An employee calls their manager to explain why they’re leaving.
Maybe they’re burned out. Or unsatisfied with their salary. This new opportunity was too good to pass up, they might say — an unforeseen chance to continue their professional journey.
For the manager on the receiving end, it’s a difficult situation to navigate. You’re happy to see them grow, but disappointed to lose a talented employee. Worse yet, there’s only one question at your disposal, and it’s unlikely you’ll get much clarity from the departing employee.
“Is there anything we could have done to keep you here?”
By now it’s too late. But maybe next time it won’t be. As Bogdan Ilisie, director of engineering at NYC fintech company Current explained, beginning these conversations before the exit interview will go a long way toward retaining employees.
“One-on-one meetings provide an opportunity to better understand the on-the-ground perspective and concerns of employees that might not otherwise emerge during our busy work days,” said Ilisie, who favors open-ended questions when touching base with direct reports.
“I have a deep desire to see each and every one of my employees thrive and become better technologists, while also contributing to the company’s success.”
Before beginning these discussions, though, it’s critical to know what motivates employees to stay with an organization — and why. That’s why Built In NYC met with Ilisie and Covera Health Chief Technology Officer Briant Hart to learn how they build strong relationships and communication habits to ensure job satisfaction among their employees.
What Current does: Current aims to empower its members with fintech services that improve their financial health and create better financial outcomes.
What are three of the most important questions a manager should ask their direct reports?
1. What do you want to talk about?
This is not a direct question, but rather a conscious effort to allow the person to express themselves, whether it be about personal problems, project frustrations, lack of clarity or things that may have flown under my radar.
2. Do your current priorities make sense?
Having a clear understanding of the roadmap is a prerequisite for concise and timely solutions. This not only encourages more visibility and collaboration between employees, but also boosts morale since they can see how their efforts directly impact our overall vision.
3. What can I do to directly help you?
You’d be surprised how often technical advice is requested by senior developers. It’s the topic of many informal conversations and one-on-ones with technical staff around the company. I love dedicating time to walking through technical solutions, problems or issues with staff when requested.
Why are these questions so important to ask?
It boils down to building an authentic connection with employees that’s grounded in trust. I limit the amount of influence I exert on our conversation so that employees feel open to expressing themselves as freely as possible.
It boils down to building an authentic connection with employees that’s grounded in trust.”
How does asking questions like these impact the relationships you have with your direct reports?
Employees can find the complexity of a startup overwhelming and require a fair bit of encouragement. Just as often, though, they seek direct help in reaching early milestones, which impact their confidence and their sense of purpose within the organization. Keeping a healthy and authentic communication channel helps develop confident employees who feel supported, heard and valued.
There is a recurring theme of employees who transitioned from larger companies and found it difficult at first to find their way to success at Current. As a lean and relatively flat organization, most of our employees have a direct or close relationship with higher management. I meet with every member of our engineering team monthly to build relationships and have a pulse on how everyone is doing.
We actively strive to promote a level of transparency where employees are encouraged to share their opinions and ideas. There’s always room for improvement at a startup, and having employees feel heard empowers them to make meaningful changes in the way we work.
What Covera Health does: Covera Health uses advanced clinical analytics to help healthcare providers and payers better define, measure and deliver care to patients everywhere.
What are three of the most important questions a manager should ask their direct reports?
- What are your top priorities for the week?
- Where are we in terms of project health, customers, partners and commitments?
- Do you have any blockers I can help with?
Why are these questions so important to ask?
These questions drive consistency of understanding, alignment and focus on business priorities, while also helping to proactively observe challenges and quickly ideate on potential alternatives before the challenge or blocker is realized. Additionally, they help to avoid waste and unintentional failure. While I’m a big fan of failing fast, I’m a bigger fan of collaborating and working hard to avoid failure.
While I’m a big fan of failing fast, I’m a bigger fan of collaborating and working hard to avoid failure.”
How does asking questions like these impact the relationships you have with your direct reports?
These questions diagram a roadmap for direct reports by reinforcing alignment, expectations and priorities. I call this kind of planning “knowing your numbers” — reviewing active projects to make sure everything is headed in the right direction. A direct report operating at a high level will be able to easily address the status of certain projects by demonstrating their knowledge of the numbers. Conversely, a question, pain point or misunderstanding of the numbers will evolve the meeting into a deeper conversation that results in better alignment of why “the numbers” help us operate at a higher level.
