What this employee retention speaker and employee retention expert has found is many older workers stop working earlier than they would like. It is other factors at work that make the organization onerous to work. Most of these factors can be prevented if addressed by the leaders and HR in the organization. I have seen people retire and then go elsewhere and work 25-30 hours a week. When quizzed by this employee retention author it becomes clear it is other factors that led them to retire/quit. These workers call it “retiring” but they are actually quitting.
Some of the negative factors are an unresponsive boss, young co-workers who don’t include them because they are “old”, a micromanaging boss, teammates that gossip, backbite, and complain constantly, teammates that don’t do their job, and management lets them get away with it, etc. All of these factors could be eliminated if the organization dealt with bull***t like this.
When you have bosses and HR Leaders who tolerate complaining, backbiting, and slacking off, people feel like they are on an island and have no place to turn. They get frustrated over time and in many cases never say anything to HR or their boss because they themselves do not want to be a complainer. They simply put up with it until they can’t stand it anymore and simply retire/quit. When I have older colleagues who tell me this…I tell them to say something because maybe the organization will step up. Then it is up to leadership to act. Also, the organization should be encouraging people to say something about teammate behaviors. Bosses and HR should also be looking for these behaviors and doing something about them. If they do nothing you will get more of those unacceptable behaviors. What leaders and HR need to be doing is really be listening to these problems and being visible to the workforce. It is amazing what you learn when you are visible.
Another thing organizations should do is to train their leaders in areas like performance management, discipline, inclusivity of older workers, what a leader’s obligations are, how to communicate and listen, etc. These are core skills that they need but, in my experience, often never get from the organization. Most leaders are thrown into their roles with little or no leadership training. Once they have the skills they should be expected to deal with issues.
Factors like the ones I have mentioned are within the organization’s power to control. Organizations need to step up because they are losing a pool of older workers at a time when there is a severe shortage of workers. Doing nothing is not a viable option. It’s time to step up and deal with the bull***t.
Is your organization desperate to retain people? If you are an HR Leader, General Manager or an owner of an organization call me to get a free copy of my Employee Retention Self-Audit. You can then find out how the C.R.A.P approach can reduce your employee turnover by 40-80%.
