Employee Satisfaction And Retention: Reasons Of Good Employees Quit

Contrary to what most of us believe, salary is not the only determinant as to why workers hand over a resignation notice. Here are some main bases why good employees up and leave:

• Overpromises - When an employer oversells the company’s culture to exaggerate the job advert and attract more candidates.
• When roles are changed - An employee might be inclined to throw in the towel if they feel there is a mismatch between themselves and the job assigned. This mostly affects employees in the creative departments.
• When there’s little to no coaching and feedback from the boss - It’s crucial for most employees to be guided on how to improve and receive direct feedback from their supervisors. Lack of any recognition on a job well done can de-motivate high performers.
• Lack of work/life balance - The office hours and workload should be structured in a manner that gives employees space for personal improvements and commitments. There are times when the business demands overtime – this is understandable. However, overwork and stress should not be the norm.
• Trust - When there’s little or no trust between managers and employees, the latter is likely to feel like they do not have job security.
• Growth – Nowadays, employees are concerned about their career directions and are always looking for ways to develop themselves. An employee might pack up and leave if they feel there aren’t any opportunities for growth and advancement. Your retention strategy should be both reactive and proactive to suit your company’s current situation and keep up with new industry trends. Here are a few reasonable satisfaction and retention strategies for 2019.

Investigate Manager-Junior Relationships

Having a social engagement strategy and inviting conversation about suggestions or concerns that employees have means more communication. Move past the annual survey and into something more iterative and real-time. Be committed to collecting continuous and ongoing feedback and hastily acting on it. Employees need to understand that the managerial team is competent enough to guarantee the continued success of the company. They also need to feel that direct managers are there to support them achieve their targets. Create an environment and events that encourage communication that will foster team building.

Re-evaluate the Hiring and onboard Process

The future is here. Recruitment can now be focused through digital tools such as cognitive assessment and social media. Instill applicant screening systems that use AI. This will help reduce the staff-hours required for HR recruitment. The system will also eliminate human error and tackle the redundant tasks allowing HR professionals to focus on higher value activities which require a human touch. *Cognitive technologies include natural language processing, self-learning, and predictive algorithms.

Avail more Opportunities for Training and Development

Ask yourself; are you giving employees the tools needed to succeed? If you’ve offered your employee the flexibility to work from home or you’ve given them a particular path to follow, are you ensuring that they have the resources to be successful in their goals? Every employee is going to have varying needs to be successful. Driven employees need to see their careers grow and flourish. Employees are more willing to take on extra classes, courses, or training to facilitate this. They will appreciate an employer who shows an interest in their development and avails opportunities for them to learn something new that will contribute to their career development.

Recognize Contributions to Employee Engagement (Employee Value Proposition)

A significant trend that has been recorded is a more transparent and personalized management of rewards. For many talents today, ‘pay per performance’ is no longer an appealing goal. Incentives paid based on last year’s company performance is not challenging enough. Organizations are looking to redefine what ‘career’ means and enable career security through individual development. Many organizations are transforming into a job-based pay structure – this allows employees to compare salaries to those offered to colleagues easily. With the advancement of social media and other digital platforms, benefits and payment details are now more publicly available.

Get Rid of the Hierarchical Management Style

Traditionally, the delegation and communication of information in an organization usually follow a formal hierarchical structure with clear lines of accountability. However, the digitalized world has found greater success with networked organizations. These setups can enable individuals to initiate leadership, especially where work relationships are numerous and sources of work are plentiful. In this new world, leadership will be more about orchestrating the ecosystem of work and less about leading people.

Humanize the Workplace

People often quit their bosses and not their jobs. A report released in 2016 showed that how employees are treated in the workplace has a direct correlation to whether they leave or stay. Employees need to feel respected and managed equally regardless of their departments. The office space cannot be happy and secure if its riddles with malice and mistrust. According to research conducted by experts Dr Brad Shuch and Maryann Honeycutt-Elliott, “higher levels of engagement come from employees who work for a compassionate leader – One who is present, authentic, holds other accountable, has a sense of dignity, shows empathy, and leads with integrity”.