Talent Management - September 2008 - (Page 35)

When to Let a Good Employee Go Jeff Garton Every talent manager learns the following truth sooner or later: A good employee who is discontent in his or her job will not stay. What’s harder to learn is how to cope with a discontented, but talented employee. The typical kneejerk reaction is for the organization to offer more perks in the hopes that a promotion, raise, vacation, better ofﬁce or other beneﬁts will increase the person’s job satisfaction. There are two ﬂaws in that reaction. First, job satisfaction rarely is attainable. Job satisfaction occurs only occasionally, and even in the most satisfying jobs, it’s human nature to seek out something new or different. Eventually, even after acceptance of various perks, the employee will ﬁnd new things to complain about. Second, a discontented employee is not, in fact, a desirable employee, regardless of his or her talents, skills and potential contributions. A new trend among HR and talent managers is to move away from trying to provide job satisfaction and instead seek employees who have achieved career contentment. Brieﬂy, here’s the distinction. The conditions for job satisfaction — bosses, salary, co-workers, beneﬁts — are just things that can be here today and gone tomorrow. Because they come from the employer, the employee has no control over these conditions for satisfaction. Therefore, if employees hang their career decisions on job satisfaction, they will become discontent. Career contentment, on the other hand, is a state of mind that enables employees to enjoy their work without complaining. True contentment comes from within; it does not come from perks, programs and pay the employer provides. Career contentment is a state of mind that helps employees feel impassioned and fulﬁlled in their work, resilient in the face of setbacks, positive and nimble when challenged, fully in charge of their career paths and able to continually meet or exceed their potential. To ﬁnd out if an employee is truly a good ﬁt for his or her job, ask: • Does the position ﬁt the four “P” needs? People: Does the employee have productive communication and interaction with leaders, supervisors, teams, co-workers and subordinates? Place: Is the employee proud of the company’s products and services, and does he or she harmonize with the company culture? Particulars: Are the employees’ competencies a good match for his or her actual job? Does he or she get the training and resources needed to do it right? Personal: Is the employee growing in the position, and does he or she seem to have work-life balance? • Does the job offer the potential for fulﬁllment? A discontented employee often will feel his or her gifts are not being used fully, and worse, there is no hope that they will be. Fulﬁllment means making a contribution that the worker feels is meaningful. An employer cannot provide meaning; meaning is something an employee has to ﬁnd on his or her own. If the employee seems unfulﬁlled, that person may not have the right job. • Does the position enhance the employee’s marketability? Talent managers want to see a steady increase in the employee’s self-conﬁdence, professional development, leadership abilities and marketability. Is the job helping the employee become a rising star? When a good employee is ambitious but feels limited in a position, this could be a signal it’s time to move on or that the organization should investigate additional development opportunities and responsibilities for the person. In the end, don’t try to hang on to good employees who are discontent. These employees are either in the wrong job or have not developed a predisposition to recognize contentment. If despite the employee’s best efforts and the talent manager’s assistance the person cannot ﬁnd contentment in the organization, he or she might consider changing jobs or careers. An employer cannot always make employees happy; sometimes employees have to do this for themselves. Jeff Garton is founder of Career Contentment Inc., an executive search and career-coaching ﬁrm, and author of Career Contentment: Don’t Settle for Anything Less! He can be reached at editor@talentmgt.com. talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com 35 http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - September 2008

Talent Management - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance: Stop Wasting Money on Training Leading Edge: No Whining, No Excuses Learning Connections: Do You Get It? The Untapped Resource Reinventing HR Doing Compensation Right: The Winning Spread Managing Performance in the Knowledge and Innovation Worker Age Stop-The-Clock Time Management Preparing for the Future in the Public Sector SAS: Connecting People, Process and Products Talent Transformation at Textron The Price of Finding the Right Gen Y Candidate Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential: Do What You Love, Love What You Do

Talent Management - September 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.