Have you been mystified by the number of employees who resigned from your company – just when you thought little to nothing could go wrong?
While it’s true that not every employee will remain in your company for the duration of their career, it’s important to retain the best employees.
Let’s look at five ways you’re making great employees quit.
1. Collaborative Overload
Collaborative efforts are wide-ranging and largely beneficial in our global economy. Although interdepartmental efforts can contribute to company success, could collaborative overload be causing your best employees to leave the company?
Company meetings, group brainstorming sessions, email correspondence, and daily consultations with colleagues can monopolize time. Not only can collaborations wedge in on productivity, they can stifle innovation as well.
The old adage, “If you want something done, ask a busy person,” has been ingrained in Western psyche. There is truth to this statement, but some work environments rely too heavily on a few busy people – more precisely, three to five percent in some cases.
One way to prevent collaborative overload is to begin reevaluating the effectiveness of meetings, email communications, and other activities that hinder productivity.
If certain efforts fail to propel the company forward and also place undue strain on a small percentage of your workforce, alter or remove them altogether. This way you can retain your great employees and help remaining employees discover their own greatness.
2. Your Own Selfishness
Yes, they are your employees. But employees are individuals with personal and professional goals of their own. You’ve hired them to complete a certain set of tasks, yes.
But you’ve also hired them for what they bring to the table.
Integrating their professional goals into your company tapestry is more helpful than harmful. It’s more likely that you’ll retain exceptional employees whose job responsibilities align with their skills and career trajectory.
Instead of narrowly focusing on what you hope to gain from an employee, loosen the reigns and allow great employees to flourish within your organization.
3. You Shun Autonomy
Sometimes the best solutions are unorthodox. But in fear-based work environments some of the best unorthodox solutions are kept under wraps.
Previously engaged employees begin to do what they can to survive the workweek. And survival often calls for mindless conformity. Eventually, stellar employees search for more liberating work cultures, and then resign from your company.
Establishing a work environment in which employees feel heard and respected makes them less likely to withhold innovative insights that could potentially solve company problems. When they’re respected, not dominated, they more frequently stick around.
Autonomy frees creative individuals to do their best work.
Your best employees desire the freedom to experiment, take risks, make mistakes, and then re-approach the problem with positive support from senior staff.
4. You Consume All of Their Time
Late night emails and weekend conference calls communicate to your employees that you don’t value their time.
Many employees will meet or exceed these expectations in order to retain their job positions, but that doesn’t mean it won’t take a toll on them over time. Employees should feel free to spend time with family and friends, or to cultivate other interests outside of work without feeling guilty.
When you have great employees, you don’t have to worry whether or not they’re committed to project completion. Therefore, encroaching their time is unnecessary and largely ineffective.
Your company structure may vary; weekend work might be required. But the workday must end at some point. And this point should be clearly communicated without intimidation.
5. Few to No Opportunities for Growth and Development
Your best employees are often the ones who desire to progress within the company. Progression might involve a higher job position. But it can also include skills development and lateral moves within the company.
In either case, lack of advancement opportunities was one of the top three reasons nearly 10,000 employees chose to quit their jobs, internationally.
Researchers found that promotions are one of the best ways to retain exceptional employees. But how do you retain employees when there’s little room for growth within your organization?
You either create opportunities for long-term growth so that these opportunities are available when the time comes. Or, you offer other incentives relative to your budget and company structure.
Over to you, in what ways have you made great employees quit? What did you learn and then do differently to help make your newest great employees stay?