Have you ever been in a position where you were questioned why so many employees have been leaving your organization? Or as a general knowledge question as to why employees might quit their jobs? Today we will try to find an answer rather quickly (that sure took us a while to compile though!)
A list to begin with:
- Opportunities of Growth
- External Opportunities
- Poor Work-Life Balance
- Colleagues/Peers
- Organizational Culture
- Role Ambiguity
- Compensation
According to several research studies conducted in different sectors in the US including (the internet, healthcare, and HR), these are the top 7 reasons why employees leave their jobs. Job satisfaction is something that any employee would need the most in their careers and many factors lead to increases and decreases in job satisfaction. Research has found direct and indirect relationships between the factors mentioned above and job satisfaction in different sectors.
So if we talk about why employees might quit, we need to understand the possible reasons from all perspectives without being biased as a recruiter, talent acquisitions, or hiring manager. It is quite possible that there is simply an attitude problem or lack of intrinsic motivation leading to job quitting, but we cannot deny the gravity of genuine reasons either.
Opportunities of Growth
Imagine yourself working at a post and continuing to work there even after years until you retire! Does that sound like an achievement? Not really! Staying in one place in this fast-paced world is not the ideal thing to do as it will make you redundant and irrelevant. If you want to ensure employee satisfaction then creating opportunities for promotions and growth at regular intervals is crucial. Being able to do meaningful things that help their organization grow creates a sense of accomplishment, pride, and ownership in employees and this in turn increases their satisfaction with the job. On the other hand, if an employee is constantly doing the same thing without any chance of ever assuming a bigger and better role, this creates a sense of failure and dissatisfaction with their role at work and they may feel unimportant which becomes one of the reasons why employees might quit.
Tips to Minimize Turnover Intention
So, if you want to retain your good and hardworking employees, give them opportunities where they can make meaningful contributions to achieve organizational goals helping them to feel satisfied with their work. You can see wonders happening for the growth of your organization when the employees are motivated.
External Opportunities
Guess what! If you cannot pay your employees enough or provide for them chances of equal and steady growth, someone else out there might! Employees when dissatisfied with their jobs for any reason are constantly on the lookout for newer and better opportunities that increase turnover intentions of the employees working in the organizations. Any other employer paying better pay range, benefits, recreational opportunities, and/or a better working environment can scoop up your employees just like that. Better opportunities are why employees leave organizations! So, if you want to save money on hiring and training new people, you may as well spend some on retaining the ones you have got!
What will ensure organizational loyalty?
Your acts of encouragement to begin with; and your acknowledgment of their hard work and efforts to meet the organizational goals! You can introduce monthly or yearly bonuses for best performers, or easy loans for those in need, even small events at regular intervals to help employees unwind and enjoy their time will let them know that you care!
Poor Work-Life Balance
Imagine going home from work and opening your laptop to finish working on the day’s tasks! Does this look like a picture of yourself you would want to see? If not, then you shouldn’t want to see your employees like that either. How is it fair that your employees work for you day and night while you enjoy your ‘work-life balance’?
Lack of work-life balance is one of the 7 major reasons why employees leave and as cliched as it may sound, a good pay package and benefits too are sometimes rendered useless in retaining employees if their personal lives are getting affected by work. So, money is really not everything!
If you think that employees getting a ‘handsome’ package should work all day and night, then you might be in for a surprise because it is not always the case!
Wondering how to ensure employees are motivated to work (extra)?
Maybe just don’t! Don’t make them work extra hours, try trusting your employees with their responsibilities, let them finish work at their own pace, and see how that goes. You won’t always get your desired results and it may cause some financial harm to the organization too, but studies have shown that employees are motivated to work when their employers trust them and they in turn willingly go the extra mile to meet their organizational goals! If you still think pulling an all-nighter once in a while should not be a big deal, then you can offer some compensation in terms of an extra day off or some team activities that your employees enjoy!
Colleagues/Peers
Almost all the jobs in different sectors require working with people! That’s where the problem starts. Not having good supportive colleagues is still acceptable, but working with someone who deliberately ruins things for you is another story! Workplace harassment and bullying are not the only but surely significant reasons why employees quit despite having good jobs. Many employees quit organizations of their own choice through the extension of their search for a good working environment outside their organizations.
Stereotyping, racism, sexism, ageism, and other kinds of societal marginalization also come under workplace bullying that often starts from words and can turn into something ugly if not immediately taken care of!
If you want employees to continue being satisfied with their workplace and colleagues, you can take some preventive measures to mitigate the risk of employees acting irresponsibly and harming others leading them to eventually quit their jobs for their peace of mind and safety.
What can I do, you ask?
Organizing training programs and workshops for employees to raise awareness regarding such issues can be a good idea to start with. You can also try putting together diverse teams so that employees learn about each other and see for themselves that despite the obvious differences people are good assets to their teams and the organization. Helping them bring out the best in themselves and others is a way to solve problems that arise due to differences that hold no significance.
Organizational Culture
The overall culture of an organization says a lot about why employees might quit. If employees do not feel appreciated, acknowledged, wanted, and satisfied, they may lose their motivation to continue working. When employees are motivated, they will want to go above and beyond for their organizational goals.
How to improve the culture of your organization?
You can start by offering employees multiple opportunities to express themselves and display their talents and skills. This will bring in the factor of appreciation that plays a vital role in motivating employees. There can also be training programs for the employees so they can continuously upskill themselves, and most importantly, the company’s policies can be stated clearly for everyone so they know what to expect and what not to. Many confusions are already cleared up when employees know how the organization works. The last but equally important point would be to create a safe, hate-free space for everyone with equal opportunities to help them excel personally as well as professionally!
When organizational goals align with the individual goals of employees, the workflow automatically becomes natural and less cumbersome for both parties: employers and employees.
Role ambiguity
If your organization lacks structure and clarity on who does what, that might be a major reason why employees quit their jobs. If you, as a recruiter, talent acquisitions, and hiring manager fail to describe the job descriptions of every employee in the organization, you are the one possibly leading them to feel dissatisfied and confused about the boundaries of their jurisdiction at work. Everyone needs to have a clear purpose and a set of goals in front of them to work efficiently and yield results. If employees in your organization are expected to do anything and everything that is needed, this shows that you are setting yourself up for failure as an organization.
How to make ambiguous roles unambiguous?
The first order of business, not literally, should be to set what each role will require the employees to do. Set clear, realistic goals that every employee must meet as per the kind of work they must be doing that is restricted to their domain and area of expertise. You cannot expect a chef to wait tables, can you? Similarly, everyone in your organization must have a designated task that he or she is good at doing. Thinking a receptionist should also be able to serve coffee to the guests is pushing the boundaries of their role as a receptionist!
Compensation
Compensation may not sound like a big reason why employees might quit, especially when the discussion related to it starts even before the application and hiring process when applicants see organizations' job postings. It is a given that applicants will only apply for a job if they are satisfied with the offered pay range including benefits. Even then, it is important to note that several instances of salary deductions, unreasonable taxes, and delayed to no increments (that may have been mentioned during the interview) might lead some employees to lose the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction they are getting from the job. Which in turn will be one of the reasons why employees quit their jobs. Assuming someone signed a contract with you at a decided pay rate and then sees the inflation shooting up prices of basic commodities and is unable to make do with the salary given to him/her, this reason can also make employees quit an organization through their own choice to look for better-paying opportunities.
So, What to do?
This again becomes your responsibility as an employer to offer need-based increments or ex gratia payments for employees even for a limited period of time to help relieve their burden. Of course, this is not mandatory but only reduces your costs of hiring new people so there is no harm in trying that!
All in all, you can take several steps to ensure that your employees are not quitting their jobs due to reasons that could have been easily avoided. Ensuring that you care for them will create a harmonious environment that will eventually benefit you both!
