Dear Boss ….. I Quit!

We often hear that employers are experiencing employees, who are considered to be the ‘high performers’ and ‘the talent’ of the organisation, just resign and walk out of the door!

Employees leave roles that they are good at and happy with for a multitude of reasons; and we have found that the top three reasons are 1) the way they feel they are treated by their Manager / the company; 2) non-competitive salary; 3) limited career advancement.

Staff turnover is a substantial cost to every business and is estimated to be at least a person’s annual salary, and with the average being 2.5 times annual salary.

It is costly making mistakes and getting the wrong people.  In 2016, the cost of staff turnover in Australia was estimated at $3.8 billion in lost productivity and $385 million in avoidable recruitment costs!

So why not put more effort into the people you have and give them every opportunity to succeed for a stable workforce?

 In this article, we share 5 things to avoid ….

1. Bureaucracy and over bearing rules and policies

Whilst it is important to have a good framework of policies and procedures; it is counterproductive to be over zealous and not trust your employees.

Creating an environment of ‘them and us’ the ‘rule makers and the workers’ will wear employees down leave them feeling belittled and watched.

Get it right:  Have clear policies that allow a degree of common sense, pragmatism, engagement and that promotes a culture or trust and adherence.

2. Unrealistic workload expectations

Your best employees are more often than not the most hardworking. It’s common to see the work load of high performers continually increase as time goes on.

An increase in responsibilities should be coupled with a change in position description and status – one of the biggest mistakes employers make is that they don’t do this.

The ever-increasing work load will lead to a decrease in productivity, burn-out and employee exit.

Get it right: Update position descriptions, promote and change job titles where appropriate.

3. Not recognising and celebrating accomplishments

Recognition of accomplishments is key to any retention strategy. Sitting down and understanding what motivates each and every one of your employees is essential.

You need to know what drives your employees, and even if you have rewards and recognitions in place they may not be the right ones.

Get it right: Find out what your employees want, then develop a rewards and recognition program to suit their motivational needs.

4. The wrong person on the team

Imagine being that employee who is a team player and a high performer who is then faced with an unsuitable, inadequately skilled or underperforming new team member or leader.

Working alongside people who have been recruited without thorough due diligence or promoted inappropriately is demotivating to existing employees and sometimes insulting for those that are left to work with them.

Get it right: Always review opportunities to upskill existing staff, promote fairly and in line with a robust policy, review team responsibilities before introducing new members.  Spend the time to make sure you recruit or promote the right people – do not rush this process.

5. Training, development and feedback

Not looking at ways to develop, upskill and provide opportunities for employees will leave them feeling complacent.

Whilst there are the obvious things such as attending training courses and taking on further responsibilities a key factor that contributes to the frustration of the most talented employees is lack of feedback.

Get it right: Regularly review training needs and find out what your employee what’s to do and regularly communicate and provide constructive feedback.  Giving constructive feedback should not be confused with hand holding but an essential element of developing and engaging your team.

As HR Professionals, we see the above factors play into the ‘Exit Interview’ time and time again.  It is essential that employers recognise the role of the ‘Manager’ as pivotal to retaining talented employees.

We at Integrated Human Resourcing support business with employee engagement, retention strategies, coaching and performance management and workforce planning.

Check out our testimonial video from one of our client’s where we turned employee retention around for one business.

We’d love to hear from you or a referral.

To find out more contact us on (07) 5510 4863 or via info@humanresourcing.com.au