The Human Element of Employee Retention
How can we better humanize work
Julia Gonzalez
, Fri 30 January 2026
The disconnect between managers and their direct reports is oftentimes not realized until it’s too late. Take John, a middle manager who provides clear instruction, conducts frequent check ins on project statuses, and overall ensures timely and accurate performances from all his team members. In John’s eyes, he’s doing everything right, he meets deadlines and hits all his KPIs. Yet his team’s retention is one of the lowest in the department.
In situations like this, a lack of retention isn’t due to a lack of direction, it’s a feeling of neglect. When employees only feel valued as resources and not as people, the incentive to stay lowers dramatically. While John may see his employees leaving because they got a better offer, he fails to recognize that the “better offer” may not be a higher salary, but an opportunity to be valued as an individual.
The missing piece of the employee retention puzzle may just be paying more and better attention to your people. It is important to remember that consistent hydration (attention to your direct reports) is cheaper than replanting (hiring new people). Here are three best practices to ensure you’re considering your employees.
The Humility of Feedback
Many managers fall into the trap of believing that a higher place in the hierarchy equates to a higher level of insight. This ego-driven management style creates a wall that blocks honest communication and leaves team members frustrated.
- Dismantle the hierarchy: Remember that being someone’s boss doesn’t make you better or smarter than them, it just means you have a different set of responsibilities. Getting yourself in this mindset will help you be more open minded when it comes to feedback and prevent you from getting defensive when concerns are expressed.
- Acknowledge the gaps: When you feel like you could have led a project better or given better instruction, stop only making a mental note of it and instead say it out loud. Let people know that you can acknowledge what you could’ve done better and it will make them more proactive about their own work as well.
- Open Door Policy: Don’t just tell your direct reports that you are open to feedback at all times, actively seek it out. This doesn’t have to constantly be, “What am I doing wrong?” it can also be, “What hurdles can I move out of the way for you to be the best you can be?”
Get to Know the Individuals
Career aspirations, long term goals, and personal values all play a large part of the role an employee is in and whether or not they will stay in that role. For this reason, it is essential for their overseers to have a solid understanding of what these people want. Understanding your people is foundational to making sure they feel supported.
- Quarterly meetings: Quarterly check-ins shouldn’t be performance reviews in disguise. They should be conversations about direction. When you understand where someone wants to go, you can help them to get there. Having these meetings will improve transparency and help to place employees on projects that are beneficial to the team, as well as their own development.
- Understand what they value: Two employees can have the same job title and completely different motivations. Some people are motivated by creative freedom while others are motivated by structure. When you understand what drives someone, it’ll be easier to assign them to things they’ll do their best in, leading to better results and higher retention.
- Join an executive mastermind group with peers outside of the company to gain objectivity and insight into how other leaders might handle the challenges being faced.
Protect your People Time
The work week can get busy, and when it does it’s easy to forget about the individuals that make the projects happen. When deadlines pile up managers often get caught up in deliverables and meetings, while unintentionally looking over the people behind the work. Protecting intentional time to reconnect with your team ensures that your people remain at the center of your leadership.
- Consider the people: There should always be a designated time block on every manager's calendar for thinking and considering their direct reports. This time should be taken to ask; Who hasn’t been recognized lately? Who seems burnt out? Who is ready for more responsibility but hasn't asked? Taking this time to consider the people, even in the most hectic weeks, will ensure the team feels understood and genuinely supported.
- Give them a leg up: Acknowledge that most people want to grow from the position that they’re in eventually. Take the understanding you developed of their goals and do your best to support them. Knowing that an employee is eventually hoping for a certain promotion, it is easier to give them projects that will develop the skills they need, or refer them to the right people to talk to.
Retention isn’t random, it’s a reflection on how intentionally you lead your team. Employees don’t stay because of free snacks, big perks, or even competitive salaries alone. They stay because they feel valued, understood, and supported by the person they report to every day. When managers practice humility in feedback, take the time to understand individual goals, and consistently protect space to consider their people, they create an environment where employees can grow rather than look elsewhere for that growth.
