to the most highly qualified candidates for a given role, one aspect you should make sure to emphasize is diversity. There are many reasons for this. The obvious reasons include: Building a more diverse and inclusive workplace. Encouraging candidates of all demographics to consider your business a good workplace. Meeting industry or legal standards for diversity and inclusiveness (such as EEOC regulations.) Additionally, by building an employee roster of diverse employees , you naturally build up thought diversity. Individuals become coworkers, team members, and even friends, despite widely varying backgrounds and perspectives. Everyone can learn from one another. Second: Diversity in Sourcing The second source of diversity is diversity in sourcing itself. If you always work with a single recruiter or recruiting agency, always post on the same couple of job boards, or continually advertise using the same messaging, the same targeting, and the same channels, you’re going to have a relatively narrow pool of candidates. Conversely, what happens if you implement recruiting from a broader range of channels? You can gain applications from people with more diverse backgrounds. You can gain applications from people with more diverse geographic origins. You can tap sources of candidates from further afield. There is bias everywhere. Job sites have demographics, which are developed through the combination of their messaging, their chosen industries and skill levels, and so on. Some are intentionally narrow, while others are unintentional. The fact is, the more diverse your sources, the more diverse your resulting candidate pool will be. Third: Diversity in Interviewer Selection The third area where thought diversity can benefit you in recruiting is in the choice of individuals you pick to conduct your interviews . Group interviews are becoming more and more common and with good reason. One individual may be swayed by the charisma or connection to a candidate. Our hypothetical Yale graduate might favor another Yale graduate more than a community college applicant, even if no outward evidence indicates that an individual is a better hire. A panel of interviewers made up of individuals with diverse thoughts can be more difficult to sway. Candidates must navigate a more challenging environment, especially if they aren’t used to a diverse workplace or social situation. On top of that, diverse interviewers can see potential problems in behavior, answers, and questions that single interviewers or less diverse panels might miss. A common piece of advice for problem-solving is approaching the problem from different angles to get a more complete picture of a situation and trying out different solutions to see how they affect the issue. This technique for thought diversity becomes much easier when you have a team made up of people who naturally approach problems in different ways. How to Use Thought Diversity in Recruiting Thought diversity is critical for every part of a business, from top to bottom. Whether you’re recruiting your next C-level executive or Director, or you’re hiring a team of entry-level employees for customer service, diversity is crucial. The question is, how can you implement it? Step 1: Analyze Existing Diversity Everyone starts from somewhere, and that holds true for your business as well. Analyze your existing diversity as much as you can. Remember, though, that some forms of diversity aren’t necessarily something your employees want or need to disclose, including medical diagnoses, background, and more. You need to avoid stepping on toes or violating protection laws. Some clear indicators of diversity to look for include information that can easily be observed or identified from a resume. The geographic origin, race and ethnicity, and background of your employees are generally public knowledge. Look for gaps in diversity. Are your demographics heavily skewed to males? Is the majority white? Are they primarily young, single professionals rather than older workers with families? Are they all college-educated when that may not necessarily be required? Step 2: Remove Barriers to Diversity As you analyze your existing diversity, you may find explicit or implicit barriers in your hiring process. Some common barriers include: Requiring a college education for positions that don’t need it. Plenty of people get college-equivalent educations, or are perfectly intelligent and educated without a degree, and can be highly effective employees. Adding physical lifting requirements for jobs that don’t involve physical labor. This requirement tends to be discriminatory to physically disabled individuals, among others. Placing steep requirements in your job postings . It’s well-known that men will typically apply when they meet some of the job requirements, while women will usually only apply if they meet all of them. Thus, steep (unnecessary) requirements tend to suppress female applicants. Remember that thought diversity and demographic diversity are inextricably linked, and one leads to the other. By removing barriers to diverse hiring, you foster higher levels of thought diversity. Step 3: Don’t be Afraid to Make Significant Changes Often, diversity and inclusion require significant adjustments to implement. This adjustment can be anything from firing a toxic and bigoted executive to restructuring your organization to revamping your onboarding process . The onboarding process is a good example. If your onboarding process is slow and your new hires might wait 2-3 weeks before their first paycheck arrives, you end up suppressing certain kinds of candidates.  Those from impoverished backgrounds might not have the savings to wait that long. Thus, implementing a faster onboarding process to reduce time-to-first-paycheck helps. Step 4: Minimize or Punish Damaging Conflict Part of encouraging thought diversity in the workplace is fostering a safe place for individuals to express their views, argue constructively, and come to solutions together. That means you have to be aggressive in stopping the conflict that does not lead to productive outcomes. Managers, leaders, and team members who downplay, ignore, or fail to encourage participation from new hires will find those new hires “fall in line” and never voice their opinions. They may be an excellent resource, but they have been conditioned not to speak out, leaving that value on the cutting room floor. Is Thought Diversity Important? Unquestionably. Study after study has been conducted and shown proof that diversity in hiring, in demographics, and in thought leads to better results for any business at any level. Businesses with greater thought diversity find better, more agile outcomes to problems, implement better solutions, and navigate issues more efficiently. The hardest part is getting the ball rolling. Once you’ve begun implementing measures to encourage greater thought diversity, it becomes easier to keep it going. Have any questions or concerns regarding thought diversity and how you can implement the idea into your recruiting? We are here to help, contact us to learn how we can help ! Getting started with implementing thought diversity into your business isn’t going to be simple for everyone, so we would be more than happy to assist you or your business with any of your concerns.

Adverse impact is a term that comes up in discussions related primarily to recruiting. Still, it can also influence advertising (both commercial and job advertising), business practices, reputation building, and every other department in a business. It’s essential to be aware of adverse impacts, as well as the ways that you can mitigate them. So what, specifically, is it? The Definition of Adverse Impact A good, concise definition of “adverse impact” comes from Mighty Recruiter : “An adverse impact results from employer practices that seem to be neutral, but that disproportionately and negatively affect protected groups such as women and minorities. An adverse impact can occur at any stage of the employment process, including hiring, training, performance reviews, promotions, and layoffs. A practical means of measuring if an adverse impact exists is to evaluate whether a group’s selection rate falls below 80 percent of the group with the highest selection rate. For example, if you give a hiring test for job applicants, and the pass rate of a protected group is 80 percent of the pass rate of the group with the highest selection rate, the hiring test may hurt that protected group.” In other words, adverse impact is closely tied to discrimination . However, unlike intentional discrimination and bigotry, unintentional prejudice, and inherent bias, adverse impact is not outwardly discriminatory. Adverse impact is also known as discriminatory impact or disparate impact. This can crop up in many locations, and it may not be obvious. Some biases may also not be discriminatory, depending on the context. Some examples of discriminatory adverse impact may include: The inclusion of physical lifting requirements on jobs that do not have duties that include physical lifting, such as office jobs, is an example of discriminatory adverse impact. This example is discriminatory to disabled applicants. Machine learning or “AI” systems filter resumes and opaquely filter out applicants with education histories from foreign schools that are not in its database of valid schools. This strategy has an adverse impact on foreign applicants and may not be evident to anyone who isn’t double-checking the results of a software’s filtering. Your company issues a “general intelligence test” for applicants that asks questions unrelated to the job but related to a specific culture or area. This practice is discriminatory to anyone not part of that culture or location. The foundational court case that defines adverse impact is the case of Griggs v Duke Power from 1971. “In the landmark case, Griggs v. Duke Power, Willie Griggs and twelve other African-American employees of Duke Power sued their employer, alleging that the general intelligence test Duke used as a screening tool unfairly impacted African American applicants. These are the passing rates from Duke’s general intelligence test: Whites: 58%, African Americans: 6%. The Supreme Court ruled that if pre-employment tests had a disparate impact on protected groups (such as women and ethnic minorities), the organization requiring the test must prove that the test is “reasonably related” to the duties performed on the job.” Adverse impact is bias and discrimination, whether it’s part of a business process, a software system, or institutional habits. The 80% rule in the definition above, also known as the four-fifths rule, is the general standard by which employment procedures are judged. How to Avoid Adverse Impact Preventing adverse impact means being aware that it’s a thing that exists, understanding how it is measured, analyzing your existing practices looking for it, and implementing new processes to replace those that prove to include adverse impact. Measuring adverse impact means codifying applicants’ acceptance and rejection rates based on their demographics, particularly those related to a protected class. Measure whites versus minorities, locals versus foreign applicants, male versus female applicants , and so on. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) , these are the protected classes that you must be aware of: “Applicants, employees, and former employees are protected from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, and genetic information (including family medical history). Applicants, employees, and former employees are also protected from retaliation (punishment) for filing a charge or complaint of discrimination, participating in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit, or opposing discrimination (for example, threatening to file a charge or complaint of discrimination).” Measure the acceptance rates, success rates, termination rates, and other relevant metrics per group, and compare them using the fourth - fifths rule. Bear in mind that the raw numbers of people hired are not necessarily representative. Here’s an example, again from Hire Vue: “Let’s say an organization is looking to fill 25 open positions in its local call center. Five hundred men and 1000 women apply. Of those applicants, 10 men and 15 women are hired. In this situation, the selection rate for men is 2%, while the selection rate for women is 1.5%. Dividing 1.5 by two, we get 75%: below the cutoff. Even though the organization hired more women overall, the women were still adversely impacted.” It’s also worth mentioning that the fourth-fifth rule is merely a start. Disproportionate measurements in a short time and with small numbers of open roles and applicants are not necessarily a sign of adverse impact. The adverse impact must also be statistically significant. Other tests, such as the Z-Test or the Fisher’s Exact test , can also be used to judge adverse impact. To be able to judge adverse impacts, you need raw data. This raw data needs to accumulate demographic information about protected qualities, so job applications can ask for this information, with the disclaimer that it is not used in the filtering or judgment of candidates. Job Analysis is a Crucial Part of Monitoring for Adverse Impact A job analysis should look at a given role and distill it down to the core components. What does the job require? What specific activities make up the job? What particular qualities does an employee need to perform the job? What is the environment of the job? Codifying this is a vital strategy for many reasons, including creating accurate, effective job postings . We often point out that a job posting should only list requirements necessary to begin the job; you should consider leaving out requirements that are “nice to have” and not necessarily a firm condition. A minimal list of requirements is also helpful in avoiding adverse impacts. Many “requirements” may be discriminatory, even if they aren’t intended to be. Remember, as well, that reasonable accommodation must be made for protected individuals and categories. For example, an office job cannot list physical requirements such as heavy lifting because it’s not a reasonable component of the job. Sure, employees might be occasionally required to move reams of paper or heavy binders, but accommodations may be made. The same requirement can be relevant to a job as a roofer, where the inability to work on a roof physically disqualifies an applicant. Job Posting Analysis is Related To determine whether or not you have an adverse impact in your workplace, you’ll need to gather the necessary data. However, you can also look at your existing job postings to see if there is an adverse impact inherent in them. For example, listing “Requires 4-7 years of experience” can be discriminatory. It prevents applicants with less experience (who are often younger) or those with more than seven years of experience (who are generally older), a veiled form of age discrimination. You should also examine your job postings and your hiring process for consistency and unbiased judgment. A common technique to help remove bias from the interview and hiring process is an objective interview scorecard , which is formulated for specific roles and judges only the qualities and skills necessary to perform those roles and nothing else. Subjective “impressions” and other judgments can be a source of unconscious bias and, thus, adverse impact. Analyzing Algorithms is also an Essential Part of Bias Analysis Algorithms may seem objective – algorithms are code, after all – but all code is as biased as the people writing it. Time and again, examples come up in technology where bias occurs. It can be as blatant as facial recognition software that identifies minorities as more significant security threats, hidden as light-reactive hand dryers not working on individuals with darker skin. The Harvard Business Review has an excellent overview of how algorithms can create or amplify bias in many situations, and it is well worth a read. Recruit from Diverse Sources Even something as simple as choosing which recruiters to work with, which sites to use to promote your job listings, geo-targeting for your job postings, and advertising, can all be sources of bias and adverse impact. Bryq.com says: “If your recruitment team is not diverse, then that makes it far easier for unconscious bias to overtake the process. If you want to minimize adverse impact, your hiring team needs to be as diverse as your applicants. As the hiring manager, you will surely be on the interview panel. You need to select two people quite different from yourself to make up the rest of the panel. This strategy will offer a diverse range of views on the potential job candidates you are interviewing and can help you to hire a more diverse range of people.” Remember, as well, that diversity and inclusion are an ongoing process. Your hiring process may never be perfect. Your goal should be “good enough” with the addition of “continually improving.” Keep an eye on data, keep an eye on changing laws and cultural mores, and make adjustments as necessary. Even something as simple as your word choice in a job posting can have a significant impact. Dealing with Adverse Impact Say, for the sake of argument in a hypothetical, you’ve examined your company policies and have discovered a significant adverse impact. What steps should you take? First, it is good to have discovered it before it becomes a significant legal issue. People will have been tangibly hurt by the adverse impact, and they are within their rights to bring legal action against your company for it. Discovering adverse impacts and taking steps to rectify it prevents this from becoming a problem further down the line. The primary thing you need to do is adjust your practices – be it in job postings, in the hiring and interview process, in onboarding, in metric reviews, in terminations, in performance reviews, or anywhere else within your company where you remove discriminatory practices. This process can include adjusting the wording in a job posting, changing software filters, or revising the entire hiring process from the ground up. If no lawsuits come your way and you have removed your discriminatory processes, you may proceed with caution. Continue ongoing monitoring to watch for your new processes’ impact and continue to adjust them to remove bias. As mentioned above, some forms of “discrimination” are context-sensitive. An individual unable to work on a roof cannot be hired as a roofer; you can create a defense against discrimination for that requirement. Developing a basis of legal defensibility for your hiring practices is essential for preemptively protecting your company from legal challenges. You may also consider talking to lawyers who specialize in discrimination and employment law. They can assist you in protecting yourself, revising your processes, and uncovering more hidden biases that may not be obvious. Conclusion  There will always be an ongoing discussion about the issues of adverse impact, the presumption of equitable application and hiring processes, and how bias impacts company progress. One thing is undeniable, however. A more diverse, inclusive, and robust workforce is universally better for productivity, profitability, effectiveness, and success within a business. Study after study proves this, time and again. If your company is not actively working to remove bias present in hiring, review, termination, and other business policies, you can do better. I hope this guide has been helpful and a step in the right direction! Did this article shed some light on adverse impact, and did it help you rethink some of your company processes? Are you struggling with adverse impact in your industry or hiring practices, or have you been a victim of it yourself? We’d love to help you out through this entire process. Contact us today to learn what we can do to help you .

Diversity is important in any workplace. Diversity also means more than just making sure different genders and races are represented. You can, and should, hire people with disabilities as well. Yes, you will probably have to implement extra accommodations to make sure such employees can thrive in your workplace. Yes, you may have to combat some resentment or ill will from other employees. The rewards, though, are well worth the effort. Today we’re going to discuss deaf or hard-of-hearing hires. These people have to deal with a lot of misconceptions and discrimination in the workplace, but they can be just as valuable as any other employee when they’re allowed to thrive. Disability does not mean a lack of ability to perform in a role. Misconceptions Regarding Deaf Employees One of the first hurdles to leap when considering hiring a deaf or hard-of-hearing individual as an employee is learning, recognizing, and fighting misconceptions that might get in the way of either the hiring process or their role in the workplace. Misconception #1: All deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals know sign language. Sign language isn’t necessary for many hard-of-hearing individuals, and even some deaf individuals don’t know it or don’t like to use it. As with any culture and language, it varies from person to person. Some are fluent in sign language, others only know a bare minimum to communicate, and still, others don’t know any at all, and prefer to communicate in different ways. Misconception #2: All sign language is the same. Sign language is not a universal language. The first thing that most will think of is ASL or American Sign Language . There are other regional sign languages, like British Sign Language, French Sign Language, and others. Attempts have been made to make standardized sign languages, resulting in languages like International Sign, but it’s not widely adopted. Misconception #3: Accommodating deaf employees is expensive. Many accommodations for hard-of-hearing individuals are cheap or free, and the average cost for many one-time accommodations is under $500 . For example, you don’t necessarily need an ASL interpreter on staff when email and a company Slack work just fine. Misconception #4: Deaf employees cannot hear at all. Hearing loss is a wide spectrum of disability. People who are fully deaf aren’t able to hear anything at all, but many hard-of-hearing individuals can hear some of what goes on around them but may have trouble making out words or identifying when someone is trying to get their attention. Additionally, hearing aids and cochlear implants can enable many hard-of-hearing individuals with an improved level of hearing. Misconception #5: Deaf employees cannot drive. Some employers are hesitant to hire deaf employees under the assumption that they cannot drive, making it harder for them to get to work on time and reliably through public transportation or other means. The reality is much more complicated. Deaf people can drive, and varying studies suggest that they’re as safe as any other driver . They often face discrimination in licensing but can drive just as well as anyone else when they’re given the opportunity. Besides, as part of your application process, you likely have a line saying “must have reliable transportation.” If they have reliable transportation, their license, and are insured, then they meet the requirements. Misconception #6: Deaf people can read lips. Lip reading is a skill much like sign language, and it’s not inherent to being hard of hearing. Lip reading is difficult; only 30% of spoken English is even visible on the lips. Facial hair can also make it more difficult to read lips.  It’s not some magic replacement for hearing; it’s a means to help interpret when hearing is muddled and difficult. Misconception #7: Deaf people have “super-senses” in other ways. Much like the stereotype that blind people have enhanced hearing, many people attribute enhanced sight or other characteristics to the deaf. The truth is, while deaf people may need to focus on using other senses to compensate for a lack of hearing – and thus might catch what others miss – it’s more a matter of attention and practice than any inherent advantage. As it turns out, many of the reasons that companies fail to hire deaf employees are more about personal biases, stereotypes, and lack of experience rather than a reason that would disqualify them from being able to carry out the duties of the position. Add to that all of the possible benefits a deaf or hard-of-hearing employee brings to the table, and you’ll wonder why these hard-working individuals have been excluded from many positions. Benefits of Hiring Deaf or Hard of Hearing Employees Why should you go about hiring a deaf or hard-of-hearing individual for your business? Well, first and foremost, they’re human beings with lives, experiences, and skills just like anyone else. Being able to hear doesn’t necessarily make someone more efficient or better at handling certain tasks. There’s also the inherent benefits of a diverse workplace, which shouldn’t need to be explained. But, to put things in more specific terms, here are some tangible benefits to hiring such people. Deaf and HH individuals are generally extremely adaptable. Lydia Callis writes: “People who are deaf spend much of their lives finding ways to adapt within hearing culture. Because of this, deaf employees may exhibit impressive patience and flexibility in the face of a challenge.” We’ve all experienced an employee who, when presented with a problem, simply locks up. They don’t pursue a solution, and they’ll only take action when pushed to do so. More often, they seem to use it as an excuse to do nothing. This is much less common with deaf employees, who are used to solving their own problems as necessary. Deaf and HH individuals bring unique life experiences to the team. This is one of the biggest benefits of workplace diversity of any kind. Everyone has their own unique life experiences, with different pressures and different perspectives developed from their unique situations. Whether it’s the color of their skin, their gender presentation, or their disabilities, diverse employees bring unique thoughts to the table. There’s rarely a time when this isn’t beneficial to a company. With deaf or hard-of-hearing employees, you can expect recommendations or suggestions for enhancing accessibility and accommodations for others with hearing loss, which can make your products, services and marketing more acceptable and applicable to an entire audience you previously missed. Deaf and HH individuals tend to be very loyal to their jobs. In a time when turnover is high and employee loyalty is tied more to a paycheck than a company, employee loyalty is a highly valued trait. Deaf individuals have a hard time finding a job – unemployment amongst the deaf is around 50% , though it depends on the precise definitions of both employment and hearing loss – so they know to value a job when they have it. That’s not just an assumption, either.  A U.S. Department of Education study found that: “Disabled employees, in general, are average or above average in performance, quality and quantity of work, flexibility, and attendance.” Deaf and HH groups have their own job boards you can use to hire them specifically. Given how hard it is for the average hard-of-hearing individual to be given the time of day by a typical hiring manager, it’s no surprise that deaf people have created their own resources. Sites like DeafJobWizard serve as job boards where the hard-of-hearing can browse open positions specifically offered to the deaf. More importantly, you as a business owner can use these sites to post jobs where you’re willing to hire a hard-of-hearing employee. Deaf and HH individuals tend to be very detail-oriented. This can be beneficial in a few different ways. For example, deaf employees often take good notes during meetings with clients or customers, and those notes can be a valuable asset for the team after the meeting is over. These individuals are also frequently good at reading body language and developing an impression of the people around them. This gives them more insight into a variety of different situations. As the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association says: “There can often be a mismatch between what is spoken and their body language, which may very well be overlooked by our hearing peers if they are just focusing on what they hear.” Businesses can qualify for tax credits for hiring hard-of-hearing individuals. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit, or WOTC , is a federal tax credit offered to businesses for hiring individuals from certain groups who typically face discrimination in hiring or in the workplace. Accommodations You Should Make If you’ve decided that it could be a good idea to hire a hard-of-hearing person to work for your company, you’ll want to make sure you can properly accommodate their disability. A lot goes into this, but thankfully, most of it isn’t very difficult or expensive. You also have a lot of options. For the application process , you hardly need accommodations at all. Make sure that any mandatory media is accessible, such as making accurate closed captions available for videos. Most applications are either paper documents or online forms, neither of which is impacted by hearing loss. For the interview process , you should start by asking the interviewee how they prefer to communicate. The ADA requires that your company cover the cost of an ASL interpreter if one is needed, but some hard-of-hearing candidates won’t want or need an interpreter. If an interpreter is present, make sure to focus on the candidate. A common etiquette mistake is addressing questions and making eye contact with the interpreter when it is the candidate you’re interviewing. Talk to and address the candidates, make eye contact with them, and – as hard as it may be – treat the interpreter as a tool or accessory, at least for the duration of the interview. Additionally, make sure to provide paper copies of any documents, itineraries, questions, and media you need to give the candidate. For an inclusive workplace , you’ll typically want to focus on a few different categories of accommodations. Emergency coverage, workplace training, and business process accommodations are the name of the game. First, you’ll want to provide training for existing employees on how to integrate a hard-of-hearing coworker. You want your employees to feel supported and at home, and a hostile work environment is not conducive to a positive workplace experience. Training should involve debunking myths, providing a venue for employees to ask questions, and providing training on the etiquette on dealing with hearing loss. Primarily, you’ll want to focus on making sure your other employees don’t discriminate against your new employee or make their environment hostile or toxic to work in. Next, you’ll want to make sure you have accommodations in place for communication. Phone calls may or may not be viable depending on the level of hearing loss the employee has, but there’s nothing wrong with using email, Slack, or another text-based communication channel. There are also technological options for phones , such as captions phones or video relay services that route a call through an interpreter via a video phone. Don’t forget to ensure that any disaster warning systems, such as fire alarms, are accommodating as well; flashing lights and visual markers for exits and directions are crucial. Another area where you can be accommodating is at workplace meetings. Meetings should be held in areas with good lighting, where your hard-of-hearing employees can always see who is speaking. You may also want to implement practices that better indicate who “has the floor” and is speaking at any given time. Visual aids, notes, and meeting minutes are all good as well. You may note that many of the accommodations for a hard-of-hearing or deaf employee are behavioral more than technological; this is why they’re as cheap as they are. It doesn’t take much to be accommodating . Bringing a deaf or hard-of-hearing employee on board can be a great boon to any company, with their unique perspective, their loyalty, and their skills. It might take a little adjustment, and you may have to smooth over some wrinkles in the general workforce, but the benefits are well worth the effort. Are you considering hiring somebody who is Deaf or Hard of Hearing, or have you already? What have your experiences been? Let us know in the comments below!