There’s this common assumption that today’s employees, especially millennials and younger (born in 1982 or after), are frequent “job-hoppers”. More specifically, they change jobs more often than past generations did and that they are typically always on the lookout for themselves and their next career step rather than staying loyal to one company. This, however, has become the order of the day when we come to analyse the Indian professional culture and can be attributed to many reasons other than singling out a cult of employees and questioning their intent. In fact, it might surprise you to know that this assumption is incorrect. Employees today, on average, stay longer with a company than they did 25 years ago. In 1983, the average employee tenure was around 3.5 years. Today’s average employee tenure is 5.1 years.

There are many reasons why people change jobs. There are many opportunities and our lives are filled with diversity and flexibility. However, there are often patterns to why people decide to move on from what seemingly is ideal employment — and it isn’t just about the money or the location.

Why Do Employees Look for a New Job?

Employees search for new jobs for a reason. Find out what it is before the employee announces their departure. Sure, a great opportunity drops into an employee’s lap sometimes. But these occurrences are sporadic. Why not provide that great opportunity in your company itself and retain your best employees. Majority of the reasons why employees quit their job are under the control of the employer. In fact, any element of your current workplace, your culture, and environment, the employee’s perception of his job and opportunities are all factors that the employer affects.

There isn’t always one conclusive evidence that makes good employees quit. It’s typically a culmination of many things that weigh upon their minds and push them towards the decision to quit.

Here are some critical reasons why employees quit their job. By managing them you will certainly be able to retain your best employees.

Relationship with the boss: Inferred by popular opinion, a bad boss is also the number one reason why employees quit their job. Bosses, leaders or executives.if there is a toxic person up the chain-of-command, that inevitably trickles downward and people will quit. Employees don’t need to be friends with their boss but they need to have a relationship. The boss is an integral part of their daily lives at work, they dont want to have an uncomfortable relationship with them. The boss provides direction and feedback, spends time in one-to-one meetings, and connects the employee to the larger organization. To have a toxic relationship with the person an employee reports to undermines the employee’s engagement, confidence, and commitment.[Text Wrapping Break]

Lack of trust and autonomy: The long and short of retaining your high flyers is trust. Leaders who don’t trust their employees often tend to micromanage then. They constantly second-guess their talents and question their decisions, leaving them with little to no autonomy. High performing employees don’t typically need this level of surveillance. Instead, they thrive in environments where there is a high level of trust and autonomy. Leaders who struggle with trusting their employees end up creating restrictive work environments that leave employees feeling stressed, anxious and unable to do their best work. Good employees don’t want to work in a job where they’re not trusted by leadership. If you want to attract and keep great employees, it all begins here.

No rewards or appreciation: One of the primary reasons for performers or really talented employees leaving a company is not being appreciated. This lack of appreciation can come in many forms including being underpaid, not receiving positive feedback for a job well done or no acknowledgement or reward of any form for performing well. Not receiving expected bonuses, valid complaints that are shrugged off and reasonable change suggestions that go ignored. When leadership makes these mistakes, the environment in an otherwise healthy company can start to feel toxic resulting in employee turnover.

Improper talent management: Often Companies lose good employees because they do not recognize their talent in time. The employer should be aware that he is dealing with a skilled person and motivate him to engage in the development of the company. Talent management is about identifying and supporting the development of the most talented employees to implement the company’s plans.

Lack of Appreciation: A good employee will always leave if he/she feels less appreciated. Our own experience is privy to the fact that salary and incentives are high on the retention list. But if an employee feels that his/her contributions are being taken into consideration or being highlighted for the good work they’re doing, they will more than likely look for a new position. This feeling or expression of admiration, approval or even gratitude that an employee expects from peers or leaders is called appreciation. The lack of which disappoints them and they begin to contemplate an exit. Think of all the employees you have hired and what ways you’ve worked to ensure they feel validated and challenged in their job. If you haven’t done much to reward or even recognize their efforts, this could be one of the reasons for high turnover.

Lack of respect: Good employees quit/leave for a variety of reasons, but one lesser known yet propelling reason for quitting is respect. If an employee isn’t receiving the respect they know they’ve earned and deserve then you will be hard pressed to get them to stay. Respect could mean how they’re treated by managers and coworkers. For instance if your employee really enjoys his/her work but is made to feel incompetant or inadequate, they feel disrespected. Some employees find it extremely disrespectful when managers raise their voice in the midst of a discussion or feedback. They find the tone condescending and it fails to match their self image and it discourages them. When people say they left a job because they weren’t paid enough, it normally means the company didn’t respect their work and abilities enough to compensate them appropriately. Again…it’s all about respect. Many employees feel they are not respected by their bosses or managers. They feel so when their abilities aren’t respected enough to receive appropriate compensation or be given projects that challenge and utilize their abilities and skills. They will eventually leave and the company will lose a great performer because they were not proactive in retaining him/her.

Remember: People don’t leave good jobs without a reason, and the reason is often based on a lack of respect from someone within the company and how that lack of respect is handled.

-Samantha R. Strazanac, CEO and Founder of Strazanac Solutions

Little to no opportunity for growth and development: Good employees always want to continue moving up, forward, earning more, learning more, etc. If they aren’t offered continuous opportunity to grow their skills, grow personally and learn new things that interest them, grow their salary, or earn enough in compensation and benefits to make them feel comfortable, then they will look elsewhere for a career and company that does offer these things.

There are many reasons why good employees quit. But what’s often left out from the discussion are top performers and their complacency in an organization. Yes there are organizations which take care of their potential performers and sometimes the best of employees on realizing their importance attached to the organization tend to become complacent. This results in developing a lackadaisical attitude towards work or overconfidence stemming from the know of their innate need in the organization. Such employees tend to start treating fellow employees with disrespect or turn hostile as they are bestowed with freedom from managers who are too afraid to lose them. This creates a toxic environment making other employees unhappy and hampers productivity and eventually leads to attrition.

Team leaders must learn to identify and weed out such potential yet toxic talent from organizations if they wish to maintain harmonious operations in the organization. Such incidents are easy to identify with platforms like Let’s Buzzz that offer a mood-o-meter that allows teams and employees to mark moods and state reasons. It is an analytics based platform that allows the management to track employee journeys in the organization and track exactly when they are happy or unhappy, engaged or disengaged. Thus making it possible to take corrective steps in time and ensure that the best talent is retained in the company.

Let’s Buzzz ensures your Team Hero stays with you right through! Try a free demo and we’ll tell you how you can achieve this.