PEOPLE
Why would you wait until people have already committed to walk out the door?
Adam Grant Organisational Psychologist Wharton anyone a reason to stay, so the sharper spend goes to the top performers, bigger bonuses, better projects, real autonomy – all delivered before a counteroffer ever becomes necessary. The data side has learned to see the exits coming. Pay history, promotion gaps and engagement scores, read together, will name a flight risk months before a recruiter does, and flexibility remains the cheapest concession on the table. What the numbers cannot do is have the conversation. That is where Adam Grant, the Wharton organisational psychologist, loses patience. Companies, he told the World Economic Forum, interview people about their reasons for leaving at precisely the wrong moment. His fix – entry interviews and stay interviews – is spreading for the plainest of reasons, a conversation held before the notice period can still change the answer. Exit interviews, he argues, arrive too late to count, and his explanation doubles as this whole story’ s moral.“ It is the dumbest time to run them,” Adam said.“ Why would you wait until people have already committed to walk out the door to say,‘ if only I had a time machine, I would go back to the past to convince you to stay’.” businesschief. com 83