How to Retain Top Talent When Job Quitting is at an Historical High

By Patrick Leddin | May 8, 2019

A recent LinkedIn Daily Rundown reveals that, “the ratio of job openings per unemployed American grew in March, the most recent figures show, and brought to 13 the consecutive months in which available jobs have outstripped the number of people out of work and searching for it.” Moreover, the Labor Department explains that people are quitting their jobs at a historically high rate.

People choose to change jobs for many reasons (e.g., higher pay, better work location, increased career advancement opportunities, etc). Arguably, many of these factors are beyond your control.

You can’t single-handedly change the job market or the economy, and you may have little influence over your organization’s compensation structure or physical locations. However, there is something you can very much control that has a sizable impact on employee turnover.

You can treat your people well and actively work to build trust on your team.

Trust matters and creating a high-trust work environment may make the difference between keeping your top performers or losing them to some other leader.

Consider the impact of low trust in businesses.

  • Only 10% of workers trust their bosses to do the right thing, and only 14 percent believe their company’s leaders are ethical and honest.
  • Less than a fifth of the general public trusts business leaders to be ethical and honest.
  • Only 16% of Americans trust large corporations.
  • 82% of workers believe that their senior leaders help themselves at the organization’s expense. They look at their leaders and see too much self-interest, short-term focus, and ego-driven decision-making.

82% of workers believe that their senior leaders help themselves at the organization’s expense.

Oxford University Professor Colin Mayer diagnoses the situation this way: “The loss of trust in the corporation reflects a belief that it exists simply to make money for its owners, its shareholders, and it will do whatever it takes to achieve this. From our point of view as customers, employees, and communities, we are therefore pawns in a game in which we are manipulated for the benefit of others. The repeated recurrence of scandals only serves to reinforce the belief that the corporation is inherently untrustworthy.”

If you think that the general low trust in for-profit organizations is sobering, consider how citizens see government. For over 50 years, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has “helped forge global standards, international conventions, agreements and recommendations in areas such as governance and the fight against bribery and corruption, corporate responsibility, development, international investment, taxes, and the environment.” The organization consists of 34-member countries including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Japan. In 2014, OECD reported that only 40% of citizens trusted their government. “Trust in government is deteriorating in many OECD countries. Lack of trust compromises the willingness of citizens and businesses to respond to public policies and contribute to sustainable economic recovery.”

Levels of trust in government differ among countries, but nearly all are reporting unprecedented lows. According to the Pew Research Center, the United States is experiencing historic lows in the public’s trust in government. “In 1958, when the American National Election Study first asked the question, 73% (of Americans) said that the could trust the government just about always or most of the time…Only 19% of American today say they can trust the government in Washington to do the what is right.”

Widespread mistrust acts like a brake on the economy. Everything in the supply chain slows down because transactions have to be regulated, verified, documented, and double-checked. Deals take forever because due diligence is now intense diligence. Costs go up at every point. Low levels of trust in government and business conspire to make everything cost more and take longer. An example: The Sarbanes-Oxley regulations in response to the scandals at Enron and World-Com are unbelievably time-consuming and expensive—one study pegged the costs of implementing just one section of the law at $35 billion!

Trust—A Performance Multiplier

When an individual, team, or organization is known for being trusted, the bad news is good news. People, both inside and outside your organization, are hungrier than ever to work with and support people they can trust. At every level of your organization and in every interaction, the “economies of trust” are at work.

Consider this: trust always affects two measurable outcomes—speed and cost. When trust goes down, speed goes down and cost goes up. This creates a trust tax. When trust goes up, speed goes up and cost goes down. This creates a trust dividend. It’s that simple, real and predictable.

How do you feel about those relationships where trust is high? How effective is your communication with a person you trust? In our experience, it’s easy, simple, and fast. Even if we’re dealing with a tough issue, it can be resolved with the person quickly. In high-trust relationships, you can misspeak, but you don’t feel like you’re walking on eggshells, worrying that you’ll offend the other person or make a commitment by accident.

Conversely, when trust is low, it seems that no matter what you say, your words are taken wrong or out of context. Communication is nearly impossible, even about the most trivial things.

Where Does it Start?

Ultimately, trust starts with you—with your personal credibility. In The Speed of Trust, Stephen M.R. Covey explains how credibility is the foundation on which all trust is built and how, in the long-run, you’ll never have more trust than you have credibility. Credibility is a function of two things: your character (who you are—your integrity and intent), and your competence (what you can do—your capabilities and results). Competence is visible above the surface, while your character, like the roots of a tree, lies beneath the surface and feeds your success—or lack of it.

If we were doing business with you, and you knew that we had all the right professional qualifications and skills but didn’t keep our word, you wouldn’t trust us and everything would stop. Our lack of character would prevent you from doing business with us, even though we might be the best at what we do. Think of the many high-profile athletes and executives with world-class competence the public no longer trusts because of some very deep lapses in character.

Conversely, if we were doing business with you, and you knew that we were honest and cared about you but didn’t have the right capabilities and were no longer relevant and didn’t have a track record of results, you also wouldn’t trust us and everything would stop. Our lack of competence would undermine the trust, even though we might be extremely honest and caring. You might trust us to watch your home if you went on vacation, but you wouldn’t trust us on the key project or deliverable if we didn’t have a track record of results.

Both character and competence are vital to building trust, with character being the deeper root, the first among equals.

Here’s the Challenge

Take a hard look at yourself as you answer the following questions:

  • Do you make commitments and keep them – even commitments to yourself?
  • How often do you analyze your intentions? Who’s agenda is typically dominating your thoughts and actions – yours, your team members, your customers?
  • Are you doing the hard work to continually improve your capabilities? Do you invest the time to learn, grow, and develop?
  • Do the results that you deliver increase the trust that people have in you?

 

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

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