Getting new hires quickly into a work-related team task can help keep them happy.
KARL MOORE – This is Karl Moore of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University with Talking Management for The Globe and Mail. Today I am delighted to speak to my colleague Brian Rubineau.
Brian, tell us about your research on peers and how to reduce turnover, particularly in STEM companies.
BRIAN RUBINEAU – Well, there has been a lot of existing research showing that if you have relationships with other people within the organization that you work you are more likely to stay in that organization.
Now, this research, the old soft correlation is not causation, we know that there is correlation between these two things, but my research is on trying to focus on which relationships really matter in terms of can we identify a causal relation between social relationships and the reduction in turnover in increasing persistence. I was able to do this and focusing on people in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) careers, and found that it was really task related relationships, so interdependencies, work-related relationships where you are doing the work of the career of the profession. The more relationships that you have with people in your profession the more likely you are to stay.
KARL MOORE – Brian is that in the profession, or the profession in the organization?
BRIAN RUBINEAU – It is in the profession. So I was looking at the persistence of people in the STEM careers, focusing on the transition from school to work places. It was the people who had these task relationships with other STEM individuals that persisted in STEM careers.
KARL MOORE – What is the implication of this?
BRIAN RUBINEAU – Firms that are trying to hire people and trying to hire interns, especially engineering firms who are hiring interns, and turn over among particularly women in engineering is a big problem and they are trying to find ways to retain their women and everyone they are hiring.
One of the implications of this is the sooner you can actually build these task relationships the more likely these people are to stay. So, I was talking with some engineering firms, I had the opportunity to interact with them, and my suggestion of what I was encouraging them to do was, as soon as possible, create some kind of project, some kind of work-related project, for the people you are hiring. The sooner you can have this project where they are working together with incoming cohorts or the new hires or existing employees, it doesn't really matter, the sooner you do that the sooner they will be building these relationships that will encourage them to stay.