Struggling to retain good talent? Why great people quit their jobs

Employee turnover is expensive. 

It costs 33% of an employee's salary to replace them, with costs surfacing like a drop in productivity and the costs associated with recruiting, hiring and onboarding. 

So why do people quit? 

Well, there are about three and a half billion working people in the world today. And about 40% of them are happy at work. That means there are over 2 billion people who are unhappy at work. 

Which is why great people leave their jobs. 

From an employee's perspective, managers don’t have a clue why they really want to leave. Employees leave because they feel unseen, unheard and taken for granted. And as a result, they either leave work physically and find a new job or check out mentally. 

From a manager's perspective, they also don’t really understand why employees want to leave because they get great benefits and a decent pay package. And that’s why it’s HR’s job to educate management and bridge the gap because there’s a clear disconnect between what employees and employers think. 

Why? 

Because managers and employees want different things. 

Let’s talk money.

The bottom line is: managers worry about the bottom line. And most employees literally don’t care about the bottom line. Now, of course, employees are indirectly motivated by incentive structures designed to make them focus on the bottom line by meeting targets or KPIs, but that’s beside the point.

On the topic of revenue, we know that organisations that boast a majority of happy employees enjoy three times the revenue growth compared to an organisation without happy employees. And the good news for the bottom line is, organisations don’t need to spend more money to keep employees happy. 

Because it’s not about ping-pong tables and free lunches, it’s about how employees' concerns are being treated. How they feel. If they’re trusted, heard, seen and valued.  

So why do great people leave great jobs? 

CEOs, police officers, truck drivers, cooks, and engineers were surveyed in America. In terms of their happiness, we know from the study that they all want the same thing. 

Trust and respect. 

Executives usually say, “we trust and empower our employees”. And when an employee needs approval to buy something like a new laptop, ten people need to approve the purchase. 

So for the employee, all the words are right, but ten levels of approval for a laptop that costs $1,000? The organisation has actually spent more money approving the laptop than the laptop itself. And the employee is left with the feeling that maybe they aren’t trusted to make decisions. 

So what can organisations do to build a high level of trust? Let’s take the Four Seasons Hotel as an example. Employees are told to “do whatever you think is right when servicing the customer”. So to hand that trust to an employee, to do whatever they think is right makes the employee feel pretty great.

Fairness 

What erodes trust in an organisation faster than anything else is when employees feel they are being mistreated.  

People want to be treated the same. And employees are no different. Regardless of their status, tenure, or age. This is why fairness in the workplace is a non-negotiable. Mandating equal pay for the same job between men and women in your organisation should be the first cab off the rank if you haven’t implemented this already. 

Listening 

To be a listener that connects to all kinds of different people, we have to unlearn a few things. Alvin Toffler, a famous futurist wrote in 1972:

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn”.

We’ve all learnt how to “actively listen” in the professional world. Eye contact, a compassionate look—but that’s not listening. Repeating back what the employee says to you—that’s not listening. Being humble, regardless of your status in the organisation, and always looking for the best idea to solve a problem—that’s real listening. 

So, some people in your organisation may need to unlearn and relearn how to really listen to others.  

Employees are receptive to whether you’re listening or not. They want to know and feel that when they come to you with an idea, it’s being heard. Take a meeting for example. When someone is speaking, they appreciate and want to know what they say matters to the other person, so much so that they might consider it and be open to changing their mind. Otherwise, what’s the point of the meeting?

So to keep your employees happy and retained by your organisation, make sure management makes employees feel heard and valued to create an environment of trust and respect.