Imagine being in a situation where that star employee that you cant imagine running your business without wants to leave. And you’re sitting there thinking what have I done to allow this to happen?
Retaining top talent is as important, if not more important, then attracting new talent. And top talent quit their jobs all the time for a number of different reasons, but more often than not, the reason they leave has a lot to do with their employer. Here are a few reasons why that might be.
1. Low Salary
We’re starting with the most obvious factor; Money. When you’re offering an employee a salary that is below market standard, you better hope that you have a strong enough culture to keep them because more often than not that employee will want to leave.
How to fix: Money isn’t always everything to your employees but I implore you to stay on top of the competition, or at least stay at the same level to them, to keep your very best workers.
2. Lack of Opportunities
Employees will always seek growth opportunities and that is especially true to the Millennials and Gen Z’ers you have in the workplace. There’s a sense of direction that comes into play when you have something to work for or something to gain. Not only this, but employees want to grow and develop their skills.
If they are not able to grow, both in terms of their position nor their skills, then that might be the very reason you’re losing some of your most promising employees.
How to fix: It’s important you have set up constant dialogue with your employees to ensure they are happy, and that you have created an achievable path for them within the company.
3. Losing Meaning
At times your employee might lose meaning and purpose for what he or she is doing. They will begin to ask themselves if they are really contributing to something meaningful. To something that is actually bigger than themselves.
Meaningfulness is very often hard to define, that’s why it’s important your leaders continue to communicate your company’s mission to your employees, and what exact part they play within it. In many ways, it is your job to connect your employees to the ‘Why’ in ‘Why do I work here?’.
How to fix: Ask your employees questions such as:
- What inspires you to work?
- What makes you happy?
- How does our purpose make you feel?
From this, you can form a baseline of understanding of what makes them tick and then facilitate a sense of meaning and purpose from this.
4. Lack of Autonomy
How many times do we tell employees that they will be their own boss, that they will have all the autonomy in the world to do their work and drive the business forward? But in the process of doing so, we’re still monitoring and micro-managing their every move.
Imagine having what is already very stressful role, coupled with the bickering and scolding of your manager on a daily basis. Doesn’t sound great, does it?
How to fix: Give your employees control. If an employee has a stressful job but has a certain degree of control over their work, it would help alleviate the negative emotions they might feel. This is because while an employee might feel stressed at work, there is a genuine sense of accomplishment that comes out because the company put their trust in that employee.
5. Lack of Appreciation
Or should I say lack of love? I think all employees want to feel confident in what they are doing but also within that they want to be appreciated and valued. For example:
- Working in a poor physical environment
- Being treated disrespectfully or ignored by their manager
- Being paid unequally to their colleagues
There are tons of different ways an employee might feel unsupported by their company, and the larger the organization is, the worse this problem becomes.
How to fix: Create an environment of transparent communication between all levels of employees, and a system in place to ensure that managers are having a conversation with each and every one of their employees on a daily basis.
It’s important to note that these five factors are not the sole reasons your employees quit, but more often than not one of these factors plays a major role in their decision to leave. If you are able to keep appreciation, meaning, salary, independence, and opportunities in mind when thinking about each and every one of your employees, then you will more often then not retain the employees you have lost to in the past.
