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Overview: There are many
reasons why good employees quit and most of them are preventable. Here are the
top ten reasons why people leave jobs and practical measures you can take to help
ensure they don't occur within your company.
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Takeouts:
- Effective people management
is crucial. Often people don't quit their jobs - they quit their bosses.
- In order to prevent
employees from leaving you must take the time to understand what's important to
them, and tailor the job to meet both their needs and the company's objectives.
- Ensure
your company takes the time to learn from departing employees via independently
run exit interviews. Make sure these results are summarised and distributed back
to Management.
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| Every
time an employee resigns, it costs your company time, money and effort to
replace them. Research suggests that the cost of staff turnover is approximately
one and a half times the departing employee's salary, and with an estimated 25%
of the Australian workforce planning to change jobs over the next twelve months
it's not hard to see why staff retention has become a major priority for many
Australian employers.(1) While
most experts agree that some level of employee turnover is inevitable, even essential
in order to attract new ideas, energy and enthusiasm into a business, consistently
high levels of staff turnover negatively impact both the bottom-line and staff
morale. Furthermore, a company that has a constant stream of departing employees
does not inspire confidence in their clients or within the industry in which they
operate. So with this in mind, how do you keep your turnover under control? Hire
wisely, understand why people are leaving, and then make changes to prevent your
current employees from leaving for the same reasons. The
Top Ten Reasons Why People Quit Their Jobs
Why do employees quit
their jobs? Our research has shown that the main reasons why people leave their
jobs tend to fall into one of the following ten categories:
1. Under-staffing - are
your employees expected to carry an unrealistic workload that sees them working
long hours day after day without respite or promise of a better future?
2. Poor Communication - are management communicating with staff in an open,
transparent and timely manner?
3. Lack of Challenge - are departing
employees saying that they needed more responsibility, and do they seek opportunities
that just don't exist in your current organisation?
4. Lack of Empowerment
- Are staff empowered to make reasonable decisions in their job? Or is micro-management
the rule?
5. No Recognition - Are employees being recognised for
their efforts, over and above their pay packet? Does this recognition occur in
both 'Manager-to-employee' and 'Manager-to-team' situations?
6. Limited
Work-Life Options - Are you flexible with job sharing, maternity / paternity
/ study leave; are employees able to work part-time or from a home office?
7. Poor Company Culture - Are there ethical issues at conflict with
what the company says its culture represents and how it actually operates?
8. The Employee's Life Situation Has Changed - Have departing employees
just married or had a baby; are their salary and benefits no longer supportive
of their life needs?
9. Questionable Promotional Practices - Has
management promoted someone who lacks the training and/or necessary experience
to supervise, alienating staff and driving away good employees?
10.
No Enjoyment - Have departing employees simply stopped having fun at work
and enjoying their jobs? When
considered at a macro level, all of the ten reasons identified above stem from
some degree of poor people management; managers who are ineffective at providing
an environment that works for their employees. Jo Mithen, CEO of the Australian
Human Resources Institute, believes that "there are elements of truth in
that people don't leave bad jobs so much as they leave bad managers". Mithen
acknowledges that some people simply don't make good managers. In short, having
expertise or ability in a profession does not automatically translate into good
people management ability. "Poor management is certainly one issue with staff
retention", she says. An
accountant at a large professional services company who agreed to speak on the
proviso he remain anonymous, stated: "I will be as loyal to my employer as
they are to me - but at the end of the day, I'm out of here. I quite like the
work I was hired to do, and my colleagues are okay, but I can't stand my manager's
passive-aggressive behaviour and the fact that despite constantly achieving my
KPI's, I am never, ever complimented on doing a good job". And
it seems that even HR professionals are not exempt from the impact of poor Management
skills. A HR manager at another firm admitted that she had decided to resign after
encountering endless trouble recruiting on behalf of a particular partner in her
firm. "He's extremely rude, arrogant, sexist and a control freak beyond what
is reasonable", she confessed. "We have had an endless procession of
highly experienced and capable PA's hired to work with him, but they all leave,
saying he is impossible to work for. But it's such a 'boys club' here, that the
other partners will never get rid of him or tell him the truth, that his behavior
is unacceptable. I'm fed up with the situation because it stands for everything
that is wrong with this company's culture". Understand
What's Important
Whilst the reasons for high staff turnover can be
many and varied, what is clear is that in order to prevent high performers from
leaving you must take the time to understand what's important to them, and tailor
the job to meet both their needs and the company's objectives. To achieve this
your company should conduct regular employee reviews that specifically probe what's
important to them in their job. It's not very effective, for example, offering
more money to employees whose main driver is a balanced work-family lifestyle.
Although money is the most common primary reason given as to why people leave
jobs, in reality most people don't start looking for a new job because they want
more money. There is usually some other source of dissatisfaction that gets a
soon-to-be ex-employee started on a job search, hence it's critical to invest
the time in finding out what your talented employees' value before it's too late.
And if it is in fact
too late, and your 'star employee' has made up his or her mind to leave, ensure
your company takes the time to learn from them by conducting independently run
exit interviews. Why are they leaving? How could their Manager improve? How can
the company improve? All valuable questions that shouldn't go unasked. The results
of these exit interviews should then be summarised and communicated back to Management
concerned in a non-confrontational way, with appropriate steps taken to address
any areas of weakness highlighted in the exit interview process. So,
if you want your company to avoid becoming a major contributor to that part of
the Australian workforce who want to change jobs over the next 12 months, and
to ensure your company achieves business objectives and maintains business continuity,
annual staff turnover needs to be much lower than 25%. Smart companies will need
to make every effort to retain the valuable employees they have, to invest the
time in understanding what's important to them to ensure they are kept both challenged
and fulfilled, and to ascertain their reasons for leaving if they do decide to
depart.
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10 Tips To Help Retain
Valued Employees:
1.
No matter how busy you are, consider just how much busier you will become
if you lose one of your team. Take five minutes every day to think about your
people and identify one thing they have done that was good - pick up the phone
or walk to their desk - and thank them for it.
2. Determine whether
another position, temporary or permanent, needs to be created to relieve the pressure
from the employee who is clearly overworked. Recognise that with any employee
that is overworked something has to give - usually either they leave or their
work suffers.
3. Work with the employee to ascertain whether they
require additional training to increase efficiencies or improve skills in a particular
area.
4. Gather feedback from staff on the effectiveness of management
communications and organise training for Management in the areas identified as
weaknesses.
5. Instigate regular performance reviews to ensure
that each manager understands what their employee needs to keep them focused and
content.
6. Consider options like cross-training employees, and
transfers to other areas of the company to ensure that employees remain focused,
challenged and grow their knowledge of the work practices of other areas within
your organisation.
7. Work with the employee to identify a career
path within your organisation that takes the employee where they want to go and
help them make this happen.
8. Empower staff to make decisions
- reinforce that you have faith in their ability to 'do the right thing'.
9. Consider all of the non-financial ways to recognise and reward
people and make it your personal challenge to try each one with your employees.
Personnel recognition in front of peers, for example, often brings far greater
satisfaction to employees than any monetary reward can bring.
10.
Consider ways to add more fun and enjoyment into your work environment. Reward
efforts with fun outings such as team sailing days, staff picnics, or consider
hiring a masseuse to help relax staff as they go about their work. | |
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References:
1. "What's
Working" a research study conducted by Mercer Human Resource Consulting in
2003.
2. Why People Quit Their Jobs - Gregory P. Smith
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About Regent Recruitment
Regent Recruitment is a recruitment consultancy that assists leading Australian
employers to attract and retain talented staff on a contract, temporary or permanent
basis. Whether we are filling one permanent role or recruiting contract staff
for a 400-seat call centre, we deliver an exceptional recruitment service.
Unlike other recruitment consultancies, Regent
Recruitment is unique in that it combines the capabilities of a large-scale multinational
recruitment operation with exceptional service levels typically only associated
with small boutique agencies.
How
can we assist you?
We would welcome the opportunity to have a confidential
meeting to discuss your staffing needs in more detail. If
you are interested, in the first instance please call Howard Mereine, General
Manager, on (03) 9909 7150 or e-mail Howard at hmereine@regentrecruitment.com.au We
look forward to speaking with you.
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This article was licenced by Regent Recruitment for the Regent
Recruitment client newsletter.
Written by Alison Aprhys and Paul Quinn, Quinntessential Marketing Consulting
Pty Ltd.
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Disclaimer
The
views and opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the view of Regent Personnel Pty Ltd.
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