Table of ContentsCreating Jobs for FunMaking it possible to be engaged at work and at homeWorks CitedPeople don't quit their jobs, the saying goes, they leave their bosses. We've heard it so many times that when we started tracking why employees leave Facebook, all bets were on managers. But our engagement survey results tell a different story: When we wanted to keep people and they still left, it wasn't because of their manager...at least not in the way we hoped. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Of course, people are more likely to jump ship when they have a horrible boss. But we've spent years working to select and develop great managers at Facebook, and most of our respondents said they were happy with theirs. The decision to leave was due to work. They left when their work wasn't enjoyable, their strengths weren't used, and they weren't growing in their careers. At Facebook, people don't leave a boss, they leave a job. And who is responsible for this work? Managers. If you want to keep your employees, especially your stars, it's time to pay more attention to how you design their work. Most companies design jobs and then place people in them. Our best managers sometimes do the opposite: when they find talented people, they are open to creating jobs around them. Working with our People Analytics team, we analyzed our survey data to predict who would stay or leave over the next six months, and in doing so, we learned something interesting about who ultimately stayed. They found their job enjoyable 31% more often, used their strengths 33% more often, and expressed 37% more confidence that they were gaining the skills and experiences they need to grow their careers. This highlights three key ways that managers can personalize the experience for their employees: enabling them to do work they love, helping them capitalize on their strengths, and charting a career development path that sticks. take into account their personal priorities. Create Jobs for FunMany of us have unanswered calls. at work – passions that we were unable to pursue in our careers. Whether we lack the talent, opportunity or means to make it our career, embarking on a different career does not make these passions disappear. They linger, like the professional version of the one who got away. And since we spend the majority of our waking hours at work, we don't always have time to pursue those unanswered calls as a hobby. So we look for ways to integrate our passions into our work. Personally, we know a lawyer who missed his dream of becoming a pilot and therefore went into the aviation business, and a teacher who gave up a music career but brings a guitar to class. But within organizations, individuals often need support to create their jobs. Managers can play a major role in designing motivating and meaningful jobs. The best ones go out of their way to help people do the work they love, even if that means removing them from the roles they excel at. A few years ago, one of the directors ofFacebook's Cynthia led a large team of HR business partners. She realized that she wasn't spending her time doing what she loved most: solving her customers' problems. She had taken on more responsibility managing a large team due to her strength as a trusted advisor to some of Facebook's top executives. But once in the job, she realized that meant doing less of the work that energized her. With the support of her manager, Cynthia hired someone new to the team, with the long-term vision of asking them to lead the team and then moving on. return to a role of individual contributor. Cynthia wasn't just hiring a direct report; she was hiring her future boss. Once the number of new hires increased, and it was clear that she enjoyed the organizational and people management elements of her job, she and Cynthia made the switch. Cynthia is now thriving, solving problems with the clients she loves so much, and her new hire is leading the team. Keeping Cynthia on Facebook was much more important to her manager than keeping her in a particular role. Too often, managers don't know enough about the work people love. This manifests itself during exit interviews – a common practice in every HR department to find out why talented people leave and what would have convinced them to stay. But why wait until they're about to come out? One of us, Adam, has worked with companies across multiple industries to design entry interviews. During the first week on the job, managers sit down with their new hires and ask them about their favorite projects they've done, the times they felt most energized at work, the times they found themselves totally immersed in a state of flow and the passions they have outside of their work. Armed with this knowledge, managers can create engaging roles from the start. Strengths In a world dominated by specialization, we have long passed the era of Renaissance Man. Once in a blue moon we see one. Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize for her pioneering work in physics, then another in chemistry. Richard Feynman transformed electrodynamics, decoded Mayan hieroglyphics, and cracked safes in his spare time. Although few achieve this level of success in multiple fields, many talented people are mathematicians. At Facebook, our head of diversity is a former lawyer, journalist and talk show host; one of our communications managers sang in a rock band; and one of our product managers is a former teacher. Unfortunately, the narrow job descriptions that companies create stifle their ability to utilize the skill sets of their employees. Smart managers create opportunities for individuals to use their strengths. To see how this might play out, consider Chase, who most recently worked as a software engineer at Instagram. About six months ago, when his team did a rapid iteration of the product to introduce new tools and formats, Chase helped the team achieve exceptional results. But he finished the project exhausted from the extensive coding and cross-functional work – and began to wonder if there were other ways he could contribute. In talking with his manager, Lu, he realized that although he had a strong technical background, he really excelled at building prototypes to help quickly prove concepts and then iterate on them. But Instagram had no, 90(2), 399–406.