When Good Employees Outgrow Their Roles
There is a particular kind of employee that can be surprisingly easy to overlook.
They are reliable, experienced and generally very good at what they do. They do not need much managing, they get on with things, they meet expectations and, from the outside, there is very little to worry about.
Except that they have stopped growing.
It is not the same as underperformance, and it is not necessarily a sign that they are unhappy. Sometimes it is simply what happens when someone has been in the same role for long enough to master it. The things that once challenged them have become familiar, they know the business inside out and they can probably do much of their job on autopilot.
For an employer, that can be easy to miss, particularly when the person is still doing a perfectly good job.
The problem is that good employees who feel they have reached the limit of what their role can offer do not necessarily complain about it. They may not even tell you they are thinking about moving on. They simply start looking elsewhere for something that gives them a little more to get their teeth into.
And by the time you find out, the decision may already have been made.
Outgrowing a role is not the same as underperforming
One of the reasons this can be difficult to spot is that we tend to associate a potential departure with someone who is struggling, unhappy or obviously disengaged.
An employee who has outgrown their role can look completely different.
They are still producing good work. They may still be dependable and well liked by their colleagues. They are not causing problems and they are certainly not waving a large red flag over the office printer.
What has changed is their appetite for what comes next.
They may be asking fewer questions because they already know the answers. They may have become less interested in taking on another piece of work that feels very similar to what they have been doing for the past few years. They might start looking outside the business for development, new skills or challenges because there simply is not enough of that available within their current role.
None of this means they have stopped caring.
It can simply mean that the person you originally employed has developed beyond the job you originally gave them.
The problem starts before the resignation
There is a tendency to think about employee retention when somebody hands in their notice, but by then you are already dealing with the consequence rather than the cause.
The more useful conversation happens earlier.
If someone has been with you for several years, their knowledge, confidence and capability are likely to have changed considerably. They may now be handling work that would have been beyond them when they first joined. They may have developed strong relationships with clients or colleagues, taken on responsibilities that were never part of the original role, or become the person everyone goes to when something needs sorting out.
And yet their job description may still look remarkably similar to the one they were given when they started.
That is worth noticing.
People do not necessarily need a promotion every time they develop. Not every business has another management position waiting for them, and creating increasingly grand job titles just for the sake of it is unlikely to solve much.
What they often need is a sense that their role is moving with them.
Progression does not always mean promotion
This is particularly relevant for smaller businesses, where there may simply not be several layers of management to climb through.
The answer is not necessarily to create a new position that did not previously exist. There may be other ways to give someone more responsibility and a greater sense of progression.
Could they take ownership of a project? Mentor someone newer to the business? Become responsible for an area that currently sits with you? Take on more client responsibility or become involved in decisions they would previously have had no part in?
Sometimes the most valuable development is not another rung on the ladder, but a wider role on the same ladder.
It is also worth looking at whether the person's responsibilities and salary have kept pace with their contribution.
Most people have a reasonable idea of what their experience and abilities are worth. They will hear things from former colleagues, friends, people in their wider professional network and, yes, sometimes from recruiters. They do not need to be actively looking for another job to become aware that there may be better opportunities elsewhere.
That is why these conversations are much easier to have before there is a competing offer on the table.
Have the conversation while you still have the choice
A proper conversation with your strongest people can tell you a great deal.
Not a performance review where you work through objectives and tick the appropriate boxes, but an honest conversation about where they are now and where they would like to go.
- What do they enjoy about their role?
- What would they like to learn?
- Is there something they would like more responsibility for?
- Do they feel they are still developing?
- And, perhaps most importantly, can they see themselves doing something different within the business in the next couple of years?
You may not be able to give them everything they want. No business can.
But knowing what someone wants gives you the opportunity to have a conversation about what is possible, rather than discovering what they wanted after they have accepted another offer.
Look at the person, not just the job description
There is also a useful exercise for employers who have people who have been with them for a long time.
Take the original job description and compare it with what that person actually does today.
It can be quite revealing.
The person you hired several years ago may have developed considerably since then, while their formal role has barely moved. They may now have skills and knowledge that are being used every day without being properly recognised.
That does not necessarily mean you need to rewrite their entire role, but it is worth asking whether the business is making the most of the person it already has.
Good people tend to notice when they have stopped learning. They also notice when the business around them has stopped noticing.
Do not wait for the resignation letter
There is something very tempting about leaving these conversations until there is a reason to have them...
The workload is busy, there is a client deadline, someone is on holiday, the end of the month needs dealing with and before you know it another six months have disappeared.
Then one day, someone you thought was perfectly happy tells you they have accepted another position. Cue the sudden conversations about whether there was anything you could have done differently.
Quite possibly, there was.
The good news is that it does not require a grand retention strategy or a complicated programme. It starts with paying attention to the people who are doing well, not just the people who need managing.
Your strongest employees are often the ones you can afford to overlook because they are getting on with the job. That is precisely why they deserve a conversation.
Because sometimes a good employee is not looking for a way out. They are simply looking for somewhere to go next.
If you have someone in your business who has been doing a great job for a long time, but you are wondering what might come next for them, it is probably worth having the conversation.
And if you are not quite sure what the next step could look like, I’m always happy to have an informal chat. Sometimes a fresh perspective is all that is needed to work out what might keep a good person moving forward.