As the leader of your farm, it’s easy to get into the business of life and potentially lose sight of your surroundings. However, it’s important to remember that the most valuable assets of a business are its people. Leadership should always be aware of how top talent is being challenged, motivated, and rewarded for their work.

There are many factors that cause talent to become disengaged. Some examples might be a poor relationship with their boss, a lack of responsibility, a lack of recognition, inadequate support or training, and a lack of achievement.

If monitored on a routine basis, a manager can respond to the motivating factors proactively when they appear. However, if any of these factors go ignored for long periods of time, key talent will begin exploring other career opportunities and before you know it, you will be blindsided with a letter of resignation. More than likely if you discover a member of your team is engaging in one or more of the following activities, it’s likely too late to do anything about it, but you can try.

If you find yourself thinking that everything is fine, you may be blindsided. Watch for these potential signs your employees are job searching.

1. You notice your employee has become extremely active on LinkedIn. It’s not a good policy to police team members’ weekly behavior on LinkedIn, but should you notice substantial activity from an employee, it could be a clue that the team member is doing more than lead-sourcing for sales.

2. Frequent PTO days (one or more day each week over several weeks). This could be a hint that your team member is going to interviews. Or they may be going to dental or medical appointments before changing insurance providers with their new employer. Should you notice the employee come into work dressed uncharacteristically business-like and they leave early for a “personal appointment” it could be a sign he/she may not be going to a funeral.

3. The desk goes from being cluttered to exceptionally organized and tidy. Top talent will always want to leave things on good terms. They may suddenly tie up loose ends with clients or get caught up on related projects.

Again, it’s always a good practice or habit for leaders to keep an awareness of the motivation levels of top talent within their teams. This will allow for a more successful proactive response re efforts to retain top talent.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.