What should you do when staffers want to move up, but it doesn’t look like there’s any “up” to offer? “Think about helping your employees to move forward, instead of up,” advises John Borrowman (Borrowman Baker LLC), a recruiter who has worked exclusively in the BV profession for over 20 years. “This approach can be the ounce of prevention that helps you reduce turnover.” His suggestions:

• Offer lateral movement, such as assigning a broader range of engagements or getting them involved in a practice management activity such as campus recruiting;
• Enrich their existing job by, for example, dubbing the employee the “go-to” person for a particular engagement or analysis;
• Give the employee a temporary assignment so he or she can examine other options; and
• Realign the employee’s position by, for example, returning him or her to those job duties which, in hindsight, really are more interesting.

In his latest newsletter, Borrowman also explores how to use learning and development to attract and keep the best talent, offers tips for differentiating your practice in a recruiting pitch, and more.