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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.

We’ve written before about the importance of a thorough onboarding process for new employees. A good onboarding process increases integration with your workforce and encourages a longer more loyal career. Since turnover is so expensive, it’s vital to reduce it however you can. What about the other side of the coin? Offboarding is, in many cases, just as important as onboarding. Yet, all too often, it’s treated as an afterthought. A good offboarding experience will: Help keep morale high as a demonstration of how much the company values its employees. Help reduce turnover, since making a big deal of an employee leaving makes it feel like a rare and special event. Help ensure a smooth transition to whoever is replacing the outgoing employee, as well as to that outgoing employee’s next position or retirement. Create stories about how good a workplace your company is, which can benefit employee referrals. Unfortunately, there’s a pervasive attitude in business that an employee leaving is not an employee worth considering, and nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is, in addition to the benefits offboarding has for your existing employees, it can also work to improve your overall reputation, prevent burning bridges, and even potentially bring the lost employee back if situations change. So, how can you implement a beneficial employee offboarding process? Here are our best practices. Understand the Process The first and most important tip we can give is to establish and understand an offboarding process. You want the process to be the same, more or less, for every employee. Whether that employee has worked for you for one year or thirty doesn’t matter. You will still need to go about offboarding with the same care and attention. It’s also essential to start the process of offboarding an employee as early as possible. If at all possible, you want to be able to spend weeks or months with the development of internal knowledge bases and documentation, training materials for a replacement hire , and the slow reduction of the employee’s duties. Ideally, the departing employee’s replacement will be hired and onboarded in advance of their departure, as this helps ensure a smooth transition. “Knowledge transfer is another task to check off your employee offboarding checklist. Finding a replacement for a departing team member can take a while. In the meantime, employee productivity takes a serious hit. That’s why it’s good practice to be proactive. Don’t wait until team members depart to start the knowledge transfer process. Instead, make it part of their ongoing work responsibilities.” – eLearning Industry . This part isn’t always possible, of course. Many reasons can lead to a sudden departure. Perhaps the employee violated policies, and you need to fire them. Perhaps they passed away suddenly. Perhaps there’s not enough respect between them and the company to warrant more than a two-week notice. However, whenever possible, the offboarding process should begin early to avoid disruption of the company’s workflow. Ensure Everyone Relevant Knows A crucial part of offboarding is ensuring that the employee’s part in your systems gets appropriately handled. Different departments need to know about the end of the employee’s career, whether it’s through retirement, voluntary departure, or termination. They also need to know whether the termination is temporary (as in a furlough, as we’ve seen so much during the pandemic) or permanent. Different teams that need notice might include: HR, in general, manages the overall workflow and process different aspects of termination and offboarding. IT, to identify and recover any company assets, ranging from employee key badges to laptops and phones or company credit cards. Additionally, IT will need to lock the employee accounts properly to avoid cybersecurity issues or post-termination unauthorized access. Finance, to manage final paychecks, cashing out paid time off, rolling over 401(k)s and other investments, and processing the closure of the employee’s accounts. Hiring, to line up a replacement for the lost employee , assuming such has not already been arranged. Security, in the case of a terminated employee, locks them out and escorts them, so they don’t do damage on their way out. Additionally, any team the employee was part of will need to be informed to help them manage tasks and division of labor until a replacement gets onboarded and integrated with the team. Give the Departing Employee Everything They Need When an employee leaves, there’s often a lot of paperwork they need to fill out, critical information they need to have, and documents they will need to reference in the future. Providing this information to them and a contact they can use should they need to recover that information in the future is also essential. What kind of information needs to be part of this packet? Details of the final paycheck, including what happens to end benefits, stored sick days and paid time off, and retirement accounts. Details of remaining benefits, such as stock options and investments. Details of continued benefits like health insurance via COBRA . Rules and regulations for the return of company property. Potential penalties for failing to return company property, sharing company secrets, or violation of non-competes . How much of this is relevant depends a lot on the employee’s level, use of company assets, duration of their employment, and nature of their work. However, developing a detailed checklist to cover all of the bases, even when they aren’t relevant, is better than using a partial checklist and forgetting an essential aspect of offboarding. Conduct an Exit Interview Exit interviews are often overlooked but are very important for the general benefit of the company. An exit interview will have important repercussions because it can give you the information you can use to direct your company better. Primarily, an exit interview helps you understand the reason an employee is leaving. If that reason is something you can change for better retention, then it’s critical to know. Employees who are leaving for personal reason such as mental or physical health, a crisis in the family, or a spouse getting a better job across the country are common reasons you can’t do a lot about. However, you could potentially offer the employee the option to work remotely rather than leave. Employees who leave for reasons such as an abusive boss, a lack of pay or benefits, or a lack of upward mobility can showcase a flaw in your management that can be corrected. You likely won’t be able to retain the leaving employee, but you may be able to make changes to prevent future losses. Ideally, you will strive to optimize your company so that nothing in the exit interview will be a surprise. Unfortunately, it often requires information from exit interviews to reach that point in the first place. Develop or Implement a Transition Plan Unless the employee is being terminated due to the company downsizing, chances are you’ll need a replacement for that lost employee ASAP. Thus, it would help if you had a transition plan in place or developed one for this and future use cases. A transition plan covers all the bases of what happens to the duties of the lost employee when they leave and the hiring process for their replacement. You’ll cover topics such as: The transfer of knowledge between the leaving employee and their team or their replacement. The transfer of contacts such as sales contacts, vendors, or customer information to others. The transfer of access to important documentation or critical systems. All too often, a company sees an employee leave, only to discover weeks or months down the line that the employee was the only one who had access to critical customer, vendor, or internal system information. If you discover such an issue, it may be worthwhile to push the development of an internal knowledge base, as well as data and access redundancy, to avoid these problems in the future. Celebrate the Employee as Applicable Employees who are leaving your company on good terms should be celebrated. Long-term employees who are entering retirement can have retirement parties. Internal messaging can be sent to everyone in the company celebrating their achievements throughout their career. If they’re transitioning to a new job, that can get mentioned and celebrated as well. “The most crucial aspect of a good employee offboarding process is to treat employees warmly, regardless of the reason behind their departure. Celebrate their achievements and make them feel appreciated for their efforts. Who knows? All this love can make your employees return to the organization like a boomerang.” – KissFlow . The goal of this process is two-fold. First, it helps the leaving employee feel valued. They will keep their lines of communication open, they will talk about their positive experiences, and they may be able to refer future candidates, customers, or potential partners your way. The other aspect of this is for the morale of your existing employees. By showing that the company values the departing employee’s achievements, history, and progression, existing employees know they, too, will be valued for their contributions. A greater sense of appreciation leads to greater loyalty, better productivity, and deeper engagement. Trust, but Verify Even if an employee is leaving on good terms, everything is going smoothly, and there are no speedbumps in the process, it’s important to verify every step of the process. Ensure that the employee didn’t sabotage systems or damage data on the way out. Monitor competitors and dark web vendors as applicable to watch for internal data leaks. Double or triple-check that physical company assets are returned. You should not go so far as to invade privacy, of course. There’s no reason to spy on the departing employee’s inbox or send mail unless you suspect wrongdoing, and even then, it may be more of a job for law enforcement than for your internal processes. Trust your employees to do the right thing, but verify that nothing has gone wrong despite that trust. Learn and Improve Very few companies have what could be considered a perfect process for the transition from an old employee to a new one, the transfer of knowledge and duties, and the offboarding of a departing employee. For everyone else, there’s always room for improvement. Things like the exit interview are not the only avenues for feedback. You can also solicit feedback from existing employees about the process of the departure. What did they like, and what did they not? Do they have recommendations? Was there an unexpected or unforeseen gap in coverage of duties or knowledge? Take all of this information into consideration and implement changes in your offboarding process. This way, you will have a smoother process the next time an employee leaves. Over time, your offboarding process will become a near-seamless transition, and you’ll see little if any interruption in business productivity. There will always be unforeseen circumstances and issues that crop up. Whether it’s dissatisfaction, intentional sabotage, or just paperwork getting lost in the shuffle, it’s essential to have the ability to recover from problems gracefully. Your company will always need to learn, adjust processes, and grow. This applies equally to onboarding, hiring, sales, marketing, and offboarding. Sometimes, sacrifices may need to occur. Perhaps the offboarding process needs to be faster, an employee has fewer accomplishments to celebrate, or their departure is less than pleasant. Gracefully handling these issues is crucial. Companies are living organisms and should be treated as such. Developing a smooth offboarding process is part of ensuring a healthy company. Conclusion  A thoughtful and structured employee offboarding process is as critical to maintaining a positive company culture as a good onboarding process. It reflects your company’s values and respect for its employees, regardless of their tenure or the reasons for their departure.  By implementing the best practices outlined in this post, you ensure a smooth transition, uphold morale, and maintain productivity. Moreover, you foster a positive reputation that extends beyond your organization, potentially attracting future talent and opportunities. Remember, the way your company handles departures can leave a lasting impression, not just on the departing employees, but also on those who continue to be a part of your journey.  Contact us today to learn how we can assist you in developing your team.

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.

As difficult as it is to recruit high-quality candidates, it makes sense that your company should do everything it can to keep your employees around. This means that one of the most important metrics measuring your workforce is your employee retention rate. Some level s of turnover are natural and unavoidable. People retire. People have outside pressures in their lives that force them to move or quit. People get injured or sick and can’t continue to work. And, of course, people leave for greener pastures, no matter how green the grass is on your side of the fence. Contrary to popular wisdom, the employee retention rate is not simply the inverse of employee turnover . The two are deeply related, but some considerations go into retention rates that are not factored into turnover and vice versa. Defining Retention Rate Employee retention rate is a percentage that measures how many employees stick with the company over a given period. Thus, to define retention rate, you need to define a unit of time. Retention rate can be measured over any period, whether it’s a month, a quarter, a year, or longer. Historic retention rates are important to monitor, so you can see if retention is going up or down over time. Retention rates can be important for long-term measurement and short-term measurement. In the long term, you can measure from quarter to quarter or year to year, to see the impact of policy changes, cultural changes, new management, or other large-scale changes you make to your company. In the short term, the retention rate can show the impact of acute policies and changes, as well as external pressures. Most companies, for example, have very skewed metrics over the last year because of the coronavirus pandemic throwing the labor market into disarray. On a scale of a decade, it’s likely to be a blip on the radar. On the scale of a year or two, it’s a dramatic shift. Measuring the retention rate in both scales helps you put the data into perspective. As mentioned above, employee retention is not simply the inverse of employee turnover. If you have one position where an employee leaves, you hire a new one, they leave too, and you hire their replacement, you have two instances of turnover but only one position of lost retention. The Basic Formula Let’s take a look at the basic formula for retention rate. It comes in two parts. Part 1: TE – EL = ER, where: TE: Total Employees at the beginning of your timeframe. EL: Number of those employees who left during the timeframe. ER: Employees remaining at the end of the timeframe. You then use your calculated ER for part two. Part 2: ( ER / TE ) * 100 = Retention Rate This leaves you with a percentage retention rate, which can be above or below 100%, for the given timeframe. Sample Situations There are two basic situations you can be in. In the first situation, you have some turnover. Say you start at 100 employees, and five employees leave during Q1. TE(100) – EL(5) = ER(95) ER(95) / TE(100) = 0.95 * 100 = 95% Retention Rate The second situation shows an increase in hiring with no turnover. Say you start at 100 employees, hire five more, and none of them leave during the timeframe. TE(100) – EL(0) = ER(100) ER(100) / TE(100) = 1 * 100 = 100% Retention Rate You’ll note that hiring new employees does not subtract a negative number from the calculation. Hiring does not affect retention rate calculations. You need to measure employees who have been on staff for the entire period being measured. This means that employees who are hired and bounce quickly do not reflect on the retention rate for that period. If you’re measuring Q1 retention rates, and have an employee who is hired and only stays on for three weeks before leaving, they do not add to the employees at the start and do not remove themselves from the number of employees at the end. The reason for this is simple. You’re calculating retention, and retention doesn’t include those employees. A more realistic example will include mixed numbers. Let’s say you’re a company with 36 employees on January 1. You hire five new employees in February. Two of those employees leave in March, as well as two employees who were with you originally. By the end of the first quarter, your company has 37 employees. Your calculation disregards the five new hires and only cares about the two long-term employees who left. TE(36) – EL(2) = ER(34) ER(34) / TE(36) = 0.94 * 100 = 94% Retention Rate for Q1 Now, your company in this situation has 37 employees at the start of Q2 for future calculations. Annual calculations for the year, however, will still consider 36 as the starting point. Factors to Consider for Calculating Retention Rate Retention rate is outwardly simple, but there are several factors you need to consider or define for your calculations. Choosing your timeframe. Perhaps the largest factor you need to define is the timeframe you’re using to calculate your retention rate. Common choices are monthly, quarterly, annual, and the fiscal year. A shorter timeframe shows you more granular information. A monthly measurement gives you an idea of the effect of seasonality, of specific events in your business or industry, or the effects of policies, management, and other, similar-in-scope considerations. For example, if your management implements a policy of oversight on employee productivity that is considered onerous, this can potentially hurt your retention rates in the following months. If you decide to cut your employee vacation time, you might also notice a change in your retention rate for that year. Over a longer timeframe, you have less granular data, but a longer-term view of how your business is changing over time. Comparing quarterly retention rates for several years gives you an idea of how your business is handling its employees, its policies, and changes in industry and culture. This also gives you reasonably useful data to see how your company handles major events. The Coronavirus pandemic and its related unemployment rates, for example, will be reflected more in annual retention rates than monthly rates. Systemic recessions, as well, are reflected more in larger timeframes. Defining your headcount. It’s one thing for a traditional company to calculate headcount. Payroll in HR should have an accurate number at all times, after all. Things get muddier in the modern world when you consider gig workers, part-time contractors, and other non-standard employees. If you have a freelancer on retention, but they haven’t done any work for you in Q1, do you count them? Typically, anyone who isn’t a traditional employee on the payroll is ignored for retention rates. As contractors, consultants, or freelancers, they are not solely employed by your company. With variable work, it can be difficult to define whether or not to consider them employed for headcount purposes. This also means that a company can downsize its workforce in favor of gig workers, and it will reflect poorly on retention rates, even though the company itself may be thriving. This leads us to the next point: Putting retention rates into perspective. Retention rate is just one metric out of many that tell us information about your business. You will also want to consider turnover rates, profit margins, sales, customer satisfaction, and so on. Downsizing and firing several employees may increase your profit margins, but decrease customer satisfaction. Is that good or bad? It depends on your company’s perspective. Another way to put retention rates into perspective is by using them to benchmark your company against industry standards. There are many sources for industry-specific data . Typically, industry journals and HR agencies will publish annual statistics. You can also segment your workforce. Consider: What is the retention rate in your company by age group? Do millennials stick around longer than Gen Z? Do boomers stick around longer? What is the retention rate for specific demographics? If you have significant turnover amongst minorities or women, you may want to look for hostile policies or environmental factors. What is the retention rate in each department? Is your sales team satisfied and sticking around, while your IT team has a high turnover? What is your average length of retention? This is a different, but related, calculation; how long do employees stick around? Retention rates don’t always reflect a slow but steady churn. You can ask yourself questions like this to help analyze your situation. In general, a retention rate of 85% or more is considered good, though of course, this varies from industry to industry. If a specific group of people has a low retention rate, such as women or minorities, you might consider checking into the company culture. A hostile work environment, especially one involving racism or sexism, can be bad not just for productivity and employee satisfaction but can open your company up to legal action. Likewise, a low retention rate for specific departments might indicate an issue with policies, systems, or management. An IT department forced to work on outdated software with no leeway to improve might grow frustrated and leave, to use a common example. Categorize employee turnover. Part of putting your retention rates into perspective is knowing when turnover is good or bad. Exit interviews are a key part of this. Employees leaving because they’re retiring after a long and successful career is not a bad thing; employees leaving because they felt harassed or lack career progression is bad. In this way, you can categorize whether your retention rate is low for a good reason or a bad reason, and can take appropriate actions as necessary. How to Improve Retention Rates Retention rates can be improved, though they will rarely stay at 100% for very long. There are always factors outside of your control that force employees to leave, from starting a family to sudden death and everything in between. There are, however, many factors you can control. Improve the quality of the candidates you hire. The entire hiring process needs to be focused on finding the right people for the right role. Retention can drop when you hire people who aren’t truly qualified. It can drop when you hire overqualified people. It can drop any time where your employees are otherwise dissatisfied with their role in your company. Improve your onboarding, mentorship, and support programs. A huge part of employee turnover is a lack of connection. Leaving new employees to flounder without training or feedback, leaving them feeling like they have no one to talk to about problems, and leaving them without social connections are all causes of turnover and, thus, lower retention rates. Improve your pay and benefits. Let’s face it; many people stick around for their salary and benefits and will leave when they get a better offer. The better the pay scale and benefits package you can offer, the better your retention will be, simply because other companies will have a harder time poaching your employees. Improve your career progression and growth. Again, employees often leave when they feel like they’re stuck with no way to progress their careers. Progression can encourage retention through various means. Consider implementing training policies (and the accompanying pay raises), promotions internally, and other forms of personal and professional growth. Improve communication both up and down the chain. When employees don’t feel heard, they don’t want to stick around. Uncertainty about the future of their company, about changing policies or management, or even just a lack of avenues for feedback can all depress morale and discourage retention. Communication is critical to a happy and loyal workforce. Improve company culture and diversity. Studies repeatedly show that diverse and engaged workforces are more productive, more creative, and more loyal than the inverse. Improving your company culture will improve retention, across the board. There may be some initial friction when policies change and new hires are brought on, but if you make it clear that diversity is critical and not going away, things will settle. Overall, it’s not necessarily difficult to calculate employee retention rates. What’s difficult is figuring out how to put those rates into context, extract actionable information, and develop a plan of action based on that information. You can’t do any of that without the data!

Employees come and go. It’s simply a fact of running a business that, sooner or later, even your most dedicated employee may move on, whether it’s to a new career or retirement.  Sometimes it’s on good terms, and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes there’s plenty of notice, sometimes there’s not. There’s only one constant: you will have employee turnover. Just because it’s a fact of life doesn’t mean you can’t do something about it. How much turnover you get can be influenced by a variety of factors, many of which you can control. Understanding Turnover What makes an employee leave? You can broadly divide the reasons for turnover into two categories: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary turnover includes reasons the employee decides to step away. These can be amicable between the employee and the company, such as a need for relocation, retirement, or a family illness. They can also be adversarial, such as a micromanager blocking the employee’s mobility or an interpersonal conflict with another employee. Involuntary turnover includes reasons the employee is forced away. These are generally adversarial, such as absenteeism, unsatisfactory performance, or a poor culture fit. Many of these factors can be addressed to reduce turnover. For example, an interpersonal conflict can be resolved, or the employees involved separated so they don’t need to work together. (Graphic and data provided by LinkedIn 2017 study and TalentLyft) You might expect that the ideal turnover rate for a company is zero, but that’s neither true nor, really, possible in the long term. Companies can outlast the lifetime of their employees; turnover is as inevitable as human mortality. On a less grim note, a long-term employee retiring can be a good thing, as it allows for internal mobility for a talented successor. A highly creative employee might move on before they stagnate, having left the company better than they found it. It’s better to have some small amount of turnover than it is to have stagnant employees, employees held captive by circumstance, and a toxic culture that retains employees through fear of burning bridges throughout the industry. What is the average turnover rate, and what can be considered a good turnover rate for your company? The actual statistics vary quite a bit from industry to industry.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides annual Job Openings and Labor Turnover Surveys and compiles this data into an aggregate report, which you can read here . Keep in mind that data for 2020 is skewed by the Coronavirus pandemic, so looking at 2019 data might provide a better overall average. Remember, too, that the true cost of turnover is larger than just the monetary cost of a severance package and the recruiting process to hire a replacement. The employee can take with them institutional knowledge. Their loss can reduce morale amongst the people who liked that employee, and amongst those who now have to pick up their duties. To reduce employee turnover, you must begin by hiring better employees. Picking the right candidate for the role and the company culture helps ensure that they don’t leave right away and that their presence doesn’t imbalance your existing teams and drive others to leave. Thus, we’ve divided our tips into two sections: pre-hire and post-hire. Pre-Hire Tips Pre-hire tips are steps you can take before you hire a new employee, to help reduce the possibility of turnover in the first year after they’ve been hired. To a certain extent, these tips need to be applied even before publishing a job posting.  Pay attention to company culture. A good cultural fit is one of the most important determining factors in employee retention, and a negative trend in internal culture can drive a spiral of employee turnover that can be devastating for a business. As Mike Kappel writes for Forbes , “If employees don’t fit in with your work environment, I guarantee they won’t be happy. They won’t fit in, they won’t get along with their co-workers, and they’ll feel lonely. An outstanding candidate that doesn’t match the behaviors and culture of your business won’t stay around long.” Determining whether a candidate fits in with your company culture requires understanding your own company culture . Thus, a good trick is to ask yourself (or your employees) questions similar to those that a candidate might ask to get an individual sense of your culture. The Muse offers many such questions you can use to get an idea of what the culture is in your company (if you don’t already know). Keep in mind that, especially in upper management, what you see might not be what the employees on the ground experience during the day. Once you have a solid idea of your company culture, you can work some behavioral questions into your interview process to see how a candidate may react to certain situations, which can indicate how they would fit in with your culture overall. Offer competitive pay and benefits. Salary negotiations are one thing, but you need a strong foundation of benefits and base pay that satisfies your best possible candidates. For example, we covered what to offer to attract and satisfy engineering candidates . One of the key takeaways is flexibility. A lower base salary might be fine if you offer flexible hours, work from home, and loan assistance. Being able to adapt to what a candidate truly finds valuable is a powerful way to entice top candidates and keep them around. Express company culture through your job posting. When crafting your job posting , you want to write it in a way that expresses your company’s values and culture. You don’t have a lot of space with which to express these values, so you may need to do work in developing an employer brand that conveys enough information that you can reasonably expect candidates to have basic knowledge of your company before applying. Be honest with what you write in your job posting. Telling candidates that they’ll be working in a fast-paced environment with unique, ongoing challenges only leads to frustration if they find their day-to-day task list to be little more than busy work on repeat. The disconnect between job posting and job reality is a huge driving factor in turnover. Post-Hire Tips Once an employee has been hired, you need to uphold the promises outlined in the interviews, your company reputation, and your job posting. Moreover, you need to make sure your internal culture, your business processes, and your other employees all contribute to a positive, effective workplace. Offer praise and recognition for good work. Studies have shown that recognition is a huge driving factor in retention. 20% of employees cite lack of recognition as a reason to seek a job elsewhere. 40% of workers say they would put more effort into daily work if they were recognized for their efforts. A mere 9% of employees feel that their managers are good at recognizing contributions. Recognition doesn’t need to be a gamified competition to earn customer feedback or to gain a picture on the wall as an employee of the month. It can be as simple as a manager offering congratulations to employees at the end of a project. Be encouraging, be positive, and be grateful to your employees for the work they do. Don’t be afraid to fire the toxic element. We’ve all heard stories of (or directly encountered) the bad manager whose toxic presence consistently demeans and oppresses the employees beneath them while presenting a pleasant face to their senior leadership so they’re never the target of institutional ire. In situations like this, one bad employee can result in dramatically increased turnover rates, poor job performance, satisfaction for those under them, and more. Not all turnover is caused by an individual, but if you have a situation where it is, it’s usually worthwhile to let that employee go. As Darcy Jacobsen writes , “No matter how effective they might be at their actual work, an employee who is a bad fit is bad for your culture, and that creates ‘culture debt.’ They will do more damage than good by poisoning the well of your company.” Offer flexibility and keep benefits current. Flexibility and adaptability are the most important qualities in both a worker and a company. Your employees are changing and growing. They’re learning new skills and they’re progressing through the stages of their life’s journey. If you want to keep them on for the long term, you need to change and grow with them. This means being able to continually offer growth in salary and benefits according to their skills and their role. If you hire a junior developer and train them, and assist with their certifications, but fail to increase either their pay or their responsibilities, of course, they’re going to look elsewhere. They want a job befitting their skill level . Additionally, life circumstances can change. An employee you hire while single may meet someone and decide to start a family. Suddenly, paid family leave becomes a priority they didn’t have when you hired them. If you rigidly adhere to the benefits they wanted when they were hired, they’re just as likely to quit and find a new job after raising their baby than they are to stick around. Flexibility in raises, bonuses, benefits, work hours, and working remotely are all great benefits to keep on hand and leverage to keep employees happy. Hire enough people. One of the biggest driving factors in employee dissatisfaction is overwhelming responsibilities. Millions of employees in every industry have experienced, or are currently experiencing, times when an employee leaves or is let go, and rather than hiring a replacement, the company divides their duties among employees already there. For one employee and light duties, this might be fine. When it happens two, three, or five times, it quickly builds up to a point where your employees are burning themselves out working too many hours, too long shifts, and doing too much. With burnout comes, at best, poor job performance. More often, employees leave, often leaving the industry entirely. Maintain adequate staffing; the cost of replacing an entire team is much higher than the cost of keeping your department full. Maintain transparency, accountability, and trust. Fostering an atmosphere of transparency and accountability is important for the modern workforce. In part, this helps with the tip about getting rid of toxic employees; by offering a channel where an employee can make a report (even anonymously) and trust that it will be investigated, you can help give employees a sense that they have some recourse beyond quitting. Transparency works the other way. Holding your managers and your executives responsible, as opposed to hiding information and treating business processes as arcane secrets, builds trust in your management team. This avoids the situation where employees see a company crashing down around them while executives cash out and do nothing about it. Remember; a company is nothing without its employees, so they should be valued. George Dickson says this: “Instead of saying ‘do I have to share this information with the team?’, try, ‘do I have to keep this information from the team?’ If you can’t come up with a solid reason to keep something a secret, you need to question the validity of keeping it behind closed doors, especially when the alternative offers so many benefits.” You don’t need to be transparent with proprietary information, top-level negotiations, or everyone’s salary information. Just be open with information that matters, and that doesn’t need to be kept secret. Build Growth Opportunities into Your Culture to Reduce Employee Turnover Recruiting software company Jobvite President and CEO Dan Finnigan knows the importance of providing growth opportunities for employees in both employee retention and talent attraction.  He says it’s not only for the benefit of employees. It’s also important to the entire company. And he reminds everyone that younger workers especially are probably viewing entry level roles as having a short shelf-life on their career path and will move on regardless, but that shouldn’t keep employers from building a growth culture that attracts the best candidates and treats them well while they are with the company. Twitter’s head of organizational effectiveness & learning Melissa Daimler advises employers to provide training and growth opportunities that employees want and need rather than just offering what people in charge want.  It’s important to remember that helping employees reach their career goals builds engagement and loyalty and has a big impact on retention. Include growth offerings such as employee development plans at evaluation time, skills assessments so employees can understand what areas to focus on, and formal assistance with tuition reimbursement. Growth Opportunities Employees Want Do you know what types of growth opportunities your employees want? Collaboration software and services provider PGi’s 2015 Workplace Resolutions survey found that the top five things employees want this year include a raise or promotion, better work/life balance, better technology, being more organized, and continuing education. Forbes contributor and Wolf Management Training founder Victor Lipman explains four types of growth : financial, career, professional, and personal. Financial growth includes more than raises and retirement benefits and encompasses bonus opportunities, recognition for length of service, and financial incentives for goal achievement.  Career growth includes clear career paths and opportunities for advancement and progressively more challenging work. Professional growth includes acquiring new skills, being set up for success to meet sales and productivity goals, and opportunities for “stretch” to explore work beyond current roles. Personal growth opportunities include programs for peer recognition, work/life balance in the work environment and employee programs for wellness and charitable giving and volunteering. Conclusion Overall, the number one determining factor in employee turnover is happiness and job satisfaction. Happy, satisfied employees are more loyal, more productive, and better at their jobs. Hiring the right people, keeping a company culture of transparency and teamwork, and recognizing contributions are all powerful ways to keep employees happy, which in turn reduces turnover. If your company wants to grow its team, reach out to us today ! We can help you build the team you need for success.

We’ve written a lot about how to hire the perfect candidate for any given role in your company. A lot of that process involves starting with a large pool, narrowing it down through progressively steeper requirements, and then finally arriving at your chosen candidate. What happens to those who make it most of the way through the process, but ultimately don’t get the job? You have to reject them, but you have to do it the right way.  I wrote this blog post to answer, “what is the best way to politely reject a job candidate?” So let’s first cover how you should NOT reject a candidate.  What Happens When You Reject a Candidate Incorrectly Before we get into how to politely and tactfully reject a candidate, let’s talk about how the process can go wrong. One of the worst things you can do is simply ghost the candidate. Cutting them from your roster, not contacting them to tell them they didn’t get the job, and ignoring all attempts at communication is a terrible way to do it. Another mistake many companies make is waiting too long before informing a candidate about their rejection. Many people who are applying to these positions are trying to find one quickly, which is difficult to see as the company in charge of reviewing candidates. To the candidates, whether or not they get the job can be the foundation of major decisions moving forward. The longer you leave them hanging, the worse they’ll feel about it. Many companies also make the mistake of beating around the bush. Candidates want a firm answer – something to the point so that they can move on to the next phase of their job hunt. It’s fine to explain why they didn’t get the job, but if your rejection letter is too lengthy, you could be wasting your time that is better spent elsewhere (not to mention the candidate’s time). Why do you want to avoid these mistakes? Several reasons. First, the candidate you choose might not work out. If you need to go back to the drawing board, the natural first place to look for their replacement is the list of candidates who almost made it the first time around. If you leave those candidates on bad terms, they’re less likely to want to work for you after all, and you’ll have to dig even deeper, or worse, start the hiring process over again. There’s also the possibility that another role will open up, and a candidate who made it to the last rounds of interviews is a great choice to fill that role. If you cut communications or otherwise burn that bridge, that candidate will be less interested in working with you. Again, you’ll have to go back to the start of the process or settle for a less qualified candidate. June Javelosa, from HireRabbit , also recommends soliciting feedback from rejected candidates. “Candidates, even the rejected ones, can give you a lot of feedback about your hiring process. They can tell you which areas they found difficulty in and how you can improve on those. Asking for feedback gives the impression that you still value their opinion even if you’re not hiring them. The impression he or she takes away may affect other potential candidates for your jobs. Candidates do talk and often, like birds, flock together to pursue an employer of choice.” According to Kelly Services 95% of candidates are more likely to apply again if they had a positive candidate experience the first time. 97% of candidates who had a positive experience would refer others to apply. 88% of candidates with a positive experience would increase their purchase with the company. 55% of candidates with a positive experience would tell their social networks about that positive experience. As you have probably already figured out, it feels bad to be the one to reject a candidate. Doing the right way minimizes hard feelings and makes it easier for everyone involved. Tips for Politely Rejecting a Candidate When it comes time to reject a candidate, you have to decide how you’re going to do it. Establishing a process for rejections allows you to minimize the emotional impact of the rejection, leverage it into possible future value, and keep a relationship with a candidate alive. First, you need to pick a method of communication. Different channels have different pros and cons when it comes to rejecting a candidate. Email is good for your early filtering. Most applicant tracking systems have either their in-house templates for rejection emails or the ability to create one. It’s easy enough to find email templates to base yours on. On the other hand, an email can feel impersonal or cold and can be poor at incentivizing continued communication with the candidate. Phone calls. A phone call is a more personal means of delivering a rejection, and it allows your hiring manager to leverage their charisma and tone of voice to portray a considerate and thoughtful rejection. It also allows you to follow up with additional recommendations, opportunities, or offers, if you have them on hand. Remember, though, that there’s still some distance between a phone call, and it can be more stressful for your hiring manager, especially if they have to call dozens of candidates in a row. Video messaging. Sending a customized video is a sort of a cross between an email and a phone call. You can leverage tone of voice, as well as visual presentation, to soften the blow of the rejection via video. It’s not real-time, so your hiring manager doesn’t need to worry about answering questions immediately. You can still offer additional opportunities through video as well. On the other hand, video can be complicated to produce if you don’t have a process already established for it. In-person meetings. An in-person meeting to reject a candidate is very rare and can be dangerous because an in-person meeting often means a meeting to sign paperwork for a hire. It can augment the emotional distress of a candidate to find they came into the office only to be rejected. This is only a viable option for very high-power roles, or for cases where you have an immediate secondary offer you’re willing to extend. Once you have your communications channel pinned down, you have to work out what to write or say. We have some tips for that as well. Personalize your message. At the very least, when writing a rejection email, personalize the name and pronouns of the recipient in the template. In general, the deeper into the hiring process a candidate makes, the more personalized their rejection should be. So how can you personalize such a rejection? Mention something they did well or a reason they were in consideration as long as they were. Offer a piece of advice they can use in future interviews. Consider linking them up with another recruiter who can get them elsewhere. Candidates will remember the results more than the communication, so leaving them with some level of value will help maintain a positive impression of your overall brand. Make sure to avoid anything that can be construed as discriminatory. Susan at The Balance Careers says: “Make sure the applicant cannot misconstrue the words you use or find evidence of unlawful discrimination. For example, you may be tempted to tell the applicant that you have decided that you have candidates who are more qualified for the job. The candidate could well ask you to detail the differences. Why go there?” There are a lot of different ways a stray comment can be leveraged into a lawsuit in the right circumstances . Even if you have no outward bias and didn’t intend to be discriminatory, you can be found at fault, and a lawsuit can be devastating even if you win it. Give honest, useful feedback. As part of personalizing your rejection message, offer some precise feedback the candidate can use in future interviews, either with your company or with another. While you can’t speak for every company, you can point out things they did that left a bad impression. If they interviewed perfectly, but simply weren’t qualified for the job, you can give them guidance on perhaps applying for jobs they are more qualified for. Encourage Candidates to Apply to Other Positions If you liked a candidate enough that they made it to the final rounds of your interview and hiring process, but they didn’t quite make the cut, that means they had something that fit with your company. You can, then, encourage them to apply to other roles within your company. There are several ways to do this. You can refer them back to your careers page and point out a specific role they can apply for, and offer to forward their information to the manager in charge of that segment of hiring. You can simply offer a general “you’re a good culture fit and have the skills, but we don’t have room for you right now, but if you would like to apply for another role, we can then consider you for internal transitions later.” You can also just tell them they were close to being hired, and that if a similar role opens up, they will be at the top of the list if they apply. Just make sure that if you extend this kind of offer, you’re not doing it just to be nice. If they do apply later, and they don’t make it through a second time, it leaves a bad taste in their minds. They’ll lose faith in you personally, in your company in general, and perhaps even more. “If you know they will never fit in successfully at your organization, don’t go making a point of telling them to apply for other roles in the future. While it may make you feel better to say so right now, the reality of them applying again isn’t practical.” – Social Talent . Connect with a rejected candidate on LinkedIn. If the candidate is talented and promising and if you want to keep them as an active part of your candidate pool, you may want to link up with them on social media. LinkedIn is generally the most appropriate social network to use for professional networking. That, combined with your applicant tracking system keeping them active in your pool, allows you to call on them specifically if a job opens up in the future. Ask for feedback on your hiring process. As mentioned above, it’s usually a good idea to solicit feedback about your hiring process. You can do this in your rejection message, or you can send it as a follow-up email later. A simple survey or open feedback form for comments can help you streamline your process for the next time around. Deliver your rejection as soon as possible. Remember that the longer you leave a candidate hanging, the worse it will feel for them when they get that rejection. Yes, sometimes there are delays in decision-making, but you can explain those. Be respectful of the time and effort the candidate has put into their part of the hiring process, and free them up to pursue other leads as soon as possible. Following Up with Rejected Candidates In addition to keeping a candidate active in your ATS, and connecting with them on LinkedIn, you should consider other ways to keep your relationship with a talented candidate alive. Some ideas include: Invite the candidate to job fairs and other events you’re either participating in or hosting, to give them more opportunities they might not otherwise have known about. Watch what they post on social media and, where relevant, leave positive comments and encouragement. If you know a new job will be opening up, reach out early to see if they’re still interested in a role with your company, or if they’ve settled into a new job since. All in all, as long as you keep your connection alive, you should be able to tap that candidate as a future employee if they’re still available. At the very least, by showing interest in their progress and being supportive of their ongoing career, you can build a positive impression of your company. That impression can go a long way, both towards encouraging that candidate’s future and in building a positive reputation as a good company to apply to among other candidates. Conclusion  Concluding, the art of rejecting a job candidate is a delicate process that, if handled with care, can maintain a positive relationship and keep the door open for future opportunities. By avoiding ghosting, providing timely feedback, personalizing messages, and giving clear and helpful guidance, employers can ensure a respectful and constructive rejection experience.  Encouraging candidates to apply for other positions, connecting on LinkedIn, and requesting feedback further strengthen potential future connections. It’s about closing one chapter with grace, leaving the potential for future stories with your company untarnished and full of possibility. Do you need help building your team? Contact us today to learn how we can help you hire the teammates you need.

Are you thinking about creating or improving upon a set of employee survey questions? In “Getting Action from Organizational Surveys,” William A. Schiemann, Ph.D. and Brian S. Morgan, Ph.D. suggest 10 key questions to ask about your employee survey process. Questions to ask include “Does our survey process capture our organizational goals and values?” and “Does it allow employees to share their observations about important capabilities and behaviors that produce value to our customers?” The rest of Schiemann and Morgan’s questions include: Does our survey process measure the key elements of our people strategy? Does it provide feedback about our strategy execution, not just employee satisfaction? Does it enable us to meaningfully roll up dimension scores (e.g. leadership, rewards) in a strategic way that can be presented to our Board of Directors? And that they would think captures the value that has been invested in labor? Does it provide us with key survey readouts and analysis that enables us to focus resources in a targeted fashion rather than one-size-fits-all solutions? Are they connected to our budgets and initiatives in a systemic fashion? Does our survey process connect to our balanced scorecard? And not just the people components of the scorecard? Does it provide insights into our customers and the factors that drive our satisfaction, loyalty, and retention? Does it provide leading indicators of key performer retention, customer value, operating outcomes (e.g. speed of execution) and financial results? Do we have a process for prioritizing the indicators that are most strategic and will create the most impact? Answering “Yes” to these questions means your team is ready to wrestle with strategic responsibilities. “No” answers to these questions indicate your employee survey questions are not incorporating strategic goals and won’t be as effective as possible. Allan Kraut, Schiemann and Morgan’s editor for “Getting Action” notes that the quality and impact of employee survey questions depends on whether they explore critical issues and concerns. He believes employee surveys fail when the organization doesn’t take action on findings to improve organizational functioning and communication. Companies use employee survey questions as part of continuous improvement efforts in workforce management and to drive successful business performance. There are four main reasons companies conduct employee surveys: To identify organizational problems. To evaluate their programs and policies. To gauge employee satisfaction. To determine organizational outcomes for customer satisfaction and business performance. When used properly, Scheimann and Morgan report that employee surveys are powerful management tools to assess strategy and human capital. Well designed employee survey questions reveal clear direction that leaders can use to understand and improve core business issues. The Holy Grail of Employee Surveys Kenexa is an IBM company “in the business of improving companies and enriching lives” as a global provider of human resources business solutions. It has annually produced WorkTrends for 25 years, asking questions about employee engagement, managerial effectiveness, and performance excellence in companies the world over. The 2012/2013 WorkTrends Report “Training and Tenure: Why Two Out of Three of Your New Hires Are Considering Leaving and What You Can Do About It,” Kenexa reports that employees who’ve been at a company less than a year are 12 percent less likely to leave if they receive basic training. The message is that giving employees the tools they need to perform well reduces turnover and protects the company’s investments in human capital. This year’s WorkTrends also found that career growth is not only important to new employees but also to long-term employees. New employees want tools and training to do their new jobs and perform well in their new positions and long-term employees want training and education to prepare for promotions, lateral moves, and continuous learning. Employee Survey Questions to Evaluate Employee Engagement While it’s been shown that employee surveys are most effective when they incorporate questions about corporate strategy, they have traditionally been used to gauge employee satisfaction and engagement. The 2012/2013 WorkTrends Report “The Many Contexts of Employee Engagement” starts with a reminder of what the definition of employee engagement is: “The extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organizational success, and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplishing tasks important to the achievement of organizational goals.” The 2012/2013 WorkTrends employee engagement component included questions centering on employee trust in management. WorkTrends reports that organizational scientists have found three factors in employee trust in management: 1. Benevolence – Employees trust bosses and employers who show they care about them. 2. Competence – Employees trust bosses and employers who can do their jobs well. 3. Integrity – Employees trust bosses and employers who are honest and straightforward. Ask these types of employee survey questions to find out how much employees trust their bosses and employers: Do you feel your manager does a good job at making appropriate work assignments, setting priorities, and scheduling? Does your manager do a good job of dealing with people who work for him/her? Does your manager work with integrity? Kenexa’s most recent WorkTrends also revealed that employees are more engaged when they have competent and engaged coworkers and feel like they belong to a team and that toxic team environments affect engagement even if all other work factors are positive. Employee survey questions to find out how employees feel about their experience with coworkers include: Do the people you work with cooperate to achieve work goals? Do the people you work with do the very best for the company? Do you feel you are part of a team? In Kenexa’s white paper “Beyond Engagement: The Definitive Guide to Employee Surveys and Organizational Performance,” author Jack W. Wiley, Ph.D. estimates that 72 percent of large corporations with more than 10,000 employees and 50 percent of small corporations with less than 250 employees use employee survey questions. Key components of employee engagement include commitment, enthusiasm for work, organizational pride, alignment with organizational goals, and willingness to exert discretionary effort. Wiley describes the blueprint of employee engagement as policies and procedures and leadership and managerial behaviors leading to employee engagement, which prompts discretionary effort, which then results in higher overall performance at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Wiley reports that the Kenexa Employee Engagement Index measures employee engagement on a scale using a percentage of agreement in the following areas: I am proud to tell people I work for my organization. Overall, I am extremely satisfied with my organization as a place to work. I would recommend this place to others as a good place to work. I rarely think about looking for a new job with another organization. Kenexa’s data-driven surveying methods of gauging employee engagement and its results show that high employee engagement is tied to organizational impact and performance excellence in the areas of team performance, customer satisfaction, market share, profit, and business growth. Their annual WorkTrends Reports and highly specific white papers should convince any organization of the value and importance of employee engagement and employee survey questions to monitor and improve their workforce. #SheddingLight

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.