Managing Employee Resume Updates: How Should Companies Address Potential Attrition Risks?

Recently, employee A completed his MBA and received a 20% salary increase based on his performance, which was assessed as meeting expectations. Following this, he began updating his profile on various job sites, indicating that he is seeking better opportunities.

When asked, he mentioned that he had updated his latest salary hike and expressed satisfaction with his current organization. However, this has become a recurring behavior by the employee and is flagged as a concerning issue in every early work signal report.

Managing Attrition Due to Resume Updates

If the organization needs to take action due to the potential influence on others to update their resumes while still employed, what steps can be taken according to the organizational process for managing attrition?

Career Advancement and Employee Privacy

Career advancement is the natural desire of the average professional. How can you take action against an employee for updating his CV on a job portal? You can take action only for the misconducts defined in the standing orders of your company. Updating one's CV is in no way misconduct.

If you take action against an employee, it would prove that you have pried into his personal activities. This is a breach of his privacy. How can you justify that?

By the way, when you fill positions, do you not consider candidates who are already employed? The companies of those candidates were liberal and did not take action for having uploaded their CV on the job portal. It is their liberal attitude that has helped your company in filling job vacancies. You wish employees from other companies to join you, but you don't want your employees to join them!

Please note that recruitment is a one-way street.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

"After that, only he has started updating his profile on several job sites, mentioning that he is looking for a better opportunity."

Analyzing Employee Behavior

As mentioned by the learned member above, no offense has been committed by the employee. On the contrary, your organization needs to look inward and try to analyze why a person who has received an increment, etc., is looking for alternatives. Was the increment not as per industry standards? Is there any kind of lacking in the work atmosphere that prompts people to seek an exit route?

Routine Profile Updates

Anyway, updating one's profile is a pretty normal activity for employees, and no breach of law can be made out of these routine updates. The best approach is to ignore but make attempts to analyze any negative sentiment among employees towards the working setup and atmosphere.