People leave any company for a variety of reasons, however according to The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave written by Leigh Branham, American Management Association, NY, 2012 many of the reasons are internal and can be worked on. If the costs of replacing employees falls it is a cost savings based on recruiting costs about 1 times salary. It would expected if people leaving was below 5%, then the human resources function would have the ability to continue to work on maintaining low levels of voluntary leaving. The issue is what is a good level and what is a terrible level of turnover? and if the terrible exists what is the company doing about it?

The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave are:

1. The Job or Workplace was not as Expected.

Ideally this is the easy one to work on. This is based on expectations of both the employer and employee what the employee expects to receive and expects to give. It is also based on what the company expects to give and to receive. In many companies it can be different, however it is possible to do Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) with every job candidate. It is possible to increase hiring from temp-to-hire agencies because the person’s abilities were identified on the job (sometimes it is easy to be more objective when a person comes through on a agency basis). More possible solutions are found in the book.

2. The Mismatch between Job and Person – some people will be over their heads, some will be vastly overqualified. There is a reality that it is rare to get the perfect person. There are things the company can do to minimize it. It is possible the person to be coached or mentored to find their best match, after all the person was hired for a reason. When the position was being filled, the company fills the position and determines what other skills does the person bring. Is it possible, if the person stays, to move them to a position where their skills match better match the job. One measure is to find out what skills the person uses in their leisure time. The procedure would require a plan for employee both individually and with their management.

3. Too little Coaching and Feedback

The book offers results from their surveys:

The number one cause of performance problems in 60% of companies is poor or insufficient feedback from supervisors.

In a survey of 1,149 people at 79 different companies found the manager feedback and coaching were consistently rated as mediocre.

The above cases means this is both a management and employee problem which can be fixable. In terms of management, it should mean part of the way the manager is rewarded is from his/her coaching and feedback given to their group. This includes being trained to give the feedback and coaching as well as part of the criteria to gain a management job is being a good coach. The employee has to understand as resources are put into coaching and feedback, non getting better is reason for termination.

4. Too Few Growth and Advancement Opportunities

The reality is within every company there are a finite number of top jobs, not everyone will gain one, but you can still have an excellent career with the company. One of the hardest aspects in every company is being hired in one division and trying to move to another, particularly if senior management sees the skill set as similar. Why do we want a good person to move to the other division? There are 4 distinct career patterns linear, expert, spiral and roamer which one does the employee fit and can it be helped along.

The easiest method for the company to deal with this concern is to ensure there is a fair process for internal job postings as well as there is a bias for hiring within. Some of them will be the B-players. They are not the stars but they make up the backbone of the organization, how does the company help them?

Linking to dividend paying stocks, every company will be facing with fewer bodies as the baby boomers retire and retaining and growing their workforce will be harder and more important. It is harder to do coaching, unless the company rewards coaching in its bonus program. You get what you pay for is a well known expression – it is possible to have different types of management, but in a relatively free society, too much turnover means something and it definitely means greater costs to recruit people to serve your customers. Controlling costs means all costs and if 70% of the reasons why people leave companies are internal to the company, the methods need to be improved in order to ensure continual profitability.

more in part 3

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.