Turnover – people leaving jobs – is not entirely a bad thing. When people outgrow their roles or find new opportunities, they leave their jobs. However, when a company sees its employees leaving at a higher frequency than usual or when good employees quit, that’s when we need to ask: what’s wrong?
Asking the right questions can help organisations, especially human resources, understand how to recruit and retain talent better.
What went wrong?
People leave their jobs because of a variety of reasons. Sometimes, it may be entirely personal for instance raising a family or relocating but many times they may also be well under the employer and/or the employee’s control. Bosses do matter in the retention of people although problems with the job itself may take up more of the pie – contrary to popular belief. For example, if the person feels his or her strengths are not entirely utilised, or their careers aren’t going forward then the decision can also crop up.
Reasons for leaving a job
Generally, reasons for quitting the job may fall under the following:
- poor relationship with a superior
- lack of career advancement opportunities or career challenge
- no belief in the vision/mission of the company
According to famous entrepreneur Richard Branson, his success stems from putting his employees first. For him, employee happiness should be number 1 because eventually, when they are happy, so will your customers/clients. Gallup’s study supports this, claiming that highly engaged workers contribute in the following areas: 10% higher customer rating, 20% higher sales and 21% higher overall profitability. In the United States, companies lose as much as U.S. $483 billion to $605 billion every year because of low employee engagement leading to lost productivity.
Brigette Hyacinth said in her piece: “When you empower employees, you promote vested interest in the company…Employees are the heartbeat of the company. And if the heart stops beating…What will happen?”.
Keeping Talent: Employee retention strategies
How can we address employee engagement and retention? It boils down to employee engagement – engagement that goes beyond free lunches and ping pong tables. Facebook’s People Analytics team uncovered the following ways in which managers and other business leaders can improve employee engagement happiness and eventually retention.
- Promote activities that energise employees – a promotion is not always the answer. Developing meaningful and motivating jobs is the ticket to better employee engagement. Lateral moves can just be as effective as promotions when retaining employees because people thrive in different ways. Some may work better off as a follower than a manager. Superstars don’t always have to be promoted to a higher position to reward them, sometimes moving them laterally and letting them work on things that energise them can do the trick.
