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Friday, March 29, 2024

What’s eating Danny? — An attrition tale

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Danny is a call center professional.  He joined the BPO industry as soon as h be finished college and built his career over the years.  People see him as a vibrant, brilliant and passionate employee and colleague and is considered as a “model” employee having stayed with one company for 13 straight years.

In the most recent couple of years, he was promoted twice.  His latest achievement is becoming a senior leader in human resources.  In this role, he liaised between management and employees, addressed grievances and promoted the company’s culture and values.  He did very well in leading employee engagement initiatives like fun run events, summer outings and outreach programs.

One morning, he came to work and filed his resignation.  Everyone was shocked at his decision and it caused a lot of his peers to wonder.  “Why?  What happened?”  Danny got a lot of those.  Danny’s response was not the usual “I got a better offer elsewhere,” “I hate my boss,” or “I need to take care of a sick relative.”  His was one that was difficult to articulate because it was very deeply rooted.  He felt that he could no longer represent the company’s decisions.  Danny felt that he could no longer operate in support of business needs at the expense of what were proclaimed as corporate values.

No longer fits

How does one refute that?  What kind of retention spiel can you say to someone who has realized that he no longer fits?  This is one kind of corporate reality that drives good people away.  In graduate school, we are taught to think about or create vision-mission statements, as well as company values.  These are pillars which help drive the success of the business.  Values shape culture, ultimately culture shapes people.  However, what happens when the environment becomes unbearable to its inhabitants?  There are two natural responses, fight or flight.  The decision to fight it out or to quit lies on the individual’s threshold for pain.  Sometimes, even the toughest ones quit, given the “right” drivers.

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There is an existing model that explains the progression of an employee’s withdrawal from a job, the job dissatisfaction-job withdrawal process.  It describes the change in behavior, physical and psychological.  Alongside these changes comes a negative impact to job involvement and satisfaction.  However, what is not distinctly accounted for in the model is the internal struggle that an employee feels in getting to that point of withdrawal.  Regardless of the trigger, pay, benefits, schedule, workload, in the mind of an employee, there is a “disconnect.”

Mismatch states

Here are a few mismatch states which eventually lead to an employee’s withdrawal from a job:

• Incompatibility–This is likely to happen to new-hires, those whose tenure is less than six months.  Through the course of on-boarding and training, the employee finds it difficult to adhere to rules or exhibit behavior aligned with the company’s values.  Something as simple as greeting every person you meet a “good morning” throughout the day to develop a culture of optimism may seem ridiculous to some.  That simple task might make someone find another work environment that does not force that behavior.

• Delusion–False advertising can be the cause of this occurrence.  Every company markets itself as something, some want to be seen as cool, some others sophisticated, for many premium brands, elite.

• Falling out–This happens when an employee feels a tragic regression of affinity towards his employer.  This is a gradual process of realization triggered by changes in corporate direction, or an employee’s evolving craving for change.

Danny’s case is that of an employee who experienced a falling out with his employer.  He lost faith in the company, in turn; his confidence in his own decision-making and capability diminished.  It is quite heartbreaking to go through any of these states, most especially for an employee like Danny who is a home-grown talent of the company.  His experience and performance is incomparable.  His mentorship will be missed.  His withdrawal from the job was something that could not be salvaged because no monetary value could compensate for how he felt.

Champion corporate culture and values

Employers need to wary of this scenario.  It is true that an institution cannot control what goes on in our minds, but it can certainly influence it a great deal.  Organizational leaders need to contemplate about how they are championing the culture and values of the company in every decision they make.  These decisions trickle down to the front lines as actions and if these actions do not jive well with established corporate and personal values, employees will struggle to execute these actions because it would seem like an imposition on their personal beliefs.

Employees across all levels may possibly experience this internal struggle at varying stages in their tenure.  It can become difficult to detect depending on his degree of physical or psychological withdrawal from the job.  Oftentimes, it is too late to change the employee’s decision when he expresses his intent to leave.  This is when a regular one on one becomes useful for a manager to check on an employee’s overall well-being, not just about about his ability to deliver tasks, but also his feelings towards his environment.

An employee’s separation, whether voluntary or involuntary, ultimately affects the bottomline.  Having to hire replacements doubles up the hiring, onboarding and relationship building cost and efforts.  Loyalty is earned and sustained.  Sustaining loyalty can be difficult and may have to be a conscious effort.  At the end of the day, it reaps quantifiable and intangible benefits.

The story and characters in this article are inspired by real-life scenarios.  Real names have been altered to protect their identities.

Jedediah Marie M. De Jesus is an MBA student of Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business at De La Salle University.  This reflection essay is part of the requirements of the course, Strategic Human Resource Management.

The views expressed above are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of De La Salle University, its faculty, and its administrators.

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