Keep the People You Worked Hard to Hire

Ask the questions while they still work here

Someone resigns and suddenly everyone starts asking questions.

Were they unhappy? Did they feel underpaid? Did they have a problem with their manager? Did they see a future here? Was there something we could have done differently?

Those are good questions. I just think companies should be asking them while the person still works there.

After more than 10 years in recruiting and helping companies grow, I’ve seen how much time businesses invest in finding the right person. You build the job description, get the team aligned on the hiring need, source candidates, interview them, negotiate the offer, and finally get someone through the door. Then the focus moves to the next open role.

Hiring someone is only part of the work. If you want to retain great people, you need to continue giving them reasons to believe they made the right decision by joining your company.

That starts much earlier than the exit interview.

Keep expectations clear after onboarding

A strong 30-, 60-, and 90-day plan gives someone clarity when they first join, but that should not be the last time they clearly understand what is expected of them.

Roles change. Companies grow. Priorities shift.

Someone who joined a 20-person startup may have a very different job 12 months later when the company has doubled in size.

Managers should continue aligning with employees on what they own, what their priorities are, how their performance will be measured, and what strong performance looks like.

In my experience, problems start when the manager thinks expectations are obvious but the employee is operating with a completely different understanding of the role.

Someone may believe they are doing a great job because they are delivering everything originally asked of them. Meanwhile, their manager may be frustrated because they expected the person to start operating more independently, take on a larger scope, or lead an initiative that was never clearly discussed. That gap is preventable.

As the role evolves, keep resetting expectations with the employee. Be clear about what has changed, what success looks like now, and where they should be focusing their time.

People should not have to guess whether they are doing the job you need them to do.

Give feedback before it becomes a problem

One of the simplest things managers can do is give people clear feedback while there is still time to act on it.

If someone is falling short of expectations, tell them. Be specific about what you are seeing, explain what needs to change, and agree on what improvement should look like. In my opinion the most important next step is the follow up. Waiting six months to give someone feedback about something you noticed in month two does not give them a fair opportunity to improve.

The same applies when someone is doing well. People should not have to wait until an annual performance review to find out that their work is valued. If someone handled a difficult client situation well, improved a process, helped another team, or delivered a strong outcome, tell them.

Be intentional and timely with feedback and be specific.

“You’re doing a great job” feels good, but “The way you took ownership of that implementation, kept the client updated, and solved the issue before it became a larger problem is exactly what we need more of” tells someone what they did well and why it mattered.

Clear and specific feedback gives people information they can actually use.

Understand what keeps each person there

Career growth means different things to different people. My recommendation… ask and you will find out.

One employee may want to become a manager and that’s what they see as career progression. Another may want more ownership without managing anyone. Someone else may want to become exceptional at their craft, work on more complex problems, or gain exposure to an area of the business they have not worked in before.

Managers need to understand what each person is working toward instead of assuming everyone wants the same career path.

I recommend having these conversations directly during your 1 on 1 meetings.

Ask questions like:

• →What do you want to get better at over the next year?
• →Is there something you want more exposure to?
• →What type of work gives you the most energy?
• →Is there anything you want to be doing more or less of?
• →What would growth at our company look like for you?

You may not be able to give every employee exactly what they want, especially at a startup where roles and budgets are constantly changing. But understanding what motivates someone gives you a much better chance of creating opportunities that matter to them.

It also helps you identify gaps earlier. If someone tells you they want to manage a team someday and six months later there has been no conversation about what they need to develop to get there, that employee may eventually start looking somewhere else for that opportunity.

Recognize great work

I’ve been recruiting long enough to work with managers who care deeply about their teams and others who approach management very differently. Some praise too much. Some barely praise at all.

I remember sitting in a meeting with an executive team when one technology manager said, “I’m not going to praise my employees for doing their job. They should be doing their job, period. I’ll praise them when they demonstrate excellence and go above and beyond.”

Firstly, that was his management style, and everyone manages differently. That is completely fine. Secondly, when a manager says someone needs to show “excellence” or go “above and beyond,” my next question is always: what does that mean specifically? I always recommend being clear about the behaviors and outcomes you actually want to see so you can translate that back to employees. Otherwise, people are left guessing what “excellence” actually means.

That type of management style may work for some teams and not for others, but I always come back to the data. Is it working? That quarter, four people had resigned from his team. He was hiring for niche, hard-to-fill technical roles, but as new people joined, others kept leaving.

That is only one example, and I’m sure there were several reasons behind the turnover. But I do believe lack of recognition matters. We are human. We want to know when the work we are doing is valuable and whether it is actually contributing to the goals of the business. Some people may think differently and that’s totally fine, but my recommendation is look at the data. What is the data around turnover and retention telling you about changes you need to make in your management approach. What is it telling you about how you’re going to update your hiring process and interview questions when you have to hire for that role in the future?

Don’t get me wrong. Recognition does not need to mean celebrating every task someone completes. Sometimes it is simply telling someone, specifically, what they did well and why it mattered to the business.

When a team is experiencing meaningful turnover, you have to be willing to look at the management environment too. If great people keep leaving, something in the employee experience needs to change.

Recognition does not need to mean an award, bonus, or company-wide announcement every time someone does something well. Sometimes it is simply making sure the person knows their work mattered.

I’ve worked with growing companies where people are moving incredibly fast. Everyone is focused on the next launch, client, hire, or problem that needs to be solved. A major project gets completed on Friday and by Monday morning everyone has moved on to the next priority.

That pace can make it easy to overlook the work people are doing. Take the extra minute to acknowledge it. And again, be specific.

Instead of saying, “Great work on the project,” tell them what they did well and the impact it had.

Maybe they caught an issue before it reached a customer. Maybe they stepped into something outside of their normal responsibilities. Maybe they built a process that saved the rest of the team hours of work.

Recognition becomes much more meaningful when someone understands exactly what contribution you valued.

Pay attention when something changes

People usually do not go from fully engaged to resigning overnight. Sometimes there are changes beforehand that you can pick up on.

Someone who regularly contributed ideas stops speaking up. A high performer who always asked for additional responsibility stops asking. An employee who used to talk about their future at the company no longer does. Someone who was highly engaged becomes noticeably quieter or less interested in work they previously cared about.

None of those things automatically mean someone is planning to leave. But they are reasons to have a conversation. Ask how they are doing and let them know directly that you’ve noticed a change and simply ask what has changed.

Maybe they are frustrated with something at work. Maybe they feel like they have stopped growing. Maybe something outside of work is affecting them. You will not know unless you ask.

This is also why regular 1 on 1’s matter. If the only meaningful career conversation happens during an annual review, you may miss months of information about how someone is actually feeling about their role.

I would rather have a manager ask the question early and find out everything is fine than wait until the resignation email arrives to learn that someone had been unhappy for six months.

Do not wait for the exit interview to learn why people leave

Exit interviews can give you useful information. The problem is that by the time you are having that conversation, the employee has usually already made their decision.

I recommend companies bring some of those questions forward and not wait for an exit interview. Ask your employees what they enjoy about working at the company. Ask what frustrates them. Ask what would make their job better. Ask what might make them seriously consider another opportunity.

You do not need to turn every 1 on 1 into a retention interview. The goal is to create enough trust and communication that employees can tell you what is working and what is not before leaving starts to feel like the only option for them.

Managers also need to be prepared to hear answers they may not like. If someone tells you they feel underutilized, lack autonomy, are frustrated by a process, or are not getting enough feedback, the value of asking disappears if your first response is to get defensive.

Listen first, understand the issue, and then decide what you can realistically do about it.

One piece of advice I give both clients and candidates is this: once someone gives you feedback, they have already made up their mind about the situation and what matters next is how you receive it and what you do with it.

Make staying worth it

Compensation matters. Benefits matter. Promotions matter.

So do the everyday experiences someone has working for your company.

• →Do they understand what is expected of them?
• →Do they know how they are performing?
• →Does their manager give them honest feedback?
• →Can they see opportunities to grow?
• →Do they feel like strong work is noticed?
• →Do they trust the people they work with?
• →Do they understand how their work contributes to the company?

Those things are built over time. You are also not going to retain everyone forever. People move, priorities change, career goals evolve, and sometimes a great employee finds an opportunity that is simply better for what they want next.

The goal should be to make sure your best people are not leaving for reasons your company could have identified and addressed months earlier.

Start with your next 1 on 1 meeting

You do not need to launch a large retention program to get started. Start with your next 1 on 1.

Ask how they are doing and make sure the person knows what is expected of them. Give them specific feedback. Ask what they want to learn or do next and how they’re thinking about their own growth at the company. Recognize something they are doing well or they are not doing well and deliver this feedback clearly and why it impacts company goals. And most importantly, create enough space for them to tell you when something is not working.

Then keep doing it. This is not a one and done meeting. 1 on 1s should have once a week, especially when someone has recently started and then update the cadence to what works for both of you moving forward.

Retention is built through the experience someone has with your company week after week, not through one conversation after they have already decided to leave.

You worked hard to find the right person. Keep doing the work after they say yes to joining your company.

Explore Fresno Summit Advisors’ free hiring resources and guides for practical tools built from more than a decade of recruiting experience. If your team needs help improving how you hire, onboard, or retain talent, get in touch or email info@fresnosummit.com and we’ll help point you in the right direction.