Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

hrdive.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 247 posts

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#11

Post by gsibble »

panny wrote: post #8
bbatchelder wrote: post #2

Too many times in my career have I seen an employer lose an employee, who has a ton of institutional knowledge and performs adequately or even excellently, only to replace them them with someone that ends up costing much more money, and then takes a lot of time to get up to speed (which also slows the folks who help get them up to speed). It is like they haven't taken the time to even make a rudimentary calculation o…

But accounting and HR will time your bathroom breaks. I guess the watchers don't like being watched, which is why retention isn't a bother for them.

Ha. I had the CFO once call me angrily asking where I was......I was in the bathroom. She told me to get back to my desk. I took my time.

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#12

Post by gsibble »

nuancebydefault wrote: post #4

The weird thing is, if you, as an employee start to show feint signs of wanting to leave, e.g. by complaining a lot to colleagues, or having an upset look on one's face, usually it is not acted upon, or even not picked up by any manager. If on the other hand you make it very clear that you are unhappy or that you might want to leave, it is understood as you are going to leave anyway, so they don't bother fixing any o…

You didn't break up with me, I broke up with you!

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#13

Post by gsibble »

mindvirus wrote: post #5

When I was at a FAANG, it felt like they had this down to a science. Promotions every 2-3 years. Raises once a year, a few spot bonuses throughout the year, ad hoc equity grants. People still quit of course, but looking back it felt very retention focused and scientific.

They do seem to have it down. Startups on the other hand absolutely do not.

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#15

Post by jamra »

roflyear wrote: post #9
mindvirus wrote: post #5

When I was at a FAANG, it felt like they had this down to a science. Promotions every 2-3 years. Raises once a year, a few spot bonuses throughout the year, ad hoc equity grants. People still quit of course, but looking back it felt very retention focused and scientific.

Bonuses at all, nevermind a few a year, sound great. Time to send out resumes. What's the workload at the typical FAANG?

So far there is a pretty serious tempo at my FAANG but the complexity is not very high so it’s really simple work in terms of stretching the brain.

Lots of working with other teams (XFN) so collaboration is almost as important as execution. Pay is good.

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#16

Post by gsibble »

roflyear wrote: post #9
mindvirus wrote: post #5

When I was at a FAANG, it felt like they had this down to a science. Promotions every 2-3 years. Raises once a year, a few spot bonuses throughout the year, ad hoc equity grants. People still quit of course, but looking back it felt very retention focused and scientific.

Bonuses at all, nevermind a few a year, sound great. Time to send out resumes. What's the workload at the typical FAANG?

From what I've heard, depends upon the FAANG. Google apparently has good work/life balance. All of them are all about making it through the interview process, which is a nightmare.

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#17

Post by woeirua »

When people say they want career progression, and opportunities, what they mostly mean is they want more money. Unfortunately, most companies have fallen into the trap where if someone has a title of X they can only make up to Y, regardless of how good they are at their job or how long they've done it. When that happens then the name of the game is getting a promotion in order to keep making more money. That creates a perverse incentive, and the result is political bullshit that is typically misaligned with the company's interests which further drives away your high performers.

End the perverse incentives. Pay your people well if they're doing a good job, regardless of how long they've been doing the same job or what their title is. Reward seniority and loyalty. Suddenly, you'll find that employee retention goes through the roof, and you don't have to worry about hiring new people all the time.

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#18

Post by afarrell »

woeirua wrote: post #17

When people say they want career progression, and opportunities, what they mostly mean is they want more money. Unfortunately, most companies have fallen into the trap where if someone has a title of X they can only make up to Y, regardless of how good they are at their job or how long they've done it. When that happens then the name of the game is getting a promotion in order to keep making more money. That creates…

Or at least raise the salary cap alongside seniority for roles beyond a certain level.

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#19

Post by gsibble »

woeirua wrote: post #17

When people say they want career progression, and opportunities, what they mostly mean is they want more money. Unfortunately, most companies have fallen into the trap where if someone has a title of X they can only make up to Y, regardless of how good they are at their job or how long they've done it. When that happens then the name of the game is getting a promotion in order to keep making more money. That creates…

Almost all of the companies I worked at hired senior positions from outside the company instead of promoting from within.

The other issue I ran into was being so good at the position I was in that I was "unpromotable". Got told that a lot as an IC. Was then told even though I was fully qualified for the promotion, I would not get it nor the accompanying salary.

Re: Employers should prioritize retention over hiring, study suggests

#20

Post by neilv »

mindvirus wrote: post #5

When I was at a FAANG, it felt like they had this down to a science. Promotions every 2-3 years. Raises once a year, a few spot bonuses throughout the year, ad hoc equity grants. People still quit of course, but looking back it felt very retention focused and scientific.

I prefer to think of it like flowers from an SO, just because.

"Hey, my valued employee, just thinking about you, and I wanted to send you these additional United States Dollars."

Post reply on HN