New thoughts on how firms should view employees!

With a few signs of hope in the U.S. job market and many employees restless in their jobs, companies need to start thinking about how to keep their best workers from leaving. How an employee feels about his workplace can be key to whether he stays, but on that point employers often seem clueless, human-resources experts say.

THREE TYPES of employees are likely to quit: Those already set to go, “high risk” workers contemplating a job search and so-called trapped employees — those who’d like to leave but can’t. Those who have made up their minds to leave are essentially a lost cause, but companies can often work to keep the rest.

According to International Survey Research, which polls employees about their views of the workplace, corporate leadership is the biggest concern for those tempted to leave. When companies offer sweeping, generic statements of goals and values, employees often shrug. Rather, workers really just care about how those goals impact them personally. A company might commit to customer satisfaction, but if workers don’t see it reflected in their daily tasks — or feel they’re being given pablum from above — they sense a disconnect and can bristle.

“That’s when a lot of folks start to become disengaged in the company,” says Patrick Kulesa, global research director at ISR.

They disengage in different ways, though. In two case studies, ISR gauged employees’ attachment to their job by asking whether they had thought of leaving and whether they would stay even if they got a better-paying offer elsewhere. While trapped employees said they would gladly take the other job, they also had little intention of leaving. Flight risks were just the opposite: They said they planned to leave — yet they had little desire to take a better gig outside the company. And while trapped employees often complained about overall company strategies, flight risks took issue with a lack of personal rewards for their own contributions to larger goals. It wasn’t about pay — it was a deficit when it came to their perception they were being treated fairly and were appreciated for their work.