Employee Retention  

I see a lot of posts about hiring Veterans and Military spouses.  I haven’t seen to many about retaining them. 

Employee retention is extremely important.  Why go through the time and expense of hiring someone only to watch them quit a short time later? 

As a Hiring Manager and company, especially when hiring a Veteran or Spouse, you need to do what you can to provide an environment that allows them to do their best work.  It can be a huge culture shift from military to corporate, what tools do you have in place to help in that transition? 

There was a time when I was at a company, and we hired a Veteran to the team.  I was excited to play a part in this person getting the role.  I had gotten to know this person and over time, they would come to me and complain.  Complain that their teammates didn’t take their work seriously.  They showed up to work after 9 am, spend too much time gibber jabbing at each other’s desks instead of working.  Leaving early.  It bothered this person.  It was not the environment that they were used to, or where they came from. 

I tried to explain the culture of the company, how people took their computers home and worked from home to avoid traffic, or had to drop off/pick up their kids and while they may leave early, they would work later from home.  He had a hard time adjusting, and in the end, left the company. 

We failed.  He is a good person, smart, good at his job, and would have been successful if he stayed.  Where did we go wrong?  How did the company fail to recognize they were losing a good employee? 

We failed to retain.  We failed to have mechanisms in place to help this person make that adjustment.  How do you ensure that once you hire someone, they have the tools they need to succeed?  Is retention a focus at your company?