Hiring well is a great feeling. Your company now has a new asset who will strengthen what you’re trying to build. There’s only one thing that can derail such a big achievement as hiring a great employee.
Losing them.
Not only do you have to start the hiring process all over again, but your company has just lost a major asset. Other employees feel it when one of the best ones leaves. It breaks momentum.
What can you do to keep your best employees as long as possible? One study wanted to know. What they found was startling – not just for the reasons people gave for quitting, but for the one they didn’t give.
Here are seven reasons employees gave for leaving their jobs, and one possible flaw that causes it:
- The workplace wasn’t what they expected. Flaw: Your company isn’t walking your talk. Don’t pretend you have a workplace culture that you don’t have.
- Mismatch between the job and the person. Flaw: Your hiring process is broken. This should never happen. And it never does when companies use PainLess Hire to find their next top employees.
- Too little coaching and feedback. Flaw: Unrealistic expectations. Hardly anyone is ready to hit the ground running on day one. If you’re not willing to train new hires, the problem is yours, not theirs.
- Too few opportunities to advance. Flaw: Many possible reasons here, not all of them in your control. But don’t make promises here you can’t keep.
- Feel devalued and unrecognized. Flaw: Management has tunnel vision. Too focused on business to appreciate the people helping you succeed. This is the easiest problem on this list to fix. Don’t treat people like robots.
- Too overworked and stressed. Flaw: Expecting too much from your people. Probably need to hire even more, adjust expectations for productivity and growth, or adjust business model.
- Loss of trust and confidence in leadership. Flaw: Poor leadership.
Which surprising reason that people quit isn’t on this list? Money. Only 12% of people leave their jobs because the pay wasn’t high enough.
So that is a reason, and you need to think about your compensation as it relates to the level of expertise you’re expecting and the workload you’re giving them.
But these other seven reasons matter as much or more than money.
If you’ve got a lot of turnover – especially of your better employees – you need to take a hard look at these reasons and consider which ones might be fueling your losses.
Here’s an action step to find out, though it can be risky and humbling: Set up an anonymous employee survey of your existing staff, and ask them what they like and don’t like about working here.
What they say might surprise or upset you. But that’s your first window into why you’re losing your top people.
Use that as a motivation to make the changes you need to make. Then hire well to replace the people you’ve lost.
If you need help hiring well, but you’re sick of the recruiting process and don’t have time to do it yourself, PainLess Hire offers you a new way to hire that isn’t based on gut feelings and vague resumes. If what you’ve done before hasn’t worked, it’s time to try something new.