The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

If you’re a talent professional looking to improve retention at your company, you may want to start thinking more like an investigative journalist, a real estate agent, and something akin to a “quest enabler.”

According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, many companies are tackling retention with the same old tired approaches that really don’t move the needle much. “So why do organizations persist with those strategies?” HBR asks. “Because they’ve been so focused on challenges such as tight labor markets, relentless cost-cutting pressures, and poaching by industry rivals that they haven’t addressed a more fundamental problem: the widespread failure to provide gratifying work experiences.”

In order to provide these gratifying work experiences, start by thinking like the three professions mentioned above:

Investigative journalist: Companies should learn what compels employees to leave or stick around in a job well before an exit interview. HBR suggests doing a deep dive with an employee soon after they accepted your offer to learn why they left their previous organization. What pushed them away from their old company and pulled them to you? They may feel safer giving you those details in the context of joining your organization rather than leaving it.
Real estate agent: A real estate agent doesn’t rely on the Zillow description to sell a home. Instead, they walk the potential buyer through the house and paint a picture of what it would be like to live there. Why should jobs be any different?
Quest enabler: Every worker is on a personal quest to develop their careers with different motivators and demotivators. How do you identify those factors and then most importantly, help them on their journey?

To learn more about what it takes to help employees in their career quests and improve your retention efforts, be sure to check out HBR’s piece at the top of our list below of must-read articles for talent professionals. And further down our list, you can learn why AI agents will be a key part of the future of HR; why one company decided to scrap salary negotiations entirely; and what could happen if you let an AI tool make your decisions for an entire week.