4 ms·

The new way your boss can tell if you’re about to quit your job

8 points by dsr12 8y ago

wjossey 8y ago
Non paywall version: https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/the-new-way-your-boss-can-tell-if-you-re/article_1d0df8a1-9d9d-5f09-a8d0-be26e2585e92.html https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/the-new-way-your-b...
- NikkiA 8y ago
  It might be non-paywall, but it's GDPR blocked.
wjossey 8y ago
I’ve spent the past two years building a non AI, non ML, human based approach to talent development and retention, so I can safely call BS on IBMs approach. People leave for a multitude of reasons, and while some are more common than others, every person has unique motivations and needs that drive their choices. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s the commute. Sometimes it’s the work. Sometimes it’s their manager. Sometimes it’s....... We encourage companies to think about how to coach and train their managers to identify these needs at a human to human level, rather than relying on a computer to try to figure this out. Building a meaningful relationship between a manager and a report is critically important, and if you do this, you’re far more likely to know well in advance when someone is thinking about leaving because it’ll have been discussed. The move towards quantifying employees is a bad one and will backfire long term if it comes with further atrophy of the important skills every manager needs to develop. Shameless plug- I do free mentoring for managers every day of the week. Would love to help anyone out there who is a manager or leader and needs someone to talk to. https://freemanagermentors.com https://freemanagermentors.com I also own a company that runs a remote cohort program for managers and leaders, which focuses on helping managers be their best for their people. https://connect.eagerlabs.com https://connect.eagerlabs.com It’s my small way of trying to help make sure we don’t cede responsibility for being great managers to computers, just so we can say we “use AI”.
- jaclaz 8y ago
  JFYI, Mr.Parker Pyne (Agatha Christie, circa 1934): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Pyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Pyne >He has a theory that there are five main types of unhappiness and all are logically solvable.
  - wjossey 8y ago
    Thanks for sharing. Hadn’t ever read those novels (just sometimes see BBC remakes of the books). While I don’t try to make people happy, I feel like I should put that on my business card :)
aiCeivi9 8y ago
Wasn't that old Big Data/ML joke how big corporation supplied ML solution vendor with all available data to search for correlations and the result was: "People are more likely to quit job if they visit linkedIn".
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ramblerman 8y ago
> For instance, the system spotted one software engineer who hadn’t been promoted at the same rate as three female peers who all came from the same top university computer science program. The women had all been at IBM for four years, but worked in different parts of the sprawling company. While her manager didn’t know she was comparing herself to these women, the engineer was all too aware her former classmates had been promoted and she hadn’t, Gherson said. After the risk was flagged, she was given more mentoring and stretch assignments and remains at IBM. There is no evidence she was planning to leave in the first place. I'd like to see a proper experiment that shows higher retention in a double blind, this sounds like marketing BS.
- weego 8y ago
  It also sounds more like it's a sales pitch to implement personal development like the Valentine's Day approach to relationships. Make an effort once a year and hope it's enough. Why would it take so called AI to do what her line management should be implementing as standard across the board for anyone, let alone top university grads?
- wjossey 8y ago
  Yep, completely agree. You'd also have to convince me that this doesn't have unintended consequences as well if HR suddenly reaches out to you with a message around them being concerned you'd leave, but you have no idea why. "Wait... Why should I want to leave? Is there something I'm missing out on that I'm not aware of?" There's also an immediate extension of this where they do begin to snoop on email and communications between employees to try to measure this. While IBM clarifies that they don't do this today, it's in people operation's incentives to begin to do this if it improves the metrics they're assessed against.

8 points by dsr12 8y ago

Non paywall version: https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/the-new-way-your-boss-can-tell-if-you-re/article_1d0df8a1-9d9d-5f09-a8d0-be26e2585e92.html https://www.unionleader.com/news/business/the-new-way-your-b...

NikkiA 8y ago
It might be non-paywall, but it's GDPR blocked.

wjossey 8y ago

I’ve spent the past two years building a non AI, non ML, human based approach to talent development and retention, so I can safely call BS on IBMs approach. People leave for a multitude of reasons, and while some are more common than others, every person has unique motivations and needs that drive their choices. Sometimes it’s money. Sometimes it’s the commute. Sometimes it’s the work. Sometimes it’s their manager. Sometimes it’s....... We encourage companies to think about how to coach and train their managers to identify these needs at a human to human level, rather than relying on a computer to try to figure this out. Building a meaningful relationship between a manager and a report is critically important, and if you do this, you’re far more likely to know well in advance when someone is thinking about leaving because it’ll have been discussed. The move towards quantifying employees is a bad one and will backfire long term if it comes with further atrophy of the important skills every manager needs to develop. Shameless plug- I do free mentoring for managers every day of the week. Would love to help anyone out there who is a manager or leader and needs someone to talk to. https://freemanagermentors.com https://freemanagermentors.com I also own a company that runs a remote cohort program for managers and leaders, which focuses on helping managers be their best for their people. https://connect.eagerlabs.com https://connect.eagerlabs.com It’s my small way of trying to help make sure we don’t cede responsibility for being great managers to computers, just so we can say we “use AI”.

jaclaz 8y ago
JFYI, Mr.Parker Pyne (Agatha Christie, circa 1934): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Pyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Pyne >He has a theory that there are five main types of unhappiness and all are logically solvable.
- wjossey 8y ago
  Thanks for sharing. Hadn’t ever read those novels (just sometimes see BBC remakes of the books). While I don’t try to make people happy, I feel like I should put that on my business card :)

aiCeivi9 8y ago

Wasn't that old Big Data/ML joke how big corporation supplied ML solution vendor with all available data to search for correlations and the result was: "People are more likely to quit job if they visit linkedIn".

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ramblerman 8y ago

> For instance, the system spotted one software engineer who hadn’t been promoted at the same rate as three female peers who all came from the same top university computer science program. The women had all been at IBM for four years, but worked in different parts of the sprawling company. While her manager didn’t know she was comparing herself to these women, the engineer was all too aware her former classmates had been promoted and she hadn’t, Gherson said. After the risk was flagged, she was given more mentoring and stretch assignments and remains at IBM. There is no evidence she was planning to leave in the first place. I'd like to see a proper experiment that shows higher retention in a double blind, this sounds like marketing BS.

weego 8y ago
It also sounds more like it's a sales pitch to implement personal development like the Valentine's Day approach to relationships. Make an effort once a year and hope it's enough. Why would it take so called AI to do what her line management should be implementing as standard across the board for anyone, let alone top university grads?
wjossey 8y ago
Yep, completely agree. You'd also have to convince me that this doesn't have unintended consequences as well if HR suddenly reaches out to you with a message around them being concerned you'd leave, but you have no idea why. "Wait... Why should I want to leave? Is there something I'm missing out on that I'm not aware of?" There's also an immediate extension of this where they do begin to snoop on email and communications between employees to try to measure this. While IBM clarifies that they don't do this today, it's in people operation's incentives to begin to do this if it improves the metrics they're assessed against.