Employee Retention

It has been on everyone’s lips for a while now, but I heard it out loud for the first time in a client meeting last week: “we are preparing for a recession”. Speaking to executives, HR leaders and coaches over the last weeks have only reinforced this notion, and as the graph below indicates, there are a growing number of searches related to economic downturn on Google. It may be time to reflect on a wise survival strategy.

If you are reading this blog as leader or business owner, the message is clear. People do their best work when they are engaged, and to be engaged they need to meaningful work in a constructive environment. Leaders and the culture they create are the main drivers of engagement. This is where you should start if you are facing QQ, resignations and disengaged or unmotivated employees.

QQ is nothing new. Closing your laptop at 5 p.m., doing only your assigned tasks – that’s what labour unions called “work-to-rule”. It has been employed for ages, to protest or to exert power in labour negotiations. However, “work-to-rule” or QQ, is an indirect form of exerting your power – a form of passive aggressive behaviour… And then the psychologist in me got really curious. What is really happening here?