How to use Predictive Index for Retention

Securing Top Talent and Minimizing Regrettable Turnover

The key to successful retention lies not just in hiring skilled individuals but in ensuring alignment between the employee’s natural tendencies and the job’s requirements. This alignment, combined with building relationships and encouraging strengths, is crucial for cultivating long-term job satisfaction and commitment, minimizing regrettable turnover. By integrating data-backed tools like the Predictive Index (PI) into your hiring and management processes, you can navigate retention challenges effectively. Let’s jump into how the Predictive Index can be your swiss army knife of solving retention puzzles, securing top talent, and setting the stage for accelerated performance.

1. Get the right person in the right seat, the first time
2. Validate the hire during onboarding
3. Uncover motivators that lead to performance
4. Nurture relationships
5. Coach to strengths

Get the right person in the right seat, the first time

While the advice “hire the right person” seems obvious, too many organizations leave this to chance, using outdated or inconsistent hiring methods and hiring based on resume and interviews alone. Resumes and past experience are actually proven to be poor predictors of success. Engagement, productivity, and retention all start with matching an employee’s strengths to the role. First, consider the behavioral needs of the job, then hire people who have the highest chance of enjoying and being good at their assigned work.  

The savviest employers, my top clients included, adopt data-driven tools like the Predictive Index to precisely define the behavioral requirements of the job, first. This allows them to focus their hiring efforts (and interview time) on candidates most likely to thrive in the role. The result? Employees leverage their natural, hard-wired strengths to achieve success and organizations minimize the risk of regrettable turnover.

Validate the hire during onboarding

The hiring journey doesn’t end with a job offer. The moment a new hire steps into their role, they’re asking themselves “did I make the right decision?”. Truly great employee onboarding can improve retention by up to 86%. So, how can you make the most of this critical onboarding period? Build the employee-manager relationship.

According to McKinsey, 86% of employee satisfaction related to interpersonal relationships hinges on their rapport with their manager. Early engagement, using tools like the PI Behavioral Report, is key. The beauty of the PI Behavioral Report is that it describes strengths and work style with extreme accuracy, and entirely in plain English– no need to be a PI guru. These reports facilitate meaningful conversations between the manager and the new hire, grounding their relationship in a mutual understanding of the employee’s strengths and how they align with the job’s demands.

When managers use the PI Behavioral report to connect during the onboarding phase, their employee feels seen and understood, and knows that their new boss has their best interests in mind. This not only increases confidence that they made the right decision to join your organization, but will also help them be the best version of themselves in the job, increasing speed to productivity.

Uncover motivators that lead to performance

Having established a solid foundation through validating the hire, the next step is to understand what truly drives your employee, uncovering their key motivators to further cement their commitment and satisfaction within the role. Many of my clients find that the most effective management tool among all their PI Resources is the Management Strategy Guide. This tool reveals twelve management behaviors, tailored to an employee’s natural drives. The guide helps pinpoint what truly motivates your employee. 

Within the 30-45 days, savvy managers and employees can identify a few key motivators and use the customized strategies to give the employee what they need to be most productive. Small action items from the Management Strategy Guide, such as communicating verbally rather than in writing or avoiding interruptions, can help the employee feel valued and understood. Building trust between the manager and employee will pave the way for an even stronger relationship, crucial for long-term retention.

Nurture relationships

Interpersonal dynamics are often the most significant contributors to job satisfaction. Not feeling valued by managers and not feeling a sense of belonging at work is a major reason employees quit a position. After a couple of months on the job, relationships have been sprouting or perhaps are in full bloom. These relationships are between two “tricky humans” who each have their own natural strengths and needs–sometimes in contrast with one another. Relying on data-driven insights for strengths and work styles is a strategic method to build relationships and prevent butting heads. 

The PI One-on-One Relationship Guide is a fantastic resource for navigating the complexities of workplace relationships. It aids both employees and managers in understanding their interaction patterns and how to strengthen their professional bond. Although this resource is helpful for the employee-manager relationship, it is also a great tool for two coworkers, or really any two employees to explore how to best work together. By proactively addressing potential conflict points and enhancing connection, both parties contribute to a more harmonious and productive work environment. 

Coach to strengths

As time passes, performance reviews become a mirror reflecting an employee’s journey. Many employees (and managers) start sweating at the thought of performance reviews. But they don’t have to be stressful, they can be a positive experience with the help of data-driven tools to guide the interaction as a coaching conversation. In fact, when an employee reports to a manager who is a good coach, they are 38% less likely to think about quitting.

Managers, equipped with the PI Coaching Guide, can pinpoint areas of alignment and misalignment between the employee’s capabilities and the job’s requirements. The conversation can then take a developmental lens that creates opportunities to grow or stretch and discuss where the employee might need to adapt some of their natural behaviors to achieve better results. This focused approach enables employees to lean into their innate strengths and identify areas for growth, promoting both personal development and organizational success.

Conclusion

It’s time to transform your approach to retention through talent management. Using the Predictive Index tools for retention is not just about reducing regrettable turnover. It’s a strategic endeavor that integrates talent optimization into the very fabric of organizational culture. By prioritizing the right fit from the start, validating employee-manager relationships, uncovering and nurturing motivators, and coaching to strengths, companies can navigate leadership challenges with finesse and ensure a thriving, engaged workforce.