While management is the brain of a company, the employees are its hands and feet. A company won’t survive or at the very least grow without its employees. This is why if a company keeps on losing employees at a steady rate, it can have severe implications for your business.
Replacing employees is costly. You need to spend resources, not only on finding suitable replacements but also on advertising your job vacancy, training, and onboarding process. You also lose money to possible mistakes newbies make on the job and also to lost opportunities and productivity. According to a Center for American Progress study, you lose 16.1% of the employee’s salary for jobs paying $30k or less annually when you find a replacement for that person. Focusing on keeping your employees happy enough to stay with you is a much better option than finding replacements for those who quit. A high staff turnover rate is a problem to be addressed promptly. But why do employees leave even when they know that competition for work out there is tough?
Why Employees Leave
Here are some factors that drive employees away:
- Stagnation
Employees join the workforce with dreams of progressing through the ranks and getting a higher position in the company. Those who have this ambition are often the most motivated ones at work but they are also the first ones to leave if they do not see opportunities to grow within the company. Having a clear career ladder or structure for advancement will keep your dedicated employees motivated. The promise of a higher position and a bigger salary, if they work towards their goal, will encourage them to stay with the company.
- Overwork
Stress is experienced in all types of work but long-term stress and job burnout are a different story. Assess your staff’s workload, skill match, and work hours. An article on Lifehacker claims that 52-minutes of work, with a 17-minute break, is the ideal productivity schedule. Discourage overtime and stick to the 8-hour workday.
- Vague Direction
When a company has no clear direction, it makes employees feel less secure. Employees look for stability in a company. If they sense that the company can possibly go bankrupt because of lack of direction, they will start to look somewhere else.
- No Culture of Accountability
Accountability is an important factor in any relationship, including that of the employee and the company. Employees need to know that they can rely on you to give them a fair assessment of their work, to recognize their achievements, and to promote them and raise their salary when they deserve it.
Workers also want a trusting environment that empowers them to voice their ideas and make decisions on tasks related to their job. Managers should learn to listen to their staff and their opinions – they may surprise you with the solutions to some of your biggest problems. Instead of merely dictating what to do, true leaders will guide their staff on how to make sound decisions.
Motivated and thriving employees propel a business forward. If your employees are leaving, it’s time to rethink your culture, actions, and policies and make necessary changes before it’s too late.
