5 ways to get ahead of Rage Applying before it’s too late

In response to ongoing uncertainty and challenges in the workplace, Rage Applying has emerged, in which dissatisfied workers submit their resumes for multiple jobs at once with a goal of finding a new role ASAP.

It’s a troubling phenomenon, one that could lead to serious consequences for both the employees who end up leaving and their employers.

Rage Applying points to risk

There’s good news for businesses, however: It’s possible to figure out which employees are most likely to be at risk of churn and intervene to strengthen retention efforts before it’s too late. As trends like these surface, here are the steps leaders can take to intercept frustrated employees and improve their experiences.

No. 1: Skip exit surveys

Typically when there’s turnover, employers use exit surveys and interviews to find out what’s gone wrong. By that point, however, the employee is already leaving. All employers are going to learn is what the next job has to offer them — whether that’s better pay, career growth or flexibility — instead of the real reasons why an employee is leaving or why they began searching in the first place. 

Leaders who want to get ahead of trends like rage applying need to be more proactive. One way to do that is by using text analysis to analyze employee responses to existing employee feedback surveys. AI-powered text analytics are capable of automatically reading and categorizing text responses to open-ended survey questions at scale, distilling the answers into top topics and themes and providing an employee sentiment score. Organizations can use this technology to compare the results of employees who have stayed with those who have left and determine the real reasons behind why certain employees leave.

No. 2: Build predictive models

Based on the insights employers gain from text analysis of employee feedback surveys, companies can create predictive models that identify the types of behaviors and circumstances that are most likely to lead to employee churn. These warning systems can be used to pinpoint which team members are at risk and to alert managers to intervene.

In addition to gleaning insights via employee feedback surveys, employers should also pay attention to important employee experience signals. For new hires, these can include changes in managers, job titles and schedules — changes that might not align with employee expectations that could lead to turnover.

For more tenured employees, important signals to keep track of and incorporate into a predictive churn risk model include things like calls into the company’s help desk (and the employee’s frustration level when doing so), PTO usage and calendar changes. When employees reach out to the help desk multiple times and express anger or disappointment while doing so, that’s an indicator of churn.

Employees who take time off as quickly as they earn it could be using that time to search for a new job or avoid a job they don’t like, meanwhile employees who are satisfied with their jobs tend to save PTO for a future event or vacation. When employees have a lot of meeting changes or declines, start attending fewer meetings or participate in fewer company activities (such as team sports, volunteering or employee resource groups), these all can indicate a lessening of their commitment to the organization.

No. 3: Schedule stay interviews

Once companies have an employee churn model in place, it’s important to coach managers on steps they can take to increase employee retention when their team members are at risk. One effective approach is having the manager schedule a stay interview with the employee.

The manager shouldn’t reveal that the predictive model has indicated the individual is at risk of turnover, but instead, the goal should be to check in on how things are going for the direct report, find out where they’re encountering obstacles and to let them know they’re valued. Managers can also ask the employee how they feel about their schedule and workload and what they want to do next.

Too often, top performers are simply given more work rather than proper attention, recognition or the chance to have their voice heard, all of which can help reduce turnover.

No. 4: Create meaningful moments

Companies usually create special moments for customers to feel valued on an ongoing basis, whether that’s offering rewards for repeat purchases or special offers for their birthdays. That’s not as common for employees — not until they hit long-term milestones such as 10, 20 or 30 years with the company — and even then, this recognition happens infrequently. That’s a missed opportunity.

Employers can help prevent the kinds of employee frustrations that lead to behaviors like rage applying by ensuring employees feel recognized for their contributions much earlier on in their tenure with the company. This can happen at key milestones, such as when an employee receives a pay increase, a promotion or changes departments.

For instance, some managers let pay increases flow through the system without any commentary. Instead, leaders should celebrate pay increases, whether that’s by creating a certificate acknowledging the milestone or taking the direct report to lunch.

No. 5: Empower employees

One reason for employee frustration is because they feel like what they’re doing doesn’t matter. Instead of adding value, they may feel that they’re wasting their time on manual, time-consuming processes that not only negatively impact the employee experience, but potentially the customer experience, revenue, cross-selling and repeat sales as well.

Employers need employees to shed light on these points of friction. One way to do that is by encouraging employees to submit their best solutions for addressing specific problems by using an internal, employee-facing crowdsourcing platform. This gives everyone within the organization visibility into the suggestions that have been put forward and enables employees to comment on and upvote each others’ ideas. Crowdsourcing not only gives employees a forum for providing their ideas, but also empowers them to see what actions the company is taking as a result of that feedback.

Ensure opportunities

Many employees may casually wonder or conduct research to see if better opportunities exist in today’s job market. Once workers begin actually applying for jobs, however, is when the real trouble begins. That’s when employees start to dissociate from their current job and productivity, engagement and a willingness to put forth effort all drop. For employees considering multiple opportunities, the amount of time spent at work declines as well. Suddenly, employees who have been solid contributors aren’t performing as expected.

In addition to this, turnover contagion is real. Once one person leaves, others from the same team are more likely to leave — creating ripple effects that could hinder the organization at-large. That’s why it’s crucial for employers to prevent employees from rage applying by ensuring they have opportunities to express what’s on their mind, feel valued and heard within their organization.