• What do you think is the most demotivating part of Harper’s job?
Harper is having a hard time managing the additional work responsibilities she has had to pick up since her prior boss, Jose, left the company. It seems that Harper loves what she does and is a team player. She has been doing her best to try and meet her goals while the company and her co-workers adapted to this change. She is frustrated because she is constantly behind on her work and taking on some of Jose’s responsibilities has affected her ability to maintain an appropriate work/life balance. Her new supervisor has been unable to dedicate any time to her professional development or to make her feel valued and appreciated. Harper expected the company to eventually fill Jose’s role and for things to return to some level of normalcy. Yet, six months have passed, and Jose’s role has not been filled. In fact, the company has put a Team Leader in place, who like Harper is overworked and overburdened, since he is supervising a team of six, unlike Jose who only supervised a team of two.

• If you were an HR manager meeting with Harper’s supervisor, David, what advice would you give to help them re-engage Harper?
I would meet with David and advise him to have a sit down meeting with Harper. Perhaps, take her out to lunch, which would allow for a more casual setting, away from the office and distractions. While at lunch he should thank her for being a team player, taking on additional responsibilities, and discuss the possibility of her assuming Jose’s role or transitioning her to a junior management role, if he feels she is not yet ready to assume Jose’s prior position. David should schedule a follow up in office meeting where Harper should give him a detailed accounting of what additional duties she has taken on since Jose’s departure so that David can determine if there is anything in her process that can be streamlined to avoid duplicity of work and maximize efficiency. David may even ask her for suggestions on what she feels may alleviate her workload. David should also meet with the rest of the members on his team to ensure that the workload is being distributed evenly. There is an adage that says that often people will choose “the path of least resistance”. Sometimes certain people on a team are more burdened than others because they never say no and are always willing to help whereas other team members may be resistant or not as pleasant when others approach them with new tasks or problems.

• What would be the downside of losing Harper as an employee?
Losing Harper will create issues in lost productivity while the new employee learns the job, lost productivity of coworkers helping the new employee, decrease employee morale, cause customer service disruption, replacement and transition costs of hiring, and the burnout of other employees. Harper has been on the job for four years and has institutional knowledge which will not be easy to replace. In addition, it is not often that you find an employee who is as invested in their position because they love what they do. Harper’s replacement may not be as enthusiastic about the work and may leave just as quickly as they came. The time and money invested in the new employee would be an additional turnover expense.

The strategies that would assist David in reengaging Harper as indicated in the article “Eight Effective Retention Strategies” would be:

1. INVEST IN EMPLOYEES’ PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
2. ESTABLISH CLEAR-CUT EXPECTATIONS AND POLICIES
4. CREATE A CULTURE OF OPEN COMMUNICATION
5. MAKE IT A PRIORITY TO HELP EMPLOYEES FEEL VALUED
6. DON’T OVERBURDEN EMPLOYEES
8. UNDERSTAND WHY EMPLOYEES STAY