Keeping Suzanne Chalmers

API is seeing the problem of turnover up close, and it needs to do a better job of addressing it. The case of Suzanne Chalmers leaving to travel for a few months and then join a start-up is a case in point: she does not give any indication that the workplace is an issue; it is simply that she is ready to go somewhere new. There is also the potential of earnings being more lucrative somewhere else due to stock options that start-ups can offer.

It is always difficult when an employee wants to resign, but there are some things that one can do in order to keep them on board. First of all, it is important to try and find out the reasons why they want to leave. Chan attempts to do this, but comes up well short. Chalmers does not give him anything to go on. To get a better idea of why the employee wants to leave, it is important to keep closer contact with employees before they come into the office to resign. That way, one can see what is going on before the phone...

Also, when management is closer to staff, the odds of developing tighter workplace relationships is greater, and employee job satisfaction may be higher. When managers show employees along the way they are valuednot just at the point of departureemployees...…Chalmers is leaving because she wants to be empowered; she wants to be in control of her own destiny. If she felt that way already, she would not see a need to leave API.

The motivational theory that best explains this case is Maslows (1943) theory of motivationthe hierarchy of human needs: Chalmers wants to be self-actualizing and is moving in that direction by leaving API. To reach that level, however, she has to first satisfy a few lower level needs. If Chan and API had focused all along on satisfying those needs for her, they would not be in the position they now find themselves: she would see that she has become self-actualized by way of API…