Why Employees Leave Their Jobs?
The more companies can learn about why employees leave them, the better off they are.
Turnover, of course, is one of those management problems with a myriad of subtle costs – from lost productivity to training time to uncertainty that the new hire will work out. Total costs are often estimated from a third of annual salary to numerous multiples of salary for executive positions. And as anyone who’s ever hired employees knows, the process is seldom as simple as you expect it will be.
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The high cost of micromanagement – There is a strong connection between employee job satisfaction and “freedom to make decisions about how to do their jobs.” On the flip side of this managerial coin, however, employees “whose hands are regularly tied are 28% more likely to think about greener pastures elsewhere.” Simply put, micromanagement matters. “People leave managers, not companies,” as the old saying goes. When management is persistently over-involved in unproductive ways, it quickly becomes a retention issue.
Culture counts – Beyond these direct managerial factors, the survey indicated that the broader company culture is also a substantive piece in the retention puzzle. While not necessarily easy to define, the overall fabric of the environment one spends large amounts of time in naturally influences one’s perception of the work experience. According to the study, “employees who give their work culture low marks are nearly 15% more likely to think about a new job than their counterparts.”
In short, relationships of all kinds have major impacts on retention: relationships with managers, co-workers, and the larger company culture. While none of this may be shocking, it does paint a consistent picture.
Meanwhile, in this particular survey one high-profile issue was conspicuous by its absence: compensation. In this study, in the aggregate, the purse was overshadowed by the personal. Read the full article at Forbes.
Victor Lipman is the author of The Type B Manager: Leading Successfully in a Type A World. He has over two decades of Fortune 500 front-line and executive management experience. He’s a regular contributor to Forbes and Psychology Today, and has his own consulting firm, Howling Wolf Management Training.
Copyright © 2016 Victor Lipman
