The infographics have been doing their rounds, announcing the top 5-10 reasons why employees leave a company. While this information is valuable, they don’t explain WHY employees feel strongly about these reasons, or HOW to prevent them from feeling like leaving is the only option.
Lets tackle 5 of the reasons employees leave, the “why” behind them, as well how your team can prevent employees from leaving for one of these reasons.
Reason #1 Employees Leave: Advancement
Why: Your employee is craving validation. Every person has an innate craving to be recognized for their efforts.
How: You will notice that the #1 reason why employees leave is shockingly not money! Advancement is not the same as money, though one usually follows another. Sometimes employees are just looking to be acknowledged.
Promoting an employee to a “better title” can often have the right effect. By genuinely giving them an opportunity to take on more responsibility, they will develop new skill sets and a new sense of ownership.
Reason #2: Work/Life Balance
Why: The “why” behind this isn’t ground-breaking… Employees love their friends and family, or even their pets!
How: Create policies that respect your employees’ time and life outside of work. Asking your employees to be “on call” via email 24/7 is not often a great policy. While you may be extremely passionate about your company’s mission, it probably does not consume their thought process outside of work.
Instead, switch up the mindset of your office. This may require a “flex hours” policy (which our company has and our employees LOVE) or an email ban after work hours. If you are skeptical, read up on how Sweden’s efforts to improve work-life balance have improved their overall productivity.
Reason #3: Money
Why: Because life is expensive.
How: Resolving this one is a little trickier, since it isn’t free. However, you do not need to lose an arm and a leg in order to help your employees to feel the relief of money issues. Offering financial planning classes can set your employees up for long term success and helps them to manage their future earnings as well. Cash rewards, gift cards are all great ways to alleviate the stress of groceries or gas.
Be warned: There is a big difference between people who actually need more money to take care of their obligations, and people who are in a cycle The latter of these will continually elevate their standard of living and find themselves “needing” more. Throwing more money at this problem does not actually fix anything.
Reason #4: Boss’s behavior
Why: This may be due to a personality clash, or due to management style disagreements.
How: If you are the boss, then you may not hear this one directly from your employee. It is important to “check the pulse” of your team, asking them candidly how they feel about your style of leadership. While the answer may not be complete, any hesitation could prove to be the tip of the iceberg.
If you are not looking for high turnover in your corporation, it may be worth your time to call in a neutral party to help determine opportunities for growth within your own management style.
Reason #5: Coworkers.
Why: A coworker may be actually creating an unhealthy environment.
How: A balanced team will actually have a variety of personalities and inevitably will cause clashes. But clashes ultimately are resolved, and don’t cause employees to leave. If one of your employees is leaving over disagreements, this indicates a serious issue,
Interviewing your employee about their coworker relationships can instantly shed light on where the problem lies. Toxic employees breed a culture of instability for your other employees, and you don’t want to lose more of your talented employees. Take this time to evaluate the health of your team, and extend an invitation to the employee wanting to leave to work through differences.
Losing your employees for any reason can create issues with your work flow. By improving the dynamics and circumstances for your employees, you send a message that your company is poised for growth.
Summit Information Resources was awarded Minnesota Business Top 100 Business to Work for, and we feel that it is largely due to our dynamic team! To be considered for a position at Summit, please check out Career Page and don’t hesitate to apply.
