3. What can we change to make you stay?
When a team member raises professional concerns, Zivadinovic begins brainstorming solutions with that staffer. She works with team members on everything from pay to scheduling to transfers. “We collaborate with other managers on campus and even other college dining programs in Vermont,” she says. “There’s no reason to lose good employees if they can be happy at a different unit.”
But before the dining team moves heaven, earth and—more painstakingly—schedules to accommodate an employee, Zivadinovic asks if that team member would commit to staying. Even when the dining team has an exit interview on the schedule, she tries to turn it into a stay interview, asking the worker why they're leaving and what changes might get them to consider sticking around.
Special assignments are one way Vega tries to turn around an employee’s experience. “Managers are sometimes hesitant to load more work onto a struggling employee,” she says. “But we’ve found it’s those image-building projects that excites them.”