Your best employee probably isn’t announcing that they just updated their resume.
They’re still showing up. They’re meeting deadlines, helping coworkers, solving problems, and generally being the person everyone knows they can count on.
And they might also be wondering what else is out there.
That’s one of the tricky things about employee retention. Your most dependable employees don’t always look disengaged before they leave. There may be no warning that a resignation letter is coming.
By the time you realize they were unhappy or simply ready for something more, the conversation about what could have kept them is happening a little too late.
The best employee retention strategies are the conversations, decisions, and investments employers make while their best people are still on the team.
So, instead of waiting for your top employee to tell you they’ve accepted another offer, it might be time to ask a more useful question:
What would make them want to stay?
TLDR: Effective employee retention strategies start before the resignation letter. Review whether compensation remains competitive, create visible paths for growth, make sure reliability isn’t rewarded solely with additional work, ask employees what they actually want, and consider whether your strongest people would still choose your company today.
Questions you should be asking about your most reliable employees to safeguard retention…
- Is their compensation competitive?
- Do they know what’s coming next?
- Has being reliable only earned them more work?
- Have you asked them what they want / need in their work?
- Would they choose your company again?
Your Most Reliable Employees May Be the Easiest to Overlook
There’s an interesting problem that happens with really good employees: they make things look easy.
They don’t need constant reminders. They figure things out. They step in when something needs to get done.
And because managers trust them, they often require less day-to-day attention than employees who are struggling. That trust is a good thing, until reliability accidentally turns into invisibility.
When most of your management energy goes toward solving problems, it’s surprisingly easy to stop checking in with the people who aren’t creating any. Their performance is strong, so we assume everything else must be fine too.
But someone can be excellent at their job while simultaneously wondering whether they’re still learning, being compensated fairly, or building the career they want.
If you want to retain top talent, your strongest employees deserve attention before they give you a reason to worry.
Here are five questions worth asking about your top performers:
Is Their Compensation Still Competitive?
An employee may have been thrilled with their salary when they joined your organization three years ago. That doesn’t necessarily mean their compensation still reflects their experience or what another Indianapolis employer might be willing to pay them today.
As employees grow within their roles, they become more valuable. They learn your systems, build relationships, take on additional responsibilities, and develop institutional knowledge that can be difficult to replace.
Sometimes those responsibilities accumulate so gradually that compensation never quite catches up.
Then an employee begins casually exploring other opportunities and discovers something important: the external market values the experience they’ve gained at your company more highly than you currently do.
That’s not a realization you want them having for the first time when another company’s offer letter lands in their inbox.
Regular compensation reviews are an important part of effective employee retention strategies, even when an employee hasn’t explicitly asked for a raise. Employers should understand how salaries compare to the local market and whether long-tenured employees have kept pace as their responsibilities have evolved.
Not sure how your compensation stacks up? Our Indianapolis Salary Guide can help you benchmark current local salary ranges and make more informed compensation decisions before your best people start comparing offers.
Do They Know What’s Coming Next?
Not every employee wants to climb a traditional corporate ladder, but most people want some sense that they’re moving forward.
That could mean a promotion, increased responsibility, exposure to new projects, professional development, leadership opportunities, or simply the chance to build skills they haven’t had an opportunity to use yet.
When talented employees can’t see what comes next inside your organization, they may eventually start looking for that next step somewhere else.
And here’s where employers sometimes get caught off guard: the employee may never explicitly ask for a promotion.
They may assume the lack of conversation means there isn’t an opportunity available. Meanwhile, their manager assumes they’ll speak up when they’re ready for something different.
That’s a communication gap worth closing.
Career conversations shouldn’t only happen when an employee is asking for a new title. Ask your strongest people what they’d like to learn, what responsibilities interest them, and where they’d like their career to go.
Even if you can’t offer an immediate promotion, showing employees that there’s a future worth working toward can be a meaningful reason to stay.
Has Being Reliable Simply Earned Them More Work?
You know the employee.
Something urgent comes up? Give it to them.
Someone leaves unexpectedly? They can cover it.
A new initiative needs an owner? They’ll figure it out.
High performers often become the default solution to workplace problems precisely because they’ve proven they can handle them. But there’s a difference between recognizing someone’s capabilities and repeatedly rewarding great work with…more work.
Over time, the dependable employee can become the overloaded employee.
If responsibilities have steadily increased, take a closer look at whether their resources, title, compensation, and authority have expanded with them. Are they getting opportunities because leadership sees their potential, or are they simply absorbing tasks because everyone knows they’ll get them done?
This is where meaningful recognition goes beyond saying, “Great job.”
Sometimes the best way to retain top talent is to make sure being great at their job actually improves their job satisfaction.
When Were They Last Asked What They Want?
Annual reviews have their place, but employee retention shouldn’t depend on one formal conversation every 12 months.
People’s priorities change. An employee who wanted rapid advancement two years ago may care more about flexibility today.
Someone who once preferred working independently may now be interested in leadership.
Another employee may be perfectly happy with their responsibilities but frustrated by a process that makes doing their job unnecessarily difficult.
You won’t necessarily know unless you ask. Thankfully, the question doesn’t need to be complicated.
What would make your job better? What do you want more of? What would you like to do less of?
Regular, genuine conversations allow employers to understand what matters to their employees while there is still time to do something with that information.
You may not be able to accommodate every request. That’s okay. The point is to avoid learning what your best employee wanted during their exit interview.
Related Post: Maximize Happiness in the Workplace: A Guide to Employee Benefits
Would They Choose Your Company Again Today?
This might be the most uncomfortable question on this list (and the most useful).
Imagine your best employee was making their employment decision today with everything they now know about your organization.
Would they still choose you? Would the compensation feel competitive? Would they be excited about the growth opportunities?
Employees don’t stop evaluating their jobs once they accept an offer. They ask themselves questions like:
- Does my workload feel sustainable?
- Would I recommend my manager?
- Does the flexibility, benefits, culture, and day-to-day experience compare favorably with the other opportunities available to them?
One of the smartest employee retention strategies is to periodically look at your workplace through the eyes of someone who has options.
Related Post: 5 Exit Interview Questions Every Employer Should Be Asking
Retention Isn’t About Making It Impossible to Leave
Even the strongest retention strategy won’t keep every employee forever. Nor should that be the goal.
People relocate. Career goals change. New opportunities arise.
Sometimes leaving genuinely is the right next step for an employee, and no counteroffer, perk, or retention initiative should change that.
Good retention is about making sure talented employees aren’t leaving for reasons your organization could have addressed months earlier.
That’s an important distinction because it shifts retention away from trying to prevent every resignation and toward building an organization people continue to choose.
When employees are compensated fairly, see opportunities ahead, feel heard, and believe their contributions are recognized, you’ve given them meaningful reasons to stay.
And if they eventually decide it’s time to move on anyway, you’re far less likely to be blindsided by why.
FAQ’s: Employee Retention Edition
A counteroffer can make sense in some circumstances, but employers should first understand why the employee decided to leave. If the underlying issue involves growth, leadership, workload, culture, or another concern that a salary increase won’t solve, more money may only delay the departure.
A better long-term approach is identifying those concerns before an employee reaches the resignation stage.
Yes. A performance review primarily evaluates an employee’s work, while a stay interview focuses on the employee’s experience with the organization and what might influence them to remain.
Stay interviews can create space for conversations about motivation, frustrations, career goals, management, and workplace improvements without tying everything back to performance.
Your organization should aim to create a strong employee experience for everyone, but different employees are motivated by different things. High performers may place particular value on autonomy, meaningful challenges, advancement, recognition, or opportunities to expand their impact.
Rather than assuming what will retain someone, managers should understand what matters to each individual employee.
Some turnover is natural and can even be healthy for an organization. The goal of employee retention isn’t zero turnover – it’s reducing preventable departures and creating an environment where strong employees have compelling reasons to stay.
Looking at who is leaving and why can often tell employers more than the turnover percentage alone.
How That’s Good HR Can Help You Retain (and Recruit) Great People
At That’s Good HR, we spend a lot of time talking with both sides of the Indianapolis employment market.
We hear what employers are struggling with, but we also hear what candidates are looking for, why they’re open to leaving their current companies, what makes an opportunity stand out, and what ultimately makes them say yes.
That perspective can be incredibly valuable when you’re thinking about how to retain top talent as well as how to replace it.
👉 From understanding competitive compensation to building a stronger hiring strategy when you do need to grow your team, That’s Good HR can help you make more informed talent decisions.
If you’re thinking about your next hire, or wondering what today’s candidates expect from Indianapolis employers, let’s talk.
