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> At a time when employee retention should be of a top concern First line of the page. The entire development of the article hinges on this being true but I se

by IMTDb 2y ago

> At a time when employee retention should be of a top concern First line of the page. The entire development of the article hinges on this being true but I see no sign of justification or reasoning behind this affirmation.

Raed667 2y ago
because companies keep claiming that retention is a top concern
- bluGill 2y ago
  > companies keep claiming that retention is a top concern when times are good. Fixed that for you. When times are good it is hard to find people and so they care about them. However the real test is when times are not good. If retention was a concern it will show up when times are bad - but it doesn't so we know that it isn't a real concern. Of course if it is a concern management has a much harder job. They can no longer hire as many people in the good times as they would then have to let good people go. Much easier to give them a cheap foosball table or something that makes it look like they care without making their job hard.
benterix 2y ago
I don't get your point. High turnover means unnecessary costs. And especially in senior positions it might take years to get the necessary experience to get equally productive. So unless you really aim at the very bottom, you should care about employee retention.
- bluGill 2y ago
  You and I know that, but I see no evidence that any management anywhere does. Thus there is the real possibility we are wrong. It isn't good if you are a senior engineer who doesn't want to go into management - you have no career path to advance.
adrianmonk 2y ago
Agreed. There's a lack of justification, and moreover I would expect the opposite. With all the recent layoffs, right now many companies might be OK with some attrition. It's one of the least ugly ways to reduce payroll costs. It's not as bad for PR or morale as layoffs would be. And you don't have to pay severance. And if you lose more employees than you wanted to, it should be easy to hire new people because of laid off people who haven't found new jobs yet. Sure, losing valued senior employees will have a negative impact. But they're also usually paid a lot, so I doubt business people will cry very hard about it.

by IMTDb 2y ago

Raed667 2y ago

because companies keep claiming that retention is a top concern

bluGill 2y ago
> companies keep claiming that retention is a top concern when times are good. Fixed that for you. When times are good it is hard to find people and so they care about them. However the real test is when times are not good. If retention was a concern it will show up when times are bad - but it doesn't so we know that it isn't a real concern. Of course if it is a concern management has a much harder job. They can no longer hire as many people in the good times as they would then have to let good people go. Much easier to give them a cheap foosball table or something that makes it look like they care without making their job hard.

benterix 2y ago

I don't get your point. High turnover means unnecessary costs. And especially in senior positions it might take years to get the necessary experience to get equally productive. So unless you really aim at the very bottom, you should care about employee retention.

bluGill 2y ago
You and I know that, but I see no evidence that any management anywhere does. Thus there is the real possibility we are wrong. It isn't good if you are a senior engineer who doesn't want to go into management - you have no career path to advance.

adrianmonk 2y ago

Agreed. There's a lack of justification, and moreover I would expect the opposite. With all the recent layoffs, right now many companies might be OK with some attrition. It's one of the least ugly ways to reduce payroll costs. It's not as bad for PR or morale as layoffs would be. And you don't have to pay severance. And if you lose more employees than you wanted to, it should be easy to hire new people because of laid off people who haven't found new jobs yet. Sure, losing valued senior employees will have a negative impact. But they're also usually paid a lot, so I doubt business people will cry very hard about it.