Are your best employees thinking about leaving?

Would you be open to explore a situation if it were clearly superior to what you’re doing today?

This past weekend I conducted a 10-second survey comparing job-hunting activity with current job satisfaction. So far almost 8,500 people have taken survey, and only 12% indicated they were extremely satisfied with their jobs. I'll discuss the full survey later this week, but these results should give pause to those trying to hire great people, or expecting to retain those already hired. You might want to take the survey yourself before you read the following. Not only will the findings be more accurate, but the comments and suggestions on what to do after getting or giving the “yes” will be more meaningful.

Negotiate Satisfaction, Not Compensation

When I first became a recruiter, my partner and I tried to come up with one question which would guarantee a yes response when calling a fully-employed person who was not looking for another job. After 50 or so different versions, the above question did the trick. Over the next 30 years, and tens of thousands of calls later, recruiters (we’ve trained thousands) who use this question still get a 90% plus positive response rate. If you took the survey, you’ll see the results for yourself – over 95% of those fully-employed answered yes to the question. Surprisingly 85% of those people who classified themselves as absolutely not looking for another job and highly satisfied – the super passives – still answered yes to the question. But this is just the beginning of the story, not the end, so don’t jump to any conclusions. (The survey is still open and the complete results will be posted later this week.)

A few years ago, I conducted a similar survey with LinkedIn. This is fully explained in The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired, but the basic findings are summarized in the graphic. The blue curve represents growth and impact over time. The flattening of the curve indicates declining job satisfaction and a corresponding increase in job-hunting activity. This is shown by the six different job-seeking types.

However, not all jobs are created equal: the less active the person, the better the job needs to be to make the switch. Those not looking at all – the Explorers and Super Passives – would only take a new job if it were an outstanding career move. The most active – Networkers and the Hunters and Posters – would take anything reasonable, including a lateral transfer.

So when a candidate says, “Yes, I’d be open to explore a better career opportunity,” don’t start box-checking skills, comparing salary requirements, or using hyperbole to sell some job you’ve posted online. This is one sure way to prevent an open discussion.

(Side note: if your posted jobs read like lateral transfers, you’re only attracting 17% of the total talent market.)

Recruiters: Don’t Sell the Job, Sell a Short Conversation

Determining if a job represents a true career move takes hours of time spread over weeks, so don’t rush it. A person who is not looking, but is open-minded enough to talk, expects to have a short two-way conversation, sharing their own background while finding out a little about the opportunity. Begin by reviewing the person’s LinkedIn profile for a few minutes, rather than by describing your job opening in any detail. During this initial review you want to determine if the potential for a career move even exists. That’s all. A number of factors are required to meet this standard, including the scope and impact of the job, the overall responsibility, the team size, additional learning opportunities, the visibility of the position to upper management, the rate of change and the long-term potential. All of this needs to be considered in comparison to what the person is now doing. If your opening seems to offer some of these growth opportunities, explain why, and suggest having a more detailed conversation.

Job-seekers: Don’t Start Negotiating Before You Know the Opportunity

Slow down. Stay open-minded. Don’t filter the conversation on what you’d like to get on the day you might start on some new job. If the job doesn’t offer a great career opportunity, you’re not going to take it anyway, so don’t worry about the salary, title, company or location during the first call. If the job is truly great, you’ll adjust your opening requirements, and if you’re the right candidate, the company will adjust theirs.

While over 90% of all passive candidates will agree to an exploratory career conversation, recruiters and candidates alike have a tendency to rush to the close before they understand the beginning. From a practical standpoint don’t use short-term information to determine if you should enter into a long-term career discussion. By doing so, you'll likely miss out on ever having the long-term career discussion.

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Lou Adler (@LouA) is the creator of Performance-based Hiring and the author of the Amazon Top 10 business best-seller, Hire With Your Head (Wiley, 2007). His new book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired, (Workbench, 2013) has recently been published. Feel free to join Lou's new LinkedIn group and explore his Wisdom About Work series on Faceback.